Three-day Showcase of Student Projects Begins May 6

In celebration of experiential learning, an integral part of the Harvey Mudd College experience, the entire College community views students’ original projects in design or research each spring. This commemoration of student achievement includes Presentation Days (May 6 and 8), showcasing senior thesis research and class projects, and Projects Day (May 7), 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 researching subjects, such as the use of thin film photovoltaics in solar cell applications and using Ni(cyclam) to turn pollutants into nontoxic ethylene. Math theses presentations include the mathematical modeling of Type I diabetes, a study of hysteresis and clumping in swarming models, and research on the application of neural networks to statistical tests. In physics, one student will share observations of grain dissolution in two-deletional colloidal crystals and another will demonstrate a new model of the phenomenon of post-seismic fault slip after an earthquake. Senior biology students will share their work studying Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African Sleeping Sickness; lizard population dynamics; and a study of species boundaries and population structure in soft coral genus Alcyonium.

Groups and individuals presenting on Wednesday will describe their autonomous campus robot, a project to archive the history of Harvey Mudd College, nanostructured baseball bats and a critical inquiry of Star Trek. Introduction to Engineering Design students will present their solutions for a device that helps people with age-related infirmities play the outdoor sports and games they love.

Harvey Mudd College celebrates these and many more projects Monday, May 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Wednesday, May 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  More information on research at Harvey Mudd and programs for both days.

Clinic Program/Projects Day, Tuesday

On Tuesday, May 7, 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, 55 student teams will share their solutions to challenges posed to them by 47 corporate sponsors, many of which have sponsored numerous Clinic projects with the College. Five of these sponsors will be honored for participation milestones:

• AT&T (20 engineering projects)
• EDR (five mathematics projects)
• HP Inc. (25 projects in computer science, mathematics and engineering)
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (30 projects in computer science, engineering and physics)
• Sandia National Laboratories (30 projects in computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics)

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 visit Harvey Mudd College to gain valuable insights on establishing their own program, most recently Singapore Institute of Technology, Australian National University and Habib University, Pakistan.