Engineering at Missouri State/Missouri S&T

Mo State engineering students earn top honors at ASCE regional symposium - CNAS NewsWatch Teams won three awards against 17 universities.

Here's to all of our Engineering grads and their loved ones that joined Engineering faculty and leadership for our traditional Senior Lunch on May 1st - what a great group this year!

Engineering had a great turnout for Spring Showcase last weekend! Thank you to Dr. Sanjay Tewari for taking these interested families on a tour of our program!

Last week was the 17th Annual CNAS Undergraduate Symposium - our Cooperative Engineering winners were:

1st Place: Tyler Mills and Brandon Butler
HOMEEDEN SPROUT: ITERATIVE DESIGN OF AN AUTOMATED HOUSEPLANT WATERING SYSTEM
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Theresa Odun-Ayo

2nd Place: Kristin Burdin, Elijah Totten, Jonathan Ross
DISCRETE INDUCTIVE WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER FOR LOW-POWER DEVICES
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Theresa Odun-Ayo

Super proud of these students!

Last week was the 17th Annual CNAS Undergraduate Symposium and Cooperative Engineering had a great turnout! We even had a couple of our program graduates return to judge this year, Nathaniel Van Devender and Benjamin Cuebas.

Last week 12 students from the Cooperative Engineering program participated in the IEEE Region 5 Annual Conference in the Circuits, Robotics, 3-Minute Thesis (3M-T), and Cyber competitions. The conference was held in Boulder, Colorado. Region 5 encompasses Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and parts of Illinois and South Dakota. The region includes 33 professional sections and over 100 student branches.

Some of these competitions featured as many as 25 teams, making the students’ performance even more impressive. We are extremely proud of our students!
Competition Results:
• Circuits Competition – 1st Place
• Robotics Competition – 3rd Place (Freelance Category) and 4th Place Overall
• Cyber Competition – Tied for 5th Place

Dr. Odun-Ayo, the Student Activities Chair for our section and the faculty advisor for the Missouri State University (MSU) chapter, as well as the director of the Cooperative Engineering program was also honored with the IEEE Region 5 Member Achievement Award.

We are thankful for our industry partners, particularly TOTH & Associates and AECI; the SWMO IEEE Section; MSU SOFAC; and the leadership at both universities for the amazing support!

Missouri State University Admitted Student Day! Excited to host these future Engineering students and their families! Dr. Odun-Ayo enjoyed showing off all of the facilities and achievements of our program.

We’re proud to continue recognizing our new endowed professorship recipients in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences. Next up is Dr. Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi.

Named a Guy Mace Professor, Obafemi-Ajayi is an associate professor in the cooperative engineering program. Her research integrates bioinformatics, machine learning, intelligent systems and diversity in STEM education.

She earned her PhD in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology and teaches courses in circuit analysis, control systems, electromagnetics and computational intelligence. She has received national recognition for research excellence, including an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Best Student Paper Award, and holds leadership roles within IEEE professional societies.

Join us in celebrating this well-deserved recognition and her outstanding contributions to teaching, research and mentorship at Missouri State University!

Engineering at Missouri State/Missouri S&T

https://blogs.missouristate.edu/cnas-newswatch/2026/02/12/cnas-endowed-professorships/

Pleased to share this insightful opinion piece about internships by Cooperative Engineering Director, Dr. Theresa Odun-Ayo published in the Springfield Business Journal.
The community as a whole benefits when companies hire interns: "This model benefits everyone. Companies receive fresh thinking and tangible solutions. Students gain experience tackling engineering challenges. And the community gains innovation capacity that might otherwise be out of reach."

Opinion: Engineering internships fuel growth for students, companies - Springfield Business Journal Guest columnist Theresa Odun-Ayo: "Research has found that university-industry collaboration plays a major role in regional economic growth and innovation capacity."