HOUGHTON, Mich. (WZMQ) – On Tuesday, April 18th, Michigan Tech University held its annual Design Expo, an event that has been going on for over two decades that features the student’s learning-based projects. There were almost 100 hundred teams presenting their work today at the Michigan Tech Design Expo. For the first time in two decades, the freshman teams were able to enter their projects as well.
“Why only showcase what our enterprise and our senior design students are doing when we know that students across campus are working on real projects and really putting their skills to work,” said Enterprise Program Associate Dir. Briana Tucker.
“We want to encourage students to do project-based learning as a complementary to what they do in their normal course of study,” said Enterprise Dir. Nagesh Hatti.
Joshua Gaunt is a part of Dollar Bay’s Student Organization of Aquatic Robotics program which is a student-run, non-profit business working to improve the local watershed. “So this is DCDA. It tests the level of phosphorus in water sources and it tests if the phosphorus is able to be used by algae blooms,” said SOAR Student Joshua Gaunt. Gaunt noted his excitement for studying engineering in the future, and these events help to grow his passion with other engineers at his side.
The Michigan Tech Baja Racing Team showcased their new car at the expo as well. This year they’ve been mandated to build a four-wheel car in order to compete and the team says they use the tools from class in every cylinder of their project. The University says events like this help show off their students’ skills, in and out of the classroom.
“Students learn a lot of fundamental things when they go take normal courses that’s fantastic,” continued Hatti.
“It’s really all about showcasing what the students have been up to for the last year or two semesters and in terms of our enterprise some of these projects have been going on for years,” continued Tucker.
