Whether it's a penguin sliding down a 30-foot ice track, robots playing basketball or students walking on water using foam skis, there should be fun for everyone at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Engineering Design Expo on Saturday, Dec. 6.
More than 80 student inventions will be demonstrated at the end-of-semester event. The Expo is free and open to the public from noon to 3 p.m. at the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory, located at Regent Drive and Colorado Avenue.
The semiannual demonstration of engineering projects will showcase the work of about 400 undergraduate students. Most of the students are enrolled in CU-Boulder's popular First-Year Engineering Projects course, which allows them to practice real-world engineering design from the beginning of their college experience.
Engineering students worked in teams throughout the fall semester to design solutions to an array of challenges. Projects range from the development of modern magnetic levitation trains to a Rube Goldberg machine that opens and pours soda from a can through a complex series of indirect steps.
Volunteers from industry, government and the community will serve as judges, rating each project on originality, craftsmanship and effectiveness as well as the students' presentation and understanding of engineering principles. An awards ceremony will be held at the end of the event. Members of the community can vote for their favorite project to win the coveted "People's Choice" award.
Free parking is available across the street from the ITL Laboratory in lot 436. For more information, call 303-492-7222.