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.