UVU students show off inventions at computer science and engineering expo
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- The Smith College of Engineering Technology Expo highlights students’ work and projects in the Grand Ballroom on Utah Valley University campus in Orem on Wednesday, Apr23, 2025.
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- Utah Valley University student Diana Molina, middle left, and her classmates pose behind their small-scale offshore wind turbine at a computer science and engineering event Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Orem.
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- From left, Christopher Huntington and Joshua Barsdorf pose in front of their project poster at a computer science and engineering event Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Orem.
The ingenuity of Utah Valley University’s engineering and computer science students was on full display in an inventions expo Wednesday at the Sorensen Student Center in Orem.
Students from 50 different groups in the department presented their senior capstone projects. They included everything from a small wind turbine to a commercial aviation airplane tug and an artificial intelligence application.
“It’s cool to see that everything’s hands-on, and everyone’s starting from somewhere,” said Ben Knopp, a construction technologies senior who built a Japanese-style table.
UVU Outreach Coordinator Owen Miller said traditionally each program inside the engineering and computer science department presents their capstone projects separately. This year, though, they decided to put everyone under the same roof, and host a big event with Papa John’s and an emcee to celebrate each other’s accomplishments.
“We thought, let’s get them all together,” Miller said. “Let’s have a big marketing push so everyone knows where it’s going to be. Let’s feed them, and everybody can see everyone else’s work.”
Each student was focused on building something with real-life applicability.
Christopher Huntington and Joshua Barsdorf built an autonomous rover designed to bring medical supplies to help senior people if they fall.
In case of a fall, a person could press a panic pendant they’re wearing and the rover would deliver aid held inside a compartment to help before emergency responders arrive.
“The rover then, using LiDAR, an ultrasonic sensor, is able to navigate its way, avoid obstacles along the way and find the person,” Huntington said. “And then, if they were diabetic, for example, they can have some quick sugars in here, some insulin, whatever they might need, just to help in that intermediate time before EMTs arrive.”
Elsewhere, mechanical engineering student Diana Molina built a small-scale offshore wind turbine alongside classmates Alan Farley, Koby Johnson, Zachary Mooney and Elisabeth Jorgensen.
Molina said it was a multi-year project they look to present in a competition held by the Department of Energy. Last year, the group built the whole mechanism, and this year the focus was on making the turbine’s control and brake system.
Over in the computer science realm, Brandon Woodruff said he utilized a trio of AI websites to build a homework-helper application for students.
“It’s not to help you cheat, but to really focus on taking on problems or questions, and helping you work through it,” Woodruff said.
Miller said UVU has a tradition of hands-on learning, and that the work students are doing is critical as they prepare to enter the workforce.
“This is something that leads to good, high paying, much-in-demand jobs,” he said. “Especially in Utah right now.”
