A Missouri S&T student team will be featured in the first  episode of Cast in Steel, a national student manufacturing competition and YouTube series from the Steel Founders’ Society of America. 
 
The episode will premiere at 7 p.m. CDT Thursday, July 9, on the Cast in Steel YouTube channel. 
 
Cast in Steel challenges university teams to design, cast and test a fully functional metal tool or weapon from scratch. The competition brings together students, faculty and industry professionals to showcase engineering, manufacturing, steel casting and historical design before culminating in a live competition judged by industry experts. 
 
Season 1 features the 2025 competition, in which teams created functioning swords inspired by George Washington’s collection. Students developed either replicas of Washington’s historic swords or original designs based on his known preferences and needs while applying modern steel casting techniques throughout the manufacturing process. 
 
“Steel is forged by heat and pressure, and Missouri S&T engineers are forged the same way as they embrace difficult challenges,” says Dr. Mario Buchely, a Roberta and G. Robert Couch assistant professor of materials science and engineering at S&T. “Our team showed great resilience, creativity and technical skill throughout this competition, and I’m excited for everyone to see what they accomplished.” 
 
Members of the S&T team include Whalen Downs, of Drexel, Missouri; Ben Hilgers, of Rolla; Benjamin Rodrigue, of St. Louis; and Grant Whitham, of La Fontaine, Indiana. Downs and Rodrigue earned bachelor’s degrees in metallurgical engineering from Missouri S&T in May 2026. Whitham is a master’s student in metallurgical engineering, and Hilgers, who earned a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering from S&T in 2024, is a Ph.D. student in the same field. 
 
Watch the episode’s preview at youtu.be/itEHT7zVwh0 and view the episode at youtube.com/watch?v=b9nrlzGLOmk. 
 
To learn more about Missouri S&T’s materials science and engineering programs, visit mse.mst.edu. 

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.