Nearly $10,000 in awards were provided recently to Wichita State University College of Engineering students at an open house awards banquet from sponsors Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Bombardier Learjet, Cessna, Koch Industries, Airbus, MKEC Engineering Consultants, Professional Engineering Consultants, Garmin International and the Clark Beck Foundation.

Other awards were provided by professional and student engineering societies as well by each engineering department in the College of Engineering.

A full listing of awards and projects can be found at http://www.wichita.edu/EngineeringOpenHouse.

About 80 student senior design and research projects were displayed at the 2012 College of Engineering Open House on May 4. Many of the projects were completed for senior design courses that allow engineering students the opportunity to apply their engineering knowledge to solve real-world problems.

More than 450 schoolchildren, grades 3-12, came to the WSU campus for the Engineering Open House. They experienced hands-on engineering activities such as egg drop, roller coasters, circuits and gliders. The children also toured various engineering laboratories, including a wind tunnel and bioengineering facility.

Residents and staff from the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation (CPRF) were present to review projects from the electrical engineering and computer science department.

Instructor John Harrison coordinated senior design students to develop products to accommodate the CPRF residents, including a wheelchair obstacle avoidance system, smart mailbox, bicycle-powered generator and wireless GPS tracker.