 |
| Sean Pekin demonstrates the abilities of his team's color tracking robot during the College of Engineering Projects Symposium. |
 |
| The smart robotic rover project demonstrates its abilities to go cross country during the Projects Symposium. |
The College of Engineering?s third annual Projects Symposium on May 30 provided opportunities for students to showcase projects a year in the making to faculty and industry representatives.
About 450 students took part in exhibiting nearly 120 individual or group projects, including some real-life challenges funded by companies. For example, computer science, engineering technology, and electrical and computer engineering students worked with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) deep space exploration rover technology to create the smart robotic rover project. At the symposium, students presented their design of a Mars rover prototype capable of remote operation, data acquisition, data processing, image processing and transference of the collected information to the home base.
“This event provides students with the opportunity to formally present to their professors, industry, and peers the engineering knowledge that they have applied in their senior projects,” said Edward Hohmann, dean of the College of Engineering. “As the presentations from our students indicate, there is a clear advantage in the learn by doing education that Cal Poly Pomona offers.”
Projects ranged from the design and construction of a concrete canoe that was raced at a regional conference to analysis and design of an on-campus parking structure. One group of students explained how they built a wireless fire emergency detection system, while another group presented a snowboard designed, experimented with and implemented using advanced modern materials not commonly used in the industry today.
Other presentation topics included an analysis of traffic conditions between Cal Poly Pomona and the 57 Freeway at Temple Ave.; the design and selection of materials for hip joint prosthesis; and the design of a mini-hydro plant for the city of Phelan.
The symposium ran from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Engineering Complex. It served as a significant learning experience stressing multidisciplinary challenges, teamwork, organization and communication ? important elements in an engineering career.