Cohort 26 presented for the last time as QUEST students on December 7, 2017 at the QUEST Conference. The students led the audience through their 490H presentations that showed the culmination of all their hard work and talent. Parents, friends, QUEST alumni, and corporate partners all came to support the 490H students as they showcased a semester’s worth of work on their capstone projects.

The event started with an hour of flavorful hors d’oeuvres accompanied by great conversation. During this time, guests were invited to walk around and peruse all of the great posters. Old cohorts got to reunite while the newest cohorts got a taste of what is to come. Then, everyone was directed into two rooms where for the next hour great, thoughtful presentations were carried out. From nBD’s work with Becton Dickinson on “Designing an Imaging Device for Microbiological Automation” to Call Sign SkyLine’s work for Leidos on “Optimizing Training for International SkyLine Product Area,” the variety of projects was immense. It was clear that Q26 managed to process a lot of data and was able to produce great solutions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cohort 26

Being a member of Cohort 29 and only just finishing 190H, it was a great glimpse into the future. To get to envision myself and fellow peers presenting at the high level that we got to observe is very exciting. These projects are clearly high stakes with companies like Orbital ATK providing a million dollar budget, and BD expecting to make an additional 3.6 million dollars in revenue thanks to their QUEST team. I know that it seems intimidating now, but I also know that QUEST will continue to train and prepare us for our turn in 490H.

The final presentation to round out the night was the one to win the Most Outstanding Capstone Award. The Caterpillar Effect not only performed to the highest level but also achieved the Best Poster Award. The group members are Rohan Bajaj, Chloe Berman, Alyssa Hu, Sam Lewando, and Julia Lomakina, and they spoke about their work “Improving the User Experience of Authentication.”

The QUEST community had a blast celebrating Cohort 26’s accomplishments through their QUEST journeys. Students of Cohorts 27, 28, 29 and 30 admire the work Cohort 26 put into QUEST and hope to carry on the success as we each have a go at the 490H experience. Congrats on a successful night Q26, you made it!