An inside look at Craig M. Berge Design Day award nominations
The Craig M. Berge Design Day award ceremony celebrates seniors who have gone above and beyond to fulfill their capstone project requirements.
The University of Arizona's Craig M. Berge Design Day marks the culmination of engineering students' hard work on yearlong Interdisciplinary Capstone projects, closing with an awards ceremony.
The ceremony caps an award judging process – one that was recently overhauled.
Previously, judges identified the strongest teams during Design Day and nominated them for specific awards. A second panel would evaluate those nominees and select a winner.
“The challenge with that process was that some judging teams may not have recognized or recommended strong candidates for a particular award,” said Steve Larimore, lead instructor for the Interdisciplinary Capstone program.
Larimore, program coordinator Debbie Claggett and Larry Head, director of the Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Program, updated the award nomination process to incorporate more student input.
Students can now nominate themselves for up to five awards. Award sponsors review those nominations and select five or six finalists – except for the Craig M. Berge Dean’s Award for Most Outstanding Project, for which former College of Engineering Deans Jeff Goldberg and Tom Peterson make the selection. These finalists are assigned to judges for review on Design Day.
“This made it a fairer process,” said Head, also a professor of systems and industrial engineering.
Bolstering student input
Team 26085 at the 2026 Craig M. Berge Design Day. Their leather alternative could be used to make keychains or wallets.
To give students a greater voice, Larimore sponsored an award of his own – the Larimore Family Student Choice Award.
“The Student Choice Award gives students an opportunity to recognize projects they believe are most deserving,” he said, adding that its first year was a success.
Two hundred students who participated in 2026 Design Day voted for their top teams.
“It means a lot to have our peers help choose a class favorite,” said Denly Lindeman, optical science and engineering student and Team 26001 member. “We put so much time and energy into these projects, so having other student teams recognize that work and have a say in picking one of the winners makes the experience more meaningful.”
Team 26085 took home the inaugural Student Choice Award. The team developed a sustainable alternative to leather using SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast that turns sweet tea into kombucha.