Projects Day at West Point

1
Projects Day at West Point

• NECEDHA lunchtime talk

2
Projects Day This Talk

• What is Projects Day?
• How is it organized?
• What benefits did we plan for?
• What really happens?
• Some pictures and examples.

3
What is it?

• Projects day Promotes academic excellence by
  providing seniors with a public forum to present
  senior theses and design projects.
• All USMA ABET programs.
• Civil, chemical, environmental, information
  technology, mechanical, nuclear, electrical,
  systems engineering, engineering management,
  computer science.
• Several science and humanities programs.
• Chemistry, life science, math, physics,
  economics, law, political science.

4
Organization

• Evolving since 2001.
• Department-centric with coordination and support
  by the Dean of Academic Affairs.
• Full day schedule. No classes.(New last year.)
• Distributed among many buildings, academic and
  not.
• Cadets are present to brief and demonstrate in
  poster presentation style.
• Not completely original, but possibly unique in
  breadth.
• Industrial Affiliates Days, Engineering Design
  Expos, etc.

5
Projects Day at EECS

• Lots of excitement!
• More moving parts than most departments
• Complex setups.
• Evaluation and grading of student work.
• Judging for design awards by an external team.
• ABET advisory board visitors.
• Sponsored awards banquet.

6
Pleasant Surprises

• Great faculty teambuilding exercise.
• Even more teaching and learning than expected.
• Seniors teach
• Other seniors.
• Underclassmen recruiting future engineers.
• Faculty.
• External evaluators and judges!
• Academy leaders who arent engineers gain new
  respect for engineering.
• Value for outreach and strategic communication.

7
MAGIC Autonomous Robot
8
WebDav Info Security
9
Cadets teaching
10
Awards Banquet
11
Self-Cooling Camelback
12
Mini Baha Vehicle
13
Steel Bridge Contest