May 18, 2024

TEAM Design Expo: A Showcase of Innovation and Collaboration

One of the best ways to engage collaboration is through a healthy spirit of competition. At KFUPM, we have a 10-year tradition of hosting an annual Design Expo, where our students showcase their innovative, research-based scientific prototypes. In 2024, we launched the TEAM Design Expo and this time students from across disciplines came together to create designs whose goals are to improve the human condition. The hard work of our students from different majors brings a new energy to the final products, and exemplifies the value KFUPM places on multi-discipline collaboration.

An impressive 1,063 students took part in the 2024 Expo, presenting 185 projects meant to devise solutions for today’s industrial challenges. These projects fell into 11 categories: AI, automation technology, construction technology, energy systems, environmental technology, health care technology, renewable energy, sustainability, and technology enhancement.

Our winners included a design that improves the efficiency of electric wheelchair mobility, and, a design for light-weight, reliable emergency shelters for refugees or disaster victims. The products our students showcase truly seek to improve the lives of the people they are designed for.

Expo participants get training that prepares them for the real world waiting after academia. For example, our students actively pitch their product ideas to Expo attendees. In preparation for this, participants are taught best practices for idea pitching. And, these designs don’t languish after the Expo ends. Students are encouraged to continue improving them beyond the classroom to see the final product used in the real world.