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Student Engineers
Tackle Real-World Challenges
Students in the Picker Engineering Program will
present their real-world projects Friday, May 5, during the third annual Design
Celebration, a showcase of collaborations emerging from the yearlong Engineering
Design Clinic.
The showcase will take place from 10 a.m. to 6
p.m. in the Campus Center Carroll Room (see schedule below).
The Design Celebration has grown significantly
since its first year, as has the clinic enrollment, says Susannah Howe, Design
Clinic Director and visiting professor in engineering. The daylong event will include
nine presentations.
Design Clinic students collaborate over two semesters
with sponsoring organizations from industry and government in researching and completing
their design projects. Participating companies and organizations include Ford Motor
Company, General Electric, the Northampton Department of Public Works, and vanZelm,
Heywood and Shadford, an engineering design firm in West Hartford, Conn., and others.
A primary goal of the students’ projects
is public benefit, and the resulting designs focus on cost-effectiveness, environmental
impact, availability of resources and quality, among other considerations. The
Engineering Design Clinic allows students
“to approach engineering holistically and recognize that good engineering design
requires a balance of technical acumen and other skills,” Howe says. “In
addition to producing a design solution or product for their sponsors, students also
learn first-hand about the design process in an applied setting.”
The Design Celebration gives the students an opportunity
to demonstrate their findings for a large audience, Howe says. “The students
also come away with an understanding of engineering design problems and an increased
confidence in their abilities to both undertake large-scale projects and also communicate
their results.”
This year Smith will graduate the third class
of engineers in the Picker Program. Established in 1999, the Picker Program was
the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college.
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