Kennesaw State University

In a showcase of student innovators from across the state, Kennesaw State biology major SueAnn Hollowell earned second place in the inaugural University System of Georgia Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Hollowell credits the entrepreneurship community on campus for helping develop her business proposal ahead of the competition.

English major Anna Green never imagined that her love for video games would lead to a trip to San Francisco to present her work to one of the world's largest gatherings of game developers. Green was named a Platinum Winner, the highest distinction in the Game Narrative Review competition affiliated with the Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Turning crumbling walls into works of art, the team of Gabriela Almeida, Wade Brock, Quincy Smith, and Justin Barkie transformed the ruins of history into a story of renewal. Their project, "When Walls Roam," won the Community's Choice Award in Terraviva Competitions' Venetian Villa challenge, gaining praise from viewers worldwide.

Among the newest student organizations on campus, Kennesaw State University's Owl Cyber Team recently reached the semifinals in the CyberLLM Challenge. Held during the Silicon Valley Cybersecurity Conference 2025, the event focuses on developing innovative applications to improve areas like threat detection and cybersecurity automation.

Kennesaw State University's steel bridge competition team finished seventh overall in the 2025 Student Steel Bridge Competition National Finals and also earned the Frank J. Hatfield Ingenuity Award for its creative approach to bridge design and construction. KSU was the lone Georgia school to qualify for the national competition.

Recent public health graduate Liz Burchfield teamed with public health students Angel Fortmann and Allisa George to earn a gold designation at the Society for Public Health Education's (SOPHE) National Case Study Competition in Health Education. Kennesaw State was one of six universities nationwide to receive the accolade.

Fifth-year architecture student Mary Beth Caldwell earned first place and the People's Choice Award in the annual Cooper Carry Three-Minute Thesis competition for her reimagining of the traditional office environment. The competition challenges students to present their research or thesis in just three minutes.

Kennesaw State's National Organization of Minority Architecture Students team earned second place in the Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition, besting institutions such as Cornell University, UCLA and Clemson University. The competition challenged student teams to reimagine a four-block site in West Baltimore, historically known as the "Highway to Nowhere."

KSU sophomore Valeria Ruiz won the Perfect Pitch Competition at the 2025 American Marketing Association (AMA) International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans. Tasked with telling a panel of judges in 90 seconds what makes them the ideal candidate for a job, Ruiz bested nearly 600 students from around the U.S. and the world for first place.

Kennesaw State second-year mechanical engineering students reveled in their engineering skills as they participated in the 14th annual Pumpkin Launch. The task: Build a device capable of launching a 10-pound pumpkin as far as possible using hand-built trebuchets, catapults, and other gravity-powered devices.

A Kennesaw State University engineering senior design team recently secured a third place finish at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Capstone Senior Design Project competition in Montreal. To complete the project, they partnered with mining and manufacturing company Imerys, which is currently implementing the design team's recommendations.

The culmination of several months of hard work, Kennesaw State's hydraulic bike team bested nine other universities en route to a first-place finish at the 2024 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge. The annual competition promotes original thinking by combining two technology platforms not normally associated with one another - human-powered vehicles and fluid power.

The Graduate College held its ninth annual 3-Minute Thesis competition, tasking master's and doctoral students with presenting their research to a non-specialist audience within a strict three-minute timeframe. A master's student in exercise science and one in information technology were recognized with the top awards.

The mood was festive, with music pumping, a palpable competitive energy in the air and 10-pound pumpkins flying down the field. Kennesaw State's 13th annual Pumpkin Launch was a huge success by all measures as engineering students launched pumpkins from hand-built trebuchets.

Baseball brought Kennesaw State student Yemi Agesin face-to-face with the leader of one of the world's leading technology companies, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook. The senior computer science major created a baseball game app that was selected as one of the top entries in Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference Swift Student Challenge.

The KSU Graduate College hosted its 3-Minute Thesis, challenging master's and doctoral students to condense their research into a three-minute oral presentation. "The 3MT competition provides a wonderful opportunity for students to build confidence in presenting their research in straightforward and engaging ways," said Dean Juliet Langman.

Three Kennesaw State University students will visit broadcaster Warner Bros. Discovery Sports U.S. during the 2023 March Madness college basketball tournament to see how the company uses digital sports collectibles in its marketing. Feyisola Odejimi, Cynthia Quiroz and Sophie Schohan earned the opportunity by taking first place in KSU's inaugural Marketing Innovation and Technology Strategy competition.

Pumpkin Launch, a signature Kennesaw State University event that began more than a decade ago, is a fierce competition for mechanical engineering students in the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. This year's Pumpkin Launch included more than 250 students enrolled in the Introduction to Mechanical Engineering course.

Several student competition teams from Kennesaw State University's Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology participated in national competitions this summer, highlighted by a first-place finish by the Electric Vehicle Team.

The Kennesaw State University Adobe Creative Jam brought together hundreds of students in dozens of disciplines during March to create videos illustrating how their experiences at KSU have helped them grow. Future, passion and strength are what the three winners said that they had found in their time at KSU.

At Kennesaw State University's Fall 2022 Hackathon, students were given a challenge: "Helping people thrive in a connected world." It was up to the students to use information technology skills and creativity to brainstorm a solution.

Twelve Kennesaw State undergraduate architecture students recently participated in KSU's Cooper Carry Three Minute Thesis Competition, which challenged them to present their thesis project in less than three minutes using one PowerPoint slide. Three students received cash awards for their stellar performances.

Students in Kennesaw State University's College of Architecture and Construction Management earned third place finishes at the 2021 Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 2 Design-Build Competition in October.

Kennesaw State University's College of Computing and Software Engineering (CCSE) recently hosted its inaugural Hackathon for Social Good, allowing students to apply their knowledge and technical know-how to solve societal problems.

Sixteen Kennesaw State students competed in a University-sponsored exercise, The Three Minute Thesis (3MT), a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland.

KENNESAW, Ga. (April 20, 2020) - For the third time in the event's 22-year history, Kennesaw State took the top prize this week at the National Collegiate Sales Competition. And, for the first time in the event's history, they did so without ever leaving their homes.

A group of Kennesaw State University marketing students in the Michael J. Coles College of Business recently placed first in a marketing competition sponsored by Amazon, which may lead to jobs with the e-commerce company as a result.

Kennesaw State University National Association of Home Builders Student Chapter recently swept the competition at the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla. The team placed first in the nation at the 2017 NAHB Student Chapters Residential Construction Management Competition for four-year programs.

Nine Kennesaw State students were honored recently for their outstanding research at the STEM Innovators Conference in Savannah. The students are Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation (LSAMP) Scholars.