Planetary rovers, Lego robots and machines that walk on water will be among approximately 60 student-built machines and inventions shown at the CU-Boulder Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory's Fall Design Expo on Saturday, Dec. 7.
The Expo is a popular educational event for families and the highlight of the semester for more than 300 undergraduates.
Students will demonstrate their engineering projects to the community from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., after which awards will be given to the best projects in each category. Categories include assistive technology devices for people with disabilities, new toy designs and appropriate technology for developing communities, in addition to robotics, machines and planetary rovers.
The Expo will be held at the ITL Laboratory in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, located on Regent Drive about one block south of Colorado Avenue. Free parking is available across the street in lot 436.
Most of the projects that will be on display were designed and built by students in the First-Year Engineering Projects course, a special feature of the engineering program at CU-Boulder that gives students the opportunity to work in teams on hands-on design projects early in the curriculum. Projects from the junior-level Invention and Innovation course and some senior projects also will be demonstrated.
Volunteers from industry, government and the community will serve as judges, rating each project on its originality, craftsmanship, understanding of engineering principles, effectiveness and presentation. Members of the community can vote for their favorite project to win the "People's Choice" award.
The event is sponsored by Microsoft Research.
For more information visit http://itll.colorado.edu or call (303) 492-7222.