Engineering Design Day

Engineering Design Day is the UA College of Engineering's premier showcase of student design. It marks the end of a year-long experience that involved students working on real problems with real clients. The program gives engineering students a chance to apply four years of engineering education to a project that has real benefit.

College Dean Jeff Goldberg describes it as "an exciting time that validates all the work we have done with the students during the preceding four years. What I like about it is that it's a warm-up. These students are about to go out into industry and do this for real. It massively increases their chances of being successful in the next project."

Design Day is organized by the college's Interdisciplinary Design Program and is co-sponsored by Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems as well as the College.

Seniors in the UA College of Engineering compete for thousands of dollars in prize money during the annual competition, which is held annually and judged by practicing engineers from companies throughout the country.

Completing a Senior Capstone Project as a team is a graduation requirement for most UA engineering students and the showcase is a chance to present the college's expertise in areas such as biomonitoring and in environmental and sustainable engineered systems.

The senior capstone program gives students experience working on real-world design projects that involve budgets, reviews and deadlines. Many of the projects go on to yield patented commercial products.

The projects are sponsored and funded by faculty and industry partners such as Lockheed Martin, Ventana Medical Systems, BAE Systems, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Edmund Optics and Honeywell. The companies also sponsor prizes and provide some of the many professional engineers who serve as judges.