Engineer Expo explores senior projects and First Year Competition

On Thursday, April 11,
Mercer University held its
sixth annual Engineer Expo.
The purpose of the Engineer
Expo was to display the accomplishments
of Mercer’s
Engineering students and the
projects they have worked on
this year.
The Engineer Expo lasted
two days, and was part of the
Mercer’s BEAR Day events.
BEAR Day, or Mercer’s
Breakthroughs in Engagement,
Arts and Research Day
celebrates the accomplishments
of Mercer’s students.
Events of the Engineer
Expo began with podium
presentations at 9 a.m. from
several of Mercer’s engineering
students and faculty in
the Science and Engineering
Building. The presentations
focused on the students’ projects,
with 20 presentations
from 34 students given.
The Engineer Expo continued
at 11 a.m. with a talk
from Dr. Gilda Barabino
titled, “Learning in Research
Settings: Role of Identity
Formation.” Dr. Barabino
is a professor and associate
chair for graduate studies
in the Wallace H. Coulter
Department of Biomedical
Engineering at the Georgia
Institute of Technology and
Emory University.
An important part of the Engineer
Expo is the First Year
Engineering Design Competition
at 1 p.m. and the senior
project poster presentations
at 3. Hawkins Arena in Mercer’s
University Center was
the location for both.
The poster presentations
displayed senior projects,
and featured the work from
48 students. The students
made posters of their projects
giving details about their
work such as the cost, the
materials used, and the goal
of their project.
“The expo’s purpose is to
showcase what students in
the engineering school have
been showing over the year,”
said Michael An, an engineering
senior whose project
was featured at the Expo. According
to An, the projects
presented at the Engineer
Expo “ranges from exploring
modeling software, to senior
design projects, to independent
research that is graduate
level studies.” An’s project
at the Expo was a swing assisted
exoskeleton with gait
trainer.
The project presentation
boards included an intro to
the project, an analysis, a
picture of the fi nal device,
specifi cations of the project,
the theory behind it, the results
of their project, recommendations
for its use, and
acknowledgements to everyone
who assisted on the project.
The students were there
along with their projects to
answer questions about their
project, give details on the
challenges they faced, discuss
the different issues encountered
and how they dealt
with those issues.
The Engineer Expo featured
a wide variety of projects
from both the Mercer’s
engineering students. Apart
from senior projects, there
were also presentations for
freshman projects as well as
honors and independent projects.
Some of the other senior
presentations at the Expo included
projects such as artifi
cial arms, prosthetics, and
automated kayaks. Some of
the Honors research projects
at the Engineer Expo.
Seniors received $300 to
complete their senior projects.
Some students were
able to receive outside donations
for their projects. Some
donors for the projects were
companies such as Macon
Water.
Vein Specialists of the
South, Gulfstream and the
Kern Entrepreneurship Education
Network each helped
sponsor Mercer’s Engineer
Expo.