The product they created was a set of three-pronged chopsticks designed to be easier to use and helpful for people trying to learn, mechanical engineering freshman Rebecca Wang said.

Wang said she came up with the idea from a discussion about eating fish and sushi during a brainstorming workshop.

The group was comprised of four members of MSU’s Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, including Wang, mechanical engineering junior William Kang, mechanical engineering sophomore Ha Anh Le and chemical engineering junior Henry Pan.

Genetics and interdisciplinary social sciences sophomore Irene Li said there were four judges at Makeathon, rating prototypes on how feasible they were to make and how marketable they could be.

Cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 were awarded to the first, second and third place winners.

The fourth and fifth place winners received honorable mentions.

The Makeathon took place in Detroit at TechShop, a workshop and prototyping studio.

The competition followed a series of workshops held at U-M.

“Just being in TechShop, being in that place, being in that environment was just an absolute dream,” Wang said.

The first through fourth place winners created prototypes including a wooden wheelchair designed to be compact and help users take pressure off of their knee joints, Li said.

Li put together a last-minute social media campaign and gathered a handful of MSU students who made the trip and organized the teams.

A total of 15 teams competed from MSU, U-M and other in-state universities, she said.

Although her team didn’t win, Li said she was grateful for the opportunity to be able to collaborate with other students and use equipment many students wouldn’t normally have access to.

“I just really wanted to be around this energy that I knew was going to be at the Makeathon,” Li said.

Soona Amhaz, a U-M industrial and operations engineering junior, said she was pleased to see how the event turned out.

Amhaz, who helped organize the event, said the inspiration to create Makeathon came from the idea of showing students the ability they have to work in interdisciplinary groups.

“We were so pleased to see the connection we established with MSU by the competition,” Amhaz said.