Design Expo highlights hands-on, discovery-based learning at Michigan Tech.
During the event, which is hosted by the Enterprise Program and the College of Engineering,
more than a thousand students in Enterprise and Senior Design teams showcase their
work and compete for awards. A panel of judges, made up of distinguished corporate
representatives, Michigan Tech staff and faculty members, and community members, critique
the projects and determine the award winners.
Many team projects are sponsored by industry. This allows students to gain direct
exposure to real industrial problems and form valuable relationships with potential
future employers as they pursue co-ops, internships, and full-time jobs. Employers
benefit from these relationships, as well, and have consistently expressed how valuable
the program has been for their recruitment efforts.
Students at Michigan Tech have been presenting their innovative designs at Design
Expo since it began in 2000. Since then, winning designs have included a microscale
process to fix pacemakers in place, a nanosatellite to image atmospheric clouds and
reconcile climate models, and an advanced PPE filtration system to protect surgeons
against COVID-19 and other airborne viruses.
Tomorrow needs new solutions and agile thinkers. It needs champions of the unknown.
Design Expo brings student teams, industry partners, campus mentors, and the community
together to explore a year’s worth of innovation—the products, processes, and breakthroughs
that tomorrow needs.