Sweet Briar student wins ASME oral presentation contest

By AI, Created 10:35 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – Sweet Briar College engineering student Emma Staton ’26 won first place in the ASME Virginia Section’s 2026 Old Guard Oral Presentation Competition after presenting her team’s robotics capstone at Virginia Western Community College on April 1. The win spotlights Sweet Briar’s hands-on engineering program and the student-built combat robot program the team hopes to grow into a lasting campus robotics team.

Why it matters: - Emma Staton’s first-place finish gives Sweet Briar College visibility in a regional engineering competition that values clear technical communication. - The recognition also strengthens momentum for a student-built robotics program that the team wants to turn into a permanent Sweet Briar College Robotics Team. - The project shows how Sweet Briar’s ABET-accredited engineering curriculum connects classroom theory to competition and design work.

What happened: - Emma Staton ’26 won the 2026 ASME Virginia Section Old Guard Oral Presentation Competition. - Staton presented on April 1 at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Virginia. - Her presentation was titled “Establishing Competitive Robotics at Sweet Briar College: Systems Integration and Engineering of a BeetleWeight Combat Robot.” - Staton presented the project individually after winning Sweet Briar’s internal presentation rounds. - Staton competed against representatives from Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute for cash prizes.

The details: - The project was developed with several other Sweet Briar engineering students as part of Staton’s senior capstone. - The team includes Mohima Anushi ’26, Allison Kent ’26 and Karlie Lester ’27. - The robot is a BeetleWeight, a 3-pound combat robot. - The robot uses a beater-bar weapon system, a high-kinetic-energy rotating bar designed for destructive impact. - The team used a systems engineering approach to manage temporal, monetary and NRC-specific constraints. - Staton said the project tested material science, electrical circuits, control theory and project management skills. - Staton described the project as a real-world, high-stakes application of theory where components are expected to fail. - ASME frames the competition around the importance of clear, concise and effective oral presentations for engineers.

Between the lines: - The win highlights a broader shift from one-off class projects to a repeatable student program. - Staton said the team is documenting every design choice in an engineering file book to leave behind a permanent program for future students. - The robotics effort also gives Sweet Briar students across STEM fields a visible way to apply technical training outside the classroom. - The competition result suggests Sweet Briar students can compete not only on design, but also on the communication skills engineers need in industry.

What’s next: - The team will compete in the National Robotics Challenge in Marion, Ohio, from April 16-18. - The students are recruiting members for next year. - The team is partnering with Sweet Briar’s Society of Women Engineers chapter to host Lunch and Learns. - The students are seeking sponsorships from companies and a faculty sponsor. - The team hopes to build a lasting robotics program that will let future Sweet Briar students compete for years to come.