The entire University community and general public are invited to attend the Design Expo. Nearly 125 teams of undergraduate engineering students will showcase their capstone design projects at Michigan Engineering’s April 16 Design Expo, a public forum in which students demonstrate applications of their studies to real-life needs. Practical engagement through hands-on engineering projects is an increasingly important part of the Michigan Engineering experience. We hope that you enjoy the innovation and hard work on display at this spring's Design Expo.

The number of participating teams continues to grow every semester, as more groups participate and several new College initiatives invite more groups to undertake design projects. A new Multidisciplinary Design minor enables undergraduates to obtain hands-on experience designing, building and testing technology systems. And the Center for Entrepreneurship certificate program offers students an academic foundation to support their business aspirations.

This semester, students will show off projects such as:

• A computer program to help cities and towns determine optimal bus routes and divide resources most efficiently,
• A wheelchair seatbelt,
• A biofuel from a carbon-neutral byproduct of paper processing,
• Acetaminophen, or generic Tylenol, from hazardous waste,
• A blue, blueberry-based drink marketed towards Michigan students and fans, and
• A device that measures how fragile the membranes of red blood cells are to verify that they are healthy enough for transfusion.

The photos on this page highlight projects from last fall's Design Expo.