Stitching engineering into the UND Community Quilt

August 18, 2026

The College of Engineering & Mines contributed six squares to the campuswide project.

a close up of a quilt — A close up of the finished quilt that depicts two of the six CEM squares. At the top right is the dinosaur contemplating a satellite and in the lower left is the diversity square.

When President Andrew Armacost named “community” as UND’s Word of the Year last September, he described it with an image that would soon become literal: a quilt, stitched together from every corner of campus.

CEM was allotted six squares on the quilt, and the college started its design process in an unconventional way. A spontaneous, randomized survey of faculty, staff and students asked participants to provide feedback or suggestions of “who we are” in the College. Those who completed the survey were immediately rewarded with a cookie!

Next, a small committee viewed the responses and looked for recurring answers to the prompts. They pulled the most common words into a word cloud and then assigned a visual concept to each descriptor to guide the six square designs. Each concept was then fine-tuned by our graphic designer, Paige Prekker.

three people pose with partially completed quilt squares — Amy Chandler, Darin Buri and Paige Prekker pose with five of CEM’s six quilt squares. They were part of a group who volunteered to cut and press quilt squares for UND’s community quilt.

Then the UND quilt committee went to work turning concepts into cloth. A group of CEM volunteers joined the process of cutting and pressing the quilt blocks. Finally, campus volunteers completed the squares with stitching.

Each square in accompanied by a short story about its meaning. Those viewing the quilt can scan a QR code to read the descriptions of all 144 squares. The UND quilt committee made a deliberate choice not to cluster anyone’s squares together, instead scattering them throughout the quilt so that the college’s presence weaves through the entire piece.

The quilt is set to be unveiled at this year’s President’s State of the University Address on Thursday, August 20, 2026.

What each square says

Each square CEM contributed, opens with a statement about “who we are.” The square uses a symbol to represent a concept of that identity.

six quilt squares with symbols of shapes, a light bulb and arrow, a hand with a ring on the fifth finger, concentric octagons, stripes of red, blue, light blue, white, yellow, green and black, and a dinosaur with stars and a satellite — Quilt design concepts as submitted by CEM Quilting Committee. Clockwise from top left they are: Problem-Solvers, Visionaries, Creators, Innovators, Diverse and Bridge-Builders.

We are problem-solvers.

We specialize in finding solutions to problems in our community, state, country and the world. The imagery symbolizes fitting “square pegs into round holes.”

We are visionaries.

We work to find ideas that move the world forward. CEM houses multiple initiatives and research centers that are an essential part of UND’s Carnegie R1 research designation.

We are creators.

The hand symbolizes the college’s commitment to hands-on learning through active engagement. The ring on the fifth finger of the working hand signifies the integrity our graduates pledge with the Order of the Engineer and the Oath of the Scientist.

We are innovators.

This image is inspired by an ancient Roman concrete vault. Concrete is considered one of the world’s top 50 innovations. Roman concrete stands as a testament to the convergence of chemical engineering, geological knowledge and structural design and was known for its self-healing properties.

We are diverse.

In the Fall 2025 semester, our student body was comprised of students from 70 countries. These colored bars represent every nation within our student body, using at least one color from their respective flags.

We are bridge-builders.

CEM was the only contributor with a submission from a distance student. Zach Klein, a geology undergrad from St. Louis, Mo., submitted his idea of a dinosaur and a satellite. He wrote, “A dinosaur regarding a satellite in the night sky—symbolizing the connection between our knowledge of the past and our advancement into the future.”

The finished square also featured background fabric from a collection designed by Dr. Karen Nyberg, retired NASA astronaut and engineer. A 1994 UND Mechanical Engineering graduate, she has several collections of fabric created and inspired by photographs she took of the Earth while orbiting aboard the International Space Station.

Written by Amy Chandler // UND College of Engineering & Mines