EOH 2024 at NCSA

Spring is in the air, and that means the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) campus was full of students celebrating and sharing their STEM research projects at the annual Engineering Open House (EOH). Sponsored by the Grainger College of Engineering, EOH allows students to showcase what they’ve learned and worked on throughout their time at the university. NCSA hosted a number of exhibits, all involving students and affiliates of the Center.

Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN) showed off a number of research programs they worked on over the academic year. The SPIN table is always one to watch at EOH – last year, they took home first place in the undergraduate research category. SPIN students work on various projects with NCSA researchers and affiliates, and they’re always enthusiastic about sharing their work; this year was no exception.

“My project is quantifying the impact of scientific documentaries using natural language processing,” said Sri Nithya Yeragorla, a student in information science. “SPIN is a way for me to apply the skills I’ve been learning in class to a real-life project. Working on a project that makes an impact like this is not what you typically find in the classroom. SPIN is such a good way to get hands-on experience. I’m excited to be here educating people about it. Because this is not stuff that I would have known before I joined SPIN. I always thought research was super complicated and really hard to get into. But SPIN provided the opportunity to get into this type of work, and now I’m getting to tell everyone else about this work. It’s been great!”

Ayush Das studies math and computer science. He’s a first-year SPIN intern and he enthusiastically greeted each visitor to the table. “I’m part of the neutral-atom simulations as a platform for distributed quantum computing interfaces project,” he said. “I came in with a strong passion for quantum computing, which is a relatively new and exciting field at the intersection of computer science and quantum mechanics. The really awesome thing about SPIN, and something I think is really reflected through the diversity in backgrounds of the SPIN interns, is that what matters more than your technical experience is having a genuine passion to learn and apply yourself. That’s what really allowed me to grow in the SPIN program. My mentor, Dr. Bruno Abreu, has been really great in both guiding our research and taking the time to explain how it all fits into broader ongoing efforts at the forefront of quantum technology”

Watching both interns interact with the crowd, it was evident that they were connecting and building communication skills. The interns agreed. “The awesome thing is that we try to communicate both the value of the SPIN program but also our individual projects,” said Das. “There are so many different people and different ages. Chances are the average middle or high school-going kid may not really understand the complex nuances of something like a Qubit or Hamiltonian. But the way you try to communicate and show them the value of the research, then maybe you inspire or instill a sense of curiosity in the mind. Being able to share that passion, that curiosity, and hoping to spread it to others is also just a huge, fun thing that comes with being a participant.”

SPIN students were also involved with two NCSA exhibits that took home prizes for Outstanding Undergraduate Research. The Center for AI Innovation (CAII) showcased their work on the UIUC.chat platform, a project SPIN student Maxwell Lindsey has contributed to. This chatbot gives users a more customizable AI chat experience. The exhibit showed how the chatbot was loaded with specific agriculture information to create a resource for identifying crop diseases. CAII won second place for this exhibit.

As a SPIN Intern with NCSA, working on UIUC.Chat has been an incredible opportunity to apply my skills to a project with real-world impact. UIUC.Chat is revolutionizing the way students interact with course materials, making learning more accessible and efficient. Our project harnesses the power of AI to create a virtual teaching assistant that provides accurate and reliable information to students.

–Maxwell Lindsey, SPIN intern

The NCSA Gravity Group brought their popular black hole pong game back for another round this year. Their exhibit proved to be highly entertaining for visitors. The game and the black hole selfie attraction helped draw visitors in, where the student researchers explained how they were using AI to study gravitational waves. Several SPIN students were also involved with this project:  Ashley Turner, Chirag Maheshwari, Ayush Khot and Nicolas Fernandes. Two of these students, Khot and Fernandes, have even had the AI models they developed published in the NVIDIA Modulus platform. Adding to those impressive accomplishments, the Gravity Group took home third place for their fun and educational exhibit.

“EOH is fantastic because it’s a great showing of the wide range of projects on campus,” said Khot. “Sometimes, you can get bogged down in your own classes and research, so it’s nice to see new approaches to interesting topics. It’s also just fun since there are a lot of cool booths in EOH, especially the UIUC class chatbot and the robotic squirrel. I’d recommend everyone interested in engineering to go at least once since it’s an all-around great experience!”

The SPIN students all expressed a sense of fulfillment staffing their tables at EOH, exemplifying why EOH isn’t just for the attendee’s benefit. “Participating in EOH is a fantastic opportunity because it allows me to share my passion and work with a wide range of people,” said SPIN student Ashley Turner. “Normally, you have to convince people to listen to random physics facts or talk about what you are currently working on, but here, you have an audience that is specifically here for that.” 

There is something infectious about being able to help jumpstart some younger people’s interest in the same stuff that got me interested in the field. It is a wonderful feeling to make people excited in the same way you are.

–Ashley Turner, SPIN student

Along with all the terrific exhibits on offer, visitors to NCSA were also invited to play a scavenger hunt to win a light-up yo-yo and other giveaways. Young and old alike appreciated the NCSA souvenirs to commemorate their visit during this year’s Open House. But they came for the science, and that was what they were most excited to talk about.

Emma, a visitor from a local high school, came with two of her friends to the event. They spoke enthusiastically about seeing the robotic squirrel, the AI nurse, the instant cold brew and the edible water. “It’s cool to see what people can do with coding,” said Emma. “I never would have thought you could program something to do all these things.”

Her friend Finley summarized why EOH is so special, “If anything can inspire you to want to be in STEM, this would be it.”