Design Innovation Challenge starts Feb. 20

By Paige Smith, College of Engineering and Computing student reporter

Miami University’s Design Innovation Challenge will kick off with an information session at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, in the Benton Hall lobby.

The purpose of the competition is to get students involved in humanitarian engineering projects. Students, including underclassmen who may not have design experience, will have the opportunity to be involved with design and prototyping over the course of two months.

Teams of four or five will develop ideas for projects and submit a project proposal by Tuesday, Feb. 28. Up to five proposals will be chosen to move into the prototyping and development phase. During a poster presentation Thursday, April 27, prizes will be awarded to the top teams. Each team will have a budget of $500 and a faculty mentor.

The competition is geared towards engineering and computing majors, but all majors are encouraged to participate. Pizza will be provided at the information session.

It is sponsored by the Miami University Center for Assistive Technology, which is housed within the College of Engineering and Computing. It is an interdisciplinary center working collaboratively with the Scripps Gerontology Center as well as the Center for Social Entrepreneurship in the Farmer School of Business.

To learn more about the competition, contact Amit Shukla, professor of mechanical and manufacturing engineering, at shuklaa@miamioh.edu or Robert Sutliff, mechanical engineering graduate student, at sutlifrw@miamioh.edu.