RAPID CITY - Four South Dakota School of Mines & Technology engineering students got more than an A grade on their senior design project.

They also get to share a $10,000 cash prize from NISH, a national agency that works to create employment for people with disabilities.

Working with Black Hills Workshop, the students designed a simple machine that allows workshop employees to neatly and safely tape cardboard boxes together.

Senior industrial engineering students Clark Nelson of Brookings, Nicole Gaffney of Berthoud, Colo., and Angela Setera of Miles City, Mont., joined by Angela's brother, sophomore mechanical engineering student Chris Setera, tackled the project together.

The four won first place in NISH's National Scholar Award for Workplace Innovations & Design. In addition to their prize, sponsoring agencies Black Hills Workshop and South Dakota Tech receive $10,000 each.

This evening, Angela Setera, who graduates in December, and Chris Setera are attending a Congressional reception in Washington to accept their NISH award on behalf of the group. Nelson and Gaffney, who both graduated last month, are busy at jobs.

"This is a wonderful group of students, and they had a real-world problem," Carter Kerk, an associate professor in the school's industrial engineering department, said. "One of the reasons they won is that they were responsive to the needs of the users."

This was the problem presented to the students:

Dakota Laser Tech, a workshop subsidiary, remanufactures toner and inkjet cartridges for printers. Each rebuilt cartridge must be boxed and shipped, Bill Anderson, Dakota Laser Tech supervisor, explained.

Most of the workers at Dakota Laser Tech have various cognitive and physical disabilities. They were unable to tape the box ends with hand-held tape dispensers, Anderson said. The tape must be straight and centered for the box to be strong. And it must have a professional look; it can't be wrinkled or loose.

Automated commercial box tapers cost $1,000 or more. They're fast but not simple.

Dakota Laser Tech needed something fast, simple, cheap and neat. And it must afford the disabled Black Hills Workshop staffers a way to make a meaningful living.

Clark Nelson said they tried a number of tacks before they found the right solution. "It evolved," he said. "We didn't come up with a prototype until Christmas break."

First, they tried a box-like template with a taping guide. They tried a slide-through wooden frame. Both designs, however, required awkward body movements to get the folded box into place.

Their final design - the winning design - is a tabletop machine with a series of guides and rollers. It can be adjusted to fit boxes of various sizes. A spring-loaded switch keeps the box from sliding backward and keeps the tape taut.

A worker can fold the box flaps, then push it through the guides until it reaches the stop block. After that, the worker pushes the button to cut the tape and smoothes the tape on the sides of the box.

Nelson said the students have no commercial plans for their box taper. They will make the plans and specifications available free to any organizations similar to Black Hills Workshop. Anyone with carpenter skills could build their own with a day's labor and $70 in materials.

"We did it to help NISH and a workforce that needs assistive technology," he said. "The turn-on for me was being able to help the community."

Kerk and associate professor Frank Matejcik served as faculty advisers to the students. Kerk said Tech's industrial engineering department has been working closely with Black Hills Workshop for the past decade on projects such as this. "I call every semester and ask for projects. It's a winner for the students and a winner for the community," he said.

In fact, the industrial engineering department offers its student design services to all area businesses that want to improve their manufacturing process.

"We have a perspective that almost any process could be improved," Kerk said.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com