Continuing a tradition that began in 1994, the Michigan State University College of Engineering will host Design Day on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, to celebrate innovations by Spartan Engineering students.
One of MSU’s premier academic events, more than 650 Spartan Engineers will display their creative projects from 8 a.m. to noon in the Engineering Building, 428 S. Shaw Lane, East Lansing. The event is free, and visitors are welcome.
Executive Director of Design Day and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Wayne Dyksen said Design Day gives students the opportunity to share their latest technological advances and research.
“Almost 370 graduating seniors will present their final projects, including 68 sponsored by corporate and community partners,” Dyksen said. “It gives our students the chance to show that they can think on their feet and are ready to enter the engineering profession.”
Design Day includes competitions and project presentations from a variety of engineering classes. A 15-week capstone course, which is required for graduation, provides a platform for seniors to apply what they learned throughout their engineering education.
Also featured at Design Day is a competition among mechanical engineering students who created projects for heat recovery and waste collection classes.
Plus, 120 high school students and 16 teachers from four schools and Women in Engineering will be introduced to engineering and design at this year’s High School Innovation & Creativity Day. Students from Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP), East Lansing High School (ELHS), Innovation Central High School (ICHS), and Oakland Schools Technical Center (OSTC) will tour Design Day and visit labs to learn about Vex robots, bridge construction, and electrical currents.
Ten top awards will be handed out during a ceremony at 1:15 p.m. in Room 1281, Anthony Hall, which is connected to the Engineering Building. Faculty and corporate judges will present recognitions to students in the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
The following are a few examples of this semester’s Design Day projects:
Team Corewell Health
An AI Tool for enhancing medical education for medical students
Created for Corewell Health, Michigan’s largest nonprofit health system, this AI tool enhances medical education in Corewell’s family medicine curriculum. The tool helps medical students practice their response to patients in a realistic setting. The platform also features an exam preparation page with AI-generated U.S. Medical Licensing Exam questions, helping students strengthen diagnostic thinking and become more confident with exam formats.
Team Ludus
Web-based ticket emulator & interpreter
Ludus provides digital ticketing solutions, namely modernizing the printing of tickets to various kinds of events, like theater events. It also prints physical tickets for clients who desire a more analog ticketing experience. Physical ticket printing is carried out through industry standard printers. The project’s vision is to bring ticket printing and the design of tickets into the modern web-based world for instant ticket printing.
Team Whirlpool
Intelligent recognition and inventory system (IRIS)
Buying groceries is a common chore with tedious planning. Items get lost in the fridge from time to time. This results in food waste and repurchasing of food, which hurts the buyer’s budget and creates the need for manually tracking groceries. This Intelligent Recognition and Inventory System mitigates the problem by providing an automated up-to-date inventory with the fridge’s contents and a history of recent groceries that have been added or removed from the fridge. A camera scans and identifies products. As the inventory is updated with current items in the fridge, the user sees a history of objects that were loaded or unloaded from the fridge. In addition, a video playback is accessible to the user to view the most recent groceries, reducing waste.
MSU Spartan Gateway District
A conceptual plan for a new campus entrance and activity center
Senior students worked on a design with site-specific constraints to reshape the campus entrance at the intersection of Harrison and Trowbridge roads in East Lansing. Covering about 14 acres, the project concept includes a welcoming point for visitors and a new activity center for students, faculty, and the surrounding community. By combining athletics, housing, hospitality, and retail spaces, the development addresses longstanding campus needs and stronger connections with the region. Plans include 6,000-seat Olympic Sports Arena to host athletic, entertainment, and community events.
Fall 2025 Design Day by the Numbers
- Began in Spring 1994
Engineering Student Participation
- 651 students
- 130 teams
Capstone Projects
- 368 students
- 68 teams
- 68 sponsored projects
- 44 (75 percent) Michigan-based companies and institutions
K-12
- Four schools + Women in Engineering
- 120 high school students
- 16 teachers
Awards
- 10 awards
- Conferred by corporate and faculty judges
For more information, contact Professor Wayne Dyksen ( dyksen@msu.edu , 517-353-5573) or Courtney Kosloski ( marti884@msu.edu , 517-353-8133).
MSU College of Engineering Media and Public Relations page