The accomplishments of 78 undergraduates lined Driscoll Ballroom Thursday as students presented during Symposium 2004: A Conference of Undergraduate research.

Two of the projects were from the Engineering School and the students were fulfilling their senior project requirement.

The first group had six students, all who were mechanical engineers. Kelly Brinkley, Patrick Hurley, Willie Kaplan, Robb Kulin, Miranda Oaks, and Brandon Olive have spent the year working on a human-powered car.

The car was part of a national competition to build human powered vehicles. In order to get people to think about these cars for the future. The car took all three quarters to design, developing, and assembling. During this quarter the group worked in the shop at all hours, often putting in 70 hour weeks.

The car is essentially pedaled like a bike but the energy can be stored for use on inclines.

The group’s project did not go without it’s share of problems, however. On their way to Wyoming for a competition, the group got caught in a blizzard. By the time that they reached thier destination, they were just in time to qualify. But the tarp that had been covering the car was shredded and the car rusted. They were frantically taking the car apart and getting the rust off in order to present their project.

The group said they were all working off adrenaline while they worked on the car.

The second engineering school project was done by a group of four with a mix of computer and electrical engineering. The goal of the project done by Ramah AlJasen, Steven Noi both computer engineers, and Andrea Bray, Melody Ladron-De-Guevar, both electrical engineers was to create a Mail-Bot, a robot that would simulate delivery mail and accomplish obstacle detection.

The idea came after brainstorming as a group. The robot was built as a prototype. Instead it will serve as the base for future research on obstacle detection.

“It was great to see the completed project. To come up with the design and the to see its implementation and its real life application,” said Ladron-De-Guevar.

The projects were from a wide variety of disciplines at DUand covered many different topics.

These included the senior project play “Gabriel,” Assimilation in Tibet and Postmodernism in Spanish Cinema.