First-Year Engineering Students Represent OU in National Competition

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NORMAN, Okla. – Two pairs of University of Oklahoma students made their mark in Bethesda, Md., entering as the only teams of freshmen in the 2026 Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition. They competed alongside challengers from more than 70 colleges and universities across the U.S. and took part in multiple rounds of tournament play.

The annual event features student-faculty teams presenting solutions to fictional ethical, business and engineering dilemmas. It also offers students the opportunity to consider the importance of ethics in real-life workplace situations, especially within the technology sector.

Tiantian Li and Felipe Perez, assistant professors in the Gallogly College of Engineering, served as faculty advisors for OU’s teams. Students Aziza Chugh and Naomi Lopez worked with Li, and Chiara Pettenello and Luke Sprouse competed with Perez.

The two teams are the first from OU to ever compete in the ethics competition, thanks to student interest in the event and outreach to Gallogly’s Engineering Pathways faculty. Li and Perez are members of the Pathways faculty team, which teaches and supports first-year students and offers engineering education outreach to schools and families from pre-K through 12^th grade.

To prepare for the competition, teams were provided an ethics case weeks in advance, allowing them to conduct research and prepare arguments from multiple points of view. However, the competitors also had to focus on problem-solving communication, making the event valuable for professional development.

“In the workplace, nobody is looking for a great debater,” said Li, whose pair defeated the team led by the faculty advisor of last year’s winners. “Instead, they’re looking for somebody who can work on a team, who can negotiate well and who can collaborate well.”

While students can only take part in the event once, that doesn't prevent this year’s OU participants from staying involved. They’re looking to start a student organization focused on ethics in engineering, which would include mentoring future competitors.

Li and Perez are also interested in keeping up with the event and would like to return as advisors for future competitions. Perez noted that he enjoyed seeing how the fictional case materials, focused on subjects like artificial intelligence, related to ongoing industry news.

“The students could see that, yes, this is something hypothetical, but it’s happening in real life too,” Perez said. “That is why it is so important for us to talk about ethics in engineering.”