Three-day Showcase of Student Projects Begins April 30

In celebration of experiential learning, an integral part of the Harvey Mudd College experience, the entire College community celebrates students’ original projects in design or research each spring. This celebration of student achievement includes Presentation Days (April 30 and May 2), showcasing senior thesis research and class projects, and Projects Day, May 1, a showcase of projects in the Clinic Program. All presentations are free and open to the public.

Presentation Days, Monday & Wednesday

Each year, more than 100 students participate in Presentation Days, and every department at the College is well represented. From groundbreaking individual research done by graduating seniors to engaging and eye-opening design projects done by first-year students, the emphasis throughout Presentation Days is on student achievement.

Senior chemistry students are addressing such issues as inkjet bronzing and sedimentation, using oilfield-produced water to irrigate citrus crops, and pollution mapping with autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. Math theses presentations include a study of tropical polynomials, an analysis of Erdös’ distinct distances problem, turning sports data into meaningful insights, using algorithms to locate idle servers in systems experiencing heavy traffic, and using facility location algorithms to help a city alleviate food scarcity. In physics, one student will present work on the dynamics of custom grain structures in a crystalline material, and others will describe their work analyzing data generated from the South Pole Telescope. Two senior biology students will share their work studying Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African Sleeping Sickness.

Groups presenting on Wednesday will cover such topics as environmental and spatial statistics, underwater robots, flight dynamics and flight data analysis, autonomously generated music, and kinetic typography. Introduction to Design students will present their original projects, including a portable stage for Platt Living Room, a hands-free drink holder for luggage, and safe interactive toys for young children.

Harvey Mudd College celebrates these and many more projects Monday, April 30, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Wednesday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A jazz concert Wednesday at 7 p.m., performed by students in the Jazz Improvisation class, highlights the work of renowned jazz pianist and composer Armando “Chick” Corea.

More about Presentation Days, including programs for each day

Clinic Program/Projects Day, Tuesday

On Tuesday, May 1, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., the College celebrates the outstanding work of students participating in its renowned Clinic Program, an internationally recognized hallmark of Harvey Mudd College that engages juniors and seniors in solving contemporary technical problems for corporate, national laboratory and agency sponsors. Founded as an innovation in engineering education in 1963, Clinic is a collaborative program between industry and the College that offers a unique educational experience for students that is a cornerstone of the Harvey Mudd curriculum.

This year, 48 student teams will share their solutions to challenges posed to them by 44 corporate sponsors, many of which have sponsored numerous Clinic projects with the College. Four of these sponsors will be honored for participation milestones:

• City of Hope celebrates its 10th project
• Dart NeuroScience, fifth project
• Niagara Bottling, fifth and sixth projects
• Proofpoint Inc., fifth project

Since the Clinic Program’s inception, more than 1,600 projects have been completed for over 500 corporate, national laboratory and agency sponsors. Companies retain all intellectual property rights that arise out of the project, and it is not uncommon for Harvey Mudd students to be named on patents. In recent years, Clinic sponsors have averaged between 10 and 15 patent disclosures at the end of their projects.

Nationally, there are more than 100 colleges and universities that have adopted a capstone program similar to Clinic. Schools from around the world continue to visit Harvey Mudd College to gain valuable insights on establishing their own program, most recently Singapore Institute of Technology and Habib University, Pakistan.