UW–Madison graduate students take first place in ASPE Student Challenge

Members of Charles Ringrose Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Electrical & Computer Engineering Lei Zhou’s research team attended the 42^nd American Society of Precision Engineering (ASPE) annual meeting in Norfolk, Virginia and earned noteworthy recognitions!

A team of three students from UW-Madison, together with another student participating remotely from Southern University of Science and Tech in China, won 1^st place in the 2026 ASPE Student Challenge!

The three mechanical engineering graduate students are Daniil Kirsanov, Benjamin Prunuske, and Mohammad ErfaniMatin (team 7). In this challenge, the seven competing teams needed to design, model, and build a nanoindenter that could characterize material property using a diamond indenter, flexure mechanism, capacitive sensor with nano resolution, and feedback control. Based on feedback from the judges, the UW student-built instrument almost reached industry level resolution! As the first-place winners, the team receives a cash price of $5,000 from the generous sponsors of the ASPE student challenge.

Additionally, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student Shuaihu Wu, was selected to receive an ASPE student scholarship, which supports the conference registration fee and cost of tutorials. Shuaihu’s research interests include sensorless control, precision motion control, and driver and motor design.

Congratulations, students!

Featured image: Mohammad ErfaniMatin, Ben Prunuske, and Daniil Kirsanov with their nanoindenter.