Engineering, computing students team together to solve industry problems

Nearly 30 groups of engineering and computer science students presented their senior and team projects April 21 at the Innovation and Design Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. 

Wael Mokhtar, director of the School of Engineering and associate professor of mechanical engineering, said project day represents the culmination of what students have learned in the classroom coupled with soft skills like teamwork and communication.

"Students are demonstrating how they worked with a client to solve an industry problem, pulling in their knowledge from course work and working to accomplish a task together," Mokhtar said. 

Hayden Garrett, who is majoring in computer science, learned a new coding language for his team project, the Global Civil Discourse Map, a project for the Padnos/Sarosik Center for Civil Discourse that ranks a country's level of civil discourse. He is in the process of finding an internship and said he will add this project to his resume.

"I will be able to talk with employers about what my role was in creating this. I tend to pick things up quickly and learning this new coding will help my resume," he said.

Clare Kochanski and teammates improved an existing website and created an app for The Locker Room, a company that leverages social media to help schools raise funds for athletics and co-curricular activities.

Kochanski said the team added web features and delved deeper into protecting user information. "I didn't have any experience in building a web app, so this has been a really good project," she said.

High school students from Grand Rapids Public Schools, Bryon Center and the West Michigan Aviation Academy attended the event.

Engineering and Computing Project Day