A Perkinston student's love of horses, flair for invention, and public speaking ability have combined to earn her national recognition from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Paula J. Runge, a 19-year-old sophomore mechanical engineering major at Mississippi State, recently took fourth-place honors among a field composed mostly of senior engineering majors at ASME's national student competition in Nashville. Her presentation on a new type of baling twine she invented earlier won the organization's Southeastern public speaking competition.

Runge credits much of her success to a love of horses and the desire to protect them from potential dangers posed by conventional twines used to bind hay bales. As an avid competitor in horse shows, she knew that ingested plastic or wire twines could lodge in an animal's digestive tracts.

Her solution: use hay itself to weave twine, a process for which she currently is seeking a patent.

"The same process can be used to weave the nets that hold the large bales," she said.

Runge, who has a strong interest in design engineering, also is developing a mechanical adapter that will allow the all-natural twine to be used on hay balers.

A participant in the MSU Cooperative Education Program, Runge is spending the spring semester at her job at the Chevron Corp. refinery complex in Pascagoula.