Engineering Design Expo helps students refine interests in STEM

The Lind-Ritzville High School (LRHS) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) club traveled to Moscow on Thursday to experience the University of Idaho’s College of Engineering’s 26th annual Engineering Design Expo.

The Engineering Design Expo is an opportunity for visiting students, university faculty, or project sponsors to experience the capstone projects of U of I engineering students.

Over the course of the semester, upperclassman across all majors within the College of Engineering are responsible for forming groups and using innovative techniques to solve a problem in society.

The Expo is a demonstration of how applicable engineering is in the real world; for this, the trip marked the STEM club’s third year attending the event.

Emily Rosen explained, “My favorite part was speaking with the graduating class of engineering students about their projects, educations, and experiences at the U of I.”

Rosen continued, “I learned about how much engineering is needed and the many different types of applications there are for engineering.”

Similarly, Lorria McCauley said, “I liked the setting and being able to interact with students that focused on different topics that were all sort of in the same subject.”

“It was really enlightening,” McCauley added, “I never connected all of those projects with engineering.”

Each student enjoyed a different project, a reflection on each individual’s own interests in STEM. For example, Sharon Anderson, interested in bioengineering, liked hearing about a “wearable arm that tracks the motion for stroke patients that are in physical therapy. It allows for their doctor to track their patients’ progress at home.”

For Samuele Bartolato, whose interests are spread across electrical, mechanical, aerospace, and nano engineering, the idea of a helicopter controlled with a hand or an electromagnetic wave sensor running without the use of energy was appealing.

The Expo is just as helpful for students who aren’t certain what they will pursue: Miguel Saez explained, “I don’t know what I’m going to study yet, so I listened to everyone equally.”

The Engineering Design Expo offered contrast with STEM club’s most recent field trip to St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center. Health care careers are often considered to be in their own field, distinctive from other branches of STEM present at the Expo.

To explain the difference, STEM club advisor Jason Aldrich explained, “It’s more of a continuum of science versus engineering, the research versus application.”

“Healthcare has more of an emphasis on the science of STEM, while engineering has more of an emphasis on math and problem solving,” he added.