NC State University recently held its 2017 Make-A-Thon weekend. The four-day competition, held Feb. 2-5, brought together 102 students who participated on 25 interdisciplinary teams that were challenged to develop solutions to support a sustainable world.

The teams conducted research, designed prototypes and built new solutions to address sustainability. Community and industry sustainability experts evaluated the proposed solutions in several categories and awarded prizes to the top teams in each category.

Former Polk County High School graduate Jacob Hrobak (2012), a senior mechanical engineering major at NC State, and his team were awarded first place and a $1,000 prize in the “Built on Cloud” category for their prototype recognized as the best cognitive cloud solution utilizing IBM’s Bluemix technology to support recycling. Bluemix allows organizations and developers to quickly and easily manage applications on the cloud.

Hrobak is the son of Michael and Mandy Hrobak of Mill Spring, N.C. He will graduate from NC State University in May 2017 and will be working as a mechanical engineer for AFL in Duncan, S.C.

– article submitted by Mike Hrobak