UTC engineering students turn guitar picks and back braces into prize-winning designs

From left: Michael Martin, Amy Guinac, Areej Alghoul, Arwen Moss, Hailey Henderson and Lynsey Lawson (photo courtesy of Dr. Cecelia Wigal).

Two teams of students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Engineering and Computer Science’s ENME 1850 introductory design course recently brought home top honors from the 2025 American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section (ASEE SE) Conference at Mississippi State University.

The Assistive Guitar Pick Holder, nicknamed “The Pick-Grip,” earned first place in the lower division team design poster competition. The Idiopathic Scoliosis Brace for Children project earned the event’s highest recognition: Best Overall Student Poster.

Areej Alghoul, a sophomore computer engineering major from Chattanooga; Michael Martin, a sophomore computer engineering major from Memphis; and Amy Guinac, a sophomore mechatronics engineering technology major from Chattanooga, developed the Pick-Grip—an assistive guitar pick holder designed to help a client with peripheral neuropathy continue playing the instrument he loves.

The three, along with Basim Saeed, explored multiple designs before settling on a flexible, durable holder that uses magnets to allow positioning for different playing styles.

“Our client had been working on this for 15 years, trying to find the perfect design,” Alghoul said. “We’re proud to say we found it for him—and winning at the conference in Mississippi just made it even better.”

Martin called the win a “great introduction to what to expect for the next couple of years.”

“It was nice waking up to texts from family and friends saying, ‘Congratulations,’” he said. “It felt very real, like what you’d expect in the industry.”

The Idiopathic Scoliosis Brace team: Arwen Moss, Hailey Henderson and Lynsey Lawson (photo courtesy of Dr. Cecelia Wigal).

The Idiopathic Scoliosis Brace team (from left): Arwen Moss, Hailey Henderson and Lynsey Lawson (photo courtesy of Dr. Cecelia Wigal).

Hailey Henderson, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Memphis; Arwen Moss, a senior mechanical engineering major from Rossville, Georgia; and Lynsey Lawson, a sophomore mechatronics engineering technology major from Mountain Grove, Missouri—along with Braden Burba and Army Eckles—designed a modular scoliosis brace for children in earning top overall honors.

“It is a modular brace that is adaptable,” Lawson said. “We have it to where we can adjust it in the back. It’s made of thermoplastic so it can be heated and reformed and reshaped to fit different scoliosis curves and then straps to help hold it up.

“It’s really just to provide a cheaper, quicker option for younger kids who need bracing for treatment.”

Moss said winning the competition’s highest honor was an unexpected and rewarding surprise.

“We didn’t know there was an overall presentation win, so it felt really good knowing we beat out not only fellow undergraduate students but also graduate students,” Moss said. “It felt really good just being able to bring home multiple wins for UTC. It’s like, Mocs on top all the time.”

Their projects, said UC Foundation Professor Cecelia Wigal, demonstrated innovation and collaboration—outperforming entries from upper-level undergraduate teams across the Southeast.

The students began their design work last fall in ENME 1850, Wigal said. While other students were part of the original design teams, the six selected presenters took the lead in representing UTC at ASEE SE.

Wigal, also the associate dean of undergraduate programs in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and director of UTC’s Grand Challenges Scholars Program, accompanied the students to Mississippi.

The ASEE SE Conference brings together students and faculty from engineering programs across the Southeast for technical sessions, professional development and student research competitions.