PCEC News
GVSU inspired Innovation at Tech Week Grand Rapids and Confluence Festival
October 19, 2023
GVSU participated in Tech Week GR and the Confluence Festival this year with a focus on sharing with the West Michigan community, the university’s inspired innovative activities and placing them into the limelight.
Creative Solutions that Change Lives: The Engineering & Computing Mindset
This showcase provided an opportunity for the community to witness the fusion of experiential learning, creative innovation, industry partnerships, and cutting-edge technology. GVSU’s Shape Corp. Innovation Design Center hosted the event that included many initiatives that faculty and students are engaged in, from K-12 pipeline development to new product launch.
The immersive, hands-on event was designed to help shed some light on how engineering and computing are woven into our daily lives. Exhibits included:
- Exploring Sterile Field simulation in an operating room using the Microsoft HoloLens 2
- Additive Manufacturing demonstrations including different types of plastic resin 3D printing and a sneak-peek at the new Metal 3D printing lab
- Laker Racing including SAE Formula 1 car and a Solar Racing Car
- Power Mobility Projects
- FIRST Robotics robot demonstrations
- Interactive demonstrations of machine learning and augmented reality to real world problems
- STEM activities for kids including Candy Aircrafts, Fidget cubes, and more
Confluence Festival
The Confluence Festival was a free festival at the intersection of art, music, science, and tech. GVSU was sponsor of the FIZ “Future Innovators Zone” this year.
Representing GVSU was the following units:
- Atomic Object Technology Showcase
- Art Gallery
- Regional Math and Science Center
- School of Engineering
- Laker Esports
Unique to this event was an engaging video game created by Ty Rizer, Emerging Technologies Developer on the IT Innovation Team. Using Unity and Google Map Tiles, the game provided a realistic flyover of the city with a futuristic rendering of the GVSU Blue Dot Lab innovation center. Here is a sample video clip.
Read the full article, by Eric Kunnen, here.