Tech's Best Undergraduate Research on Display at Expo Today

2010 Undergraduate Research Expo
2010 Undergraduate Research Expo

Michigan Technological University's tenth annual Undergraduate Expo, featuring the research projects of more than 1,000 Michigan Tech students, is being held today on Thursday, April 15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom on campus.

Highlights of the presentations, projects and posters include a cool-air, cool-planet carbon calculator; a hand-washing detector, a wireless cardiopulmonary monitor; underwater robots designed by high schoolers; a human-computer interface for the blind; the relationship between stress, sleep and exercise among college students—and much more.

A panel of judges comprising University faculty members and corporate representatives will critique the projects. Many of the projects are supported by industry sponsors and community partners, with more than 130 different team sponsors and partners this year. The Undergraduate Expo itself is also supported by sponsorship from Nucor, Skanska, GS Engineering, Integrys, SmartZone, US Forest Service Region 9 and E3 Spark Plugs.

This year, the Expo highlights the continued expansion of Tech’s signature Enterprise program beyond campus boundaries, with seven Enterprise teams from Universidad del Turabo in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, participating, as well as a Puerto Rican high school Enterprise team that one of the university teams advises. Michigan Tech also welcomes no less than ten high school Enterprise teams who have traveled here from around the state of Michigan to compete at the Expo.

Teachers and students from Woodlawn Charter School in Chicago, Ill., Tech High in Atlanta, Ga., and Dollar Bay High School will also attend the Expo to learn more about forming High School Enterprise teams and programs of their own. Students and their teachers from the GEAR UP program at L'Anse and Dollar Bay in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula will also be touring the Expo and voting for their favorite poster.

The Expo is free and open to all. For a complete schedule of events and the full list of team sponsors, check the Expo website at https://www.mtu.edu/enterprise/involved/expo/.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.