Matthew Belknap, the chairperson for ASME at MSU, said planning the festival had been in the works for "over a year."

"To my knowledge, ASME International picked that location because it was kind of centrally located in the Midwest region and there's a lot of really good schools around here," Belknap, a mechanical engineering senior, said.

The festival will take place from April 5-7, and registration for the three-day event is now open. More than 1,000 participants are expected, which includes students from more than 75 universities, according to a press release.

"They [ASME] came and approached us about it and I know a lot of professors in the mechanical engineering department were very excited about having them come here," Belknap said.

Astrobotic CEO John Thornton will deliver the weekend’s keynote address, according to the press release. His company is a lunar delivery service based out of Pittsburgh that is tasked with launching its Peregrine Lunar Lander in 2021. He'll discuss “laying the groundwork for mankind's next giant leap in space exploration” with students who attend the festival.

Central highlights of the festival include four competitions students can enter to put their engineering education to the test.

In one competition, students design and build transportation alternatives to cars. In another, they can design robotics prototypes and make them compete against each other. Another allows students to create an emergency vehicle capable of dispensing lifesaving aid to areas in need, and the last one is a technical poster design competition.

More information can be found at ASME's E-Fest North website.