2020 Fall Design Review Event Embraces the New Virtual Age
Dec. 18, 2020 – UC Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering hosted its Fall Design Review – virtually, for the first time in the event’s history – on Friday, Dec. 11. With over 600 attendees, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and industry representatives and 127 student project teams, the event was successful, despite the change of venue.
“Our students had to adapt to this remote learning environment. They rose to the occasion and their projects demonstrated innovative approaches to finding solutions for today’s grand challenges,” said Michael Green, interim dean of the Samueli School. “Experiential learning is a hallmark of UCI’s engineering undergraduate experience.”
Fall design review is the first chance for engineering senior students to present their design project goals to a wider audience. Teams participated from the biomedical and materials science engineering program, electrical engineering and computer science department, and mechanical and aerospace department. Even though it was held virtually, the event produced impressive stats with 3,194 booth visits, 1,400 chat messages, 513 interested parties who wanted to follow-up with student teams, 88 Zoom video meetings and 292 Zoom video meeting participants.
Ming-Hua Sean Diep Lawrence, student representative of the electrical engineering and computer science team Custom Wireless Keyboard, stated that the setup of the fair was pretty intuitive to travel across. “It was fun viewing all the videos and posters. I still felt that I could communicate with my peers and understand their projects.”
“We feel the event was a success and a sense of normalcy in these unusual times,” said Geet Patel, student team representative of the mechanical and aerospace engineering team Anteater Electric Racing. “Fall design review was able to help us make great strides toward networking opportunities and a rewarding design review experience.”
– Megan Lohre
