Celebrating 25 years of innovation with the Freeman Awards

For Andy Freeman, Minnkota’s first general manager, innovation, communication and teamwork were more than just ideals — they were essential to his vision of advancing the electrical industry. In honor of his lasting impact, the endowment established in his name recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Andrew L. Freeman Innovation Awards, which recognize the top senior engineering design projects at the University of North Dakota (UND).

This year, three UND chemical engineering students received the top prize at the award ceremony held on May 12. The $2,000 first-place award was split between Casey Michelsen, Erin Becker and Daniel Poynter for their project, which explored the technical and economic benefits of producing industrial grade citric acid instead of traditional, low value molasses from a sugar beet refinery’s residual sugars stream. The team designed a facility and fermentation system to produce the high value citric acid.

“The molasses from sugar beets has such a high salt content, so they typically will use it in cattle feed or horse feed since it still has a bunch of sugar in it,” said Michelsen. “You are recovering money and minimizing waste with the fermentation process.”

The trio also earned first place at the senior design expo hosted by the UND College of Engineering and Mines. UND Professor of Chemical Engineering Wayne Seames, who nominated the winning team, noted that this project was the first of its kind among his senior engineering students. He also highlighted that it marked a historic first for the chemical engineering department to have a senior project win both major honors.

The second-place team, consisting of civil engineering students Ryan Bergum, Luke Hinderliter, Ryan Kunz and Spencer Rousseau, focused on adding a secondary treatment system to the wastewater from the J.R. Simplot Company, a major potato processor located in Grand Forks. Their solution would enable the treated water to be safely discharged directly into the nearby English Coulee.

“A lot of our classes that cover the things we did in this project are very base level, so we had to do a lot of extra research, and it was really cool to just learn how all that worked,” said senior team member Kunz. “I mean, we had to look into every aspect of wastewater, there was a lot to it, but it was really fun.”

Kasey Borboa, Minnkota’s Senior Manager of Power Delivery Engineering, spoke to the students about the history of Minnkota and the innovative legacy of Freeman, a UND alumnus who led the cooperative for 42 years. Freeman is widely known for his invention of the head bolt heater – a form of block heater that allowed your vehicle to start even on the coldest days of the year.

With the increasing demand for electricity within our region and across the globe, the need for innovative thinkers is more critical than ever. While the UND seniors were excited to showcase their hard work to industry professionals, Minnkota judges and staff highlighted the strong collaboration demonstrated by each of the winning teams.

"They all did a fantastic job. You could really tell there was a lot of teamwork and collaboration between the teams," Borboa said. "We don’t always focus as much on the technical parts of the projects as we do on questions like, 'How did you work together?' 'How did you come up with your idea?' and how well you can communicate that to us."

MAIN IMAGE: Left to right (Back row) Dan Inman, Senior VP of Power Delivery; Wayne Lembke, Engineering Manager; Kasey Borboa, Senior Manager of Power Delivery Engineering; Ryan Adams, Dean of UND's College of Engineering and Mines. (Front row) Erin Becker, Daniel Poynter, Casey Michelsen, Wayne Seames, UND Professor of Chemical Engineering.