'The People Engineers': Two Engineering Students Part of Team Headed to National Debate Tournament

More than two dozen trophies line the shelves in Hannah Morris' office. They represent years of tournament wins across the South, from Louisiana to Mississippi to Tennessee, earned by members of the U of A Speech and Debate Society, one of the oldest student programs on campus.  

Morris, the team's coach, has been nominated seven times for the Bennett Strange Coach of the Year award. She is preparing to take 31 students this week to the International Public Debate Association national tournament in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, April 10-13. 

Two of them are engineers. 

Luke Thurmon, a senior, and Matthew Cook, a junior, are both studying industrial engineering and operations analytics in the College of Engineering.  

They are also among the top debaters on this nationally ranked team, competing in a format that requires them to receive a topic, prepare a case in 30 minutes and argue it before a judge.  

In a discipline where students are more commonly associated with problem sets than persuasive speeches, Thurmon and Cook have spent their college careers doing both. 

Industrial engineers are sometimes called "people engineers," Thurmon said.  

"We do a lot of human-centric work, whether it's ergonomics or project management and leading a team. Being comfortable speaking to people and communicating ideas to people is a pretty core skill to industrial engineering." 

Thurmon joined the Speech and Debate Society as a freshman after competing in the IPDA-format debate in high school. He was, by his own account, terrified of public speaking and wanted to get over it. Seven years later, he said it is something he enjoys doing. His engineering classmates are not surprised. 

"Especially now that we're in capstone as seniors, we do lots of presentations, and it shows," Thurmon said. "A lot of other engineers don't have that same exposure to public speaking, and so people notice the comfortability that I have whenever I do any kind of presentation in class." 

That comfort has already paid off outside the classroom. Thurmon interned in the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, a U of A alumnus, through a program designed for engineering students with an interest in policy. His experience on the debate team, where policy topics surface on a tournament-by-tournament basis, made him a natural fit. 

Morris said Thurmon and Cook bring distinct strengths to the team. Thurmon has a calming presence and is skilled at explaining difficult concepts in ways anyone can understand, a quality prized in IPDA, where rounds are judged by laypeople rather than debate experts.  

Cook, who competes in the professional division against coaches and college graduates, takes a more direct approach. 

"Matthew is really good when it comes to getting to the heart of the problem," Morris said. "What is the problem? What is the solution? It's a very direct approach." 

Cook broke past the final elimination rounds for the first time this season at a tournament at Louisiana State University-Shreveport in November, a milestone Morris watched unfold from the tab room where she was recording scores. 

"When I saw that happen, I got kind of emotional, because this is someone who has continuously shown up and worked hard and devoted so much time and energy and love to this program," Morris said. "To finally see that pay off for him in a way that he's been working for was really exciting." 

It was a peak moment, Cook said. 

"When I broke at the LSU Shreveport tournament, it was something I wasn't expecting. I've debated in the IPDA since my freshman year, and this was the first time I broke. Three years of working constantly finally paying off; it was a moment that couldn't be beaten." 

Thurmon's signature moment came last year at the Southern Forensics Championship Tournament, where he was named the Arkansas varsity state champion. His biggest obstacle, he said, was not the competition from other schools. It was his own teammates. 

"We have such an accomplished team, and we have so many amazing debaters, that in my mind, my biggest struggle to get to that point wasn't going to be beating the competition from other schools," Thurmon said. 

The College of Engineering is providing $2,000 to support Thurmon and Cook's trip to nationals, part of a broader commitment to fostering the kind of well-rounded engineers the college wants to produce. 

"We want our students to be great engineers, but we also want them to be great communicators," said Kim Needy, dean of the College of Engineering. "Supporting Matthew and Luke's trip to nationals is an investment in the kind of well-rounded engineer our college is proud to produce." 

For Thurmon, whose four years on the team have taken him from selling buttons outside the Arkansas Union to fund tournament travel to competing for a national title, the value of the experience goes beyond the skills on his resume. 

"More than anything, it's the experience of getting to go and be with the group of people that I care about and enjoy spending time with," he said. "That is the reason, without a doubt, that I've stuck around so long." 

The team departs for Murfreesboro on Thursday. The competition begins on Friday. 

About the College of Engineering: The University of Arkansas College of Engineering is the state's largest engineering school, offering graduate and undergraduate degrees, online studies and interdisciplinary programs. It enrolls more than 4,700 students and employs more than 150 faculty and researchers along with nearly 200 staff members. Its research enterprise generated $47 million in new research awards in Fiscal Year 2025. The college's strategic plan, Vision 2035, seeks to build the premier STEM workforce in accordance with three key objectives: Initiating lifelong student success, generating transformational and relevant knowledge, and becoming the destination of choice among educators, students, staff, industry, alumni and the community. As part of this, the college is increasing graduates and research productivity to expand its footprint as an entrepreneurial engineering platform serving Arkansas and the world. The college embraces its pivotal role in driving economic growth, fueling innovation and educating the next generation of engineers, computer scientists and data scientists to address current and future societal challenges.