Innovation Day
Engineering students at The University of Texas at Arlington participate in research at all stages of their academic careers, and the College of Engineering is celebrating their efforts with its fourth-annual Innovation Day on April 19.
The event will be held entirely online, with posters and videos from each of the 113 entries being judged by alumni, industry partners and faculty. Alumni from five countries and several U.S. states are participating as judges.
This year’s entries can be viewed at uta.engineering/innovationday.
Innovation Day celebrates and showcases the innovative, transformative research and undergraduate capstone projects being done by UTA’s engineering students. Community members, alumni and industry leaders participate and observe the depth and breadth of this research.
Peter Crouch, dean of the College of Engineering, started the event shortly after his arrival at UTA because he felt strongly that it was important to give students at all levels, from undergraduate to doctoral, access to real research experiences. The goal was, and remains, to encourage student participation in research, especially at the undergraduate level. In addition to showcasing the outstanding work of student researchers, the event is an opportunity for industry and the community to become more involved and aware of the quality of UTA's engineering students as they prepare to enter the workforce.
“Innovation Day has evolved over the four years we have been doing it, and it has been a great success due to the efforts of an entire team of faculty and staff, as well as our student participants. While this is a mechanism to help our students perfect their presentation and communication skills, it also provides the basis of an invaluable outreach tool to easily allow our stakeholders access to student work and allow some stakeholders worldwide to participate as judges,” Crouch said.
Innovation Day entries are divided into three areas: undergraduate research, including funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates projects, where students work alongside faculty members on real research projects, graduate research, and senior design. All engineering students are required to complete a senior design, or capstone, course before they graduate. These projects range from highly technical projects to ideas for products or apps that could be marketed to the public.