Jill Bickley (Michigan State), Paige Topole (CalPoly) and Kristine Roupas (Virginia Tech) made up the winning team in this year’s Amazing Packaging Race. The contest, sponsored by ASCO Numatics (Booth C-2051) and organized by show owner and producer PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, sent packaging students throughout the PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Pharma EXPO 2015 show floors to complete challenges at exhibitor booths.

"The Amazing Packaging Race gives packaging students hands-on experience and introduces them to industry leaders," says Maria Ferrante, vice president of Education & Workforce Development, PMMI. "It's a fun competition that's also a great learning experience."

Students traversed PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Pharma EXPO to — the largest edition of the show to date — and undertook challenges at 25 booths. Participating exhibitors included: 3M; APPMA — Australian Packaging & Processing Machinery Assn.; Arrowhead Systems, Inc.; Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. Bosch Packaging Technology, Inc.; Cozzoli Machine Company; Dorner Mfg. Corp.; Emulate3D Ltd.; Filamatic; Garvey Corporation; Intelligrated; JLS Automation; Label Technology Inc.; Langguth America; MASSMAN Automation Designs, LLC; Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.; Morrison Container Handling Solutions; Murrelektronik Inc.; Packsize International, Inc.; Plexpack; Rittal Corporation; Shurtape Technologies LLC; Starview Packaging Machinery; Universal Robots USA, Inc; Zip-Pak. 

"This event wouldn't have been such a hit without the efforts and support of the packaging exhibitors on the show floor," Ferrante says. "The challenges they constructed really engaged the students and are at the heart of what makes this a successful event each year."

Participating students came from programs at the following PMMI partner schools: CalPoly, Michigan State, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, San Jose State, University of Florida, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College.