Baldwin Wallace presents the Computer Science, Engineering, Math and Science showcase where students in these respective departments present the research they have been doing throughout the semester to parents, friends and potential future employers. During the CEMS showcase roughly 75 projects with STEM focus will be presented, and attendees will be able to see and hear about engineering projects, robotics demonstrations, computer science presentations and more.
“It gives an opportunity for all of our students to sort of be proud of the work that they’re doing and show that off,” said Andrew Watkins, computer science professor and coordinator of the CEMS showcase. The CEMS showcase is an event that resembles Ovation insofar as students present their findings and show the projects that they have been working on throughout the fall semester in the Austin E. Knowlton Center.
Brent Strunk, the department chair of the mathematics department, said that the event was started by Watkins in the 2018 Fall semester because students did not have the opportunity to show the projects they worked on for the Fall semester at Ovation. “It’s not because they weren’t worthy of Ovation, but Ovation is in the Spring and you finished it in the Fall, so how likely were you to remember to go back and present it at Ovation?” Strunk said.
Watkins said that the event is good for the students because it is a chance for them to network with potential future employers by directly showing them what it is they are researching. “This is the first year we have more intentionally invited some employers from around the community to come to the event,” said Watkins. “We’re using this as almost a reverse career fair, so as opposed to the students going around to the different employers, the employers are going around to the different students.”
The projects that are showcased are often more than students having fun with their research, but doing research on things that can be applied to the world. Watkins said that many projects are student research for their senior capstones. Strunk specifically thinks that the projects done by the applied math students are particularly applicable because their projects are always in cooperation with someone from the community, so their projects tend to aim toward helping the community in some way.
As the coordinator of the program, Watkins said the effort of organizing the event is worth it because of what he gets to see. “What I like is walking around and seeing the diversity of different projects and the excitement that the students tend to be able to deliver with those projects,” he said.
The CEMS showcase is open to the public and will take place in the Austin E. Knowlton Center on Nov. 30 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. More information about the event can be found on the BW website.
