The submissions for the 2026 edition of Beautify Grissom were all very impressive. Taking first place was Logan O'Connell with his piece "Tree of IE." Each student is asked to include a description of their artwork explaining the thought process behind it. In his submission, Logan wrote: "The Tree of IE highlights the interdisciplinary nature of industrial engineering, illustrating how IEs draw from a diverse range of core disciplines, integrating these perspectives to solve complex challenges across various industries."

Ainsley Yates earned second place with her submission, which she describes as "a holistic representation of what industrial engineering means to me. Each object represents one of the facets of IE that either drew me to it in the first place or something I discovered later on that convinced me I was on the right track."

Graduate student Abigail Boerwinkle claimed third place. Boerwinkle began her academic journey in aerospace engineering, then switched to psychology before returning to engineering as a master's student in the Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering. Her submission offers a detailed visual chronicle of that personal path. She wrote: "My painting reflects this winding path of self-discovery and aims to show that IE isn't just supply chain management " it's whatever you make of it. For me, I made it into aerospace cognitive human factors, hence the overall galactic theme of the painting. Each section contains a symbol that alludes to something that happened along this path."

 

She continued: "The main focus is the IE rocket ship blasting off from the psychology planet, sailing toward the engineering planet, leaving behind a fiery trail of human factors concepts. This represents the 'bridge' between the two worlds " each with their own distinct look and language " showing that these two worlds are not as far apart as we may think."