On March 27th, QUESTech, one of QUEST’s student organizations, held their annual Tech Fair in Van Munching Hall. Since it was the week students came back from spring break, it was a fun event full of things to see and learn about, complete with some popcorn and cotton candy to snack on!

Students got to walk around and listen to presentations on different types of technology. Here are some interesting highlights of the presentations I had the opportunity to listen to!

Daniel Danko (Cohort 41) displayed some of his incredible 3D-printed projects, from chainmail to a light saber to a 3D-printed printer! He also showcased a mechanical set of eyes that is programmed to blink and swivel when it detects motion.

Danko (Cohort 41) showcasing his 3D builds.

Kaushal Janga (Cohort 42) presented on computer vision, extracting information from images and videos, and image processing. Janga talked about recent advancements in this field, such as deep learning and the incorporation of AI, as well as future challenges such as ethical and privacy concerns. There are many applications of this technology, such as augmented reality, medical imaging, and Google Translate’s photo function.

Melvin Rajendran (Cohort 40) taught about prompt engineering, which is how to frame prompts to an AI such as ChatGPT. He discussed how to word prompts so the AI gives a more efficient task performance, such as providing context to input data, separating the input text, and specifying what it should output. He then ran an activity allowing us to practice coming up with our own prompts.

Rajendran’s (Cohort 40) presentation on prompt engineering.

Meilin Yuan (Cohort 42) talked about internationalization, or i18n, as a frame of thinking. Yuan described how significant the barriers are for coding across cultures and making software adaptable to different languages, as well as cultural implications.

QUESTech also invited the Leatherbacks Combat Robotics club, who displayed a few combat robots that have competed nationally! These robots are built, designed, and machined by the club in Terrapin Works. While they did not have a live demonstration with the robots due to safety concerns, they showed us competition clips and told us to look forward to their 1lb bot competition later this month on Maryland Day.

Leatherbacks Club’s 3lb robots on display.

Overall, the event was a great success, and I learned a lot! Congratulations to the entire QUESTech team!