Welcome to 2026 Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Day
Teams On their way to exciting careers, seniors are making their efforts count.
Craig M. Berge Design Day is a story of remarkable student success, and most importantly, a testament to all the ways engineers help people. With 88 projects, more than 150 industry judges and $53,500 in prizes, there is much to celebrate at this year’s premier college event.
Students are thrilled to tell you about their yearlong projects. The range of ingenuity is extraordinary. From lunar energy systems to ginseng extraction – there is something for everyone.
Below are a just few examples. But if you miss anything, you can still learn about all the projects featured in the students’ videos, available at b.link/DesignDay2026 after the awards ceremony.
Health care solutions abound
A wirelessly powered implantable pump restores blood flow for leg circulation problems. A bioreactor autonomously grows cartilage from stem cells, which could one day reduce knee replacements. In a holistic approach to care, an AI-powered exam room tracks patient gait, speech and facial expression to give physicians data-driven insights.
Resource stewardship resolve
Teams also explored conservation and reuse for earthly and otherworldly application. A mobile recycling system converts plastic waste into liquid fuel for disaster relief; a bio-inspired process recovers copper, nickel and cobalt from mining waste; and a water conservation method recaptures evaporative losses from industrial cooling towers. Students working with UA Biosphere 2 even built a sealed chamber to study water-soil interactions in simulated Martian conditions.
Robots, robots everywhere
One team partnered with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to build a logistics robot that transports aircraft parts across a maintenance facility. Another designed a drone that relays emergency signals to Coast Guard stations after natural disasters. And in a nod to pure fun, one group built an autonomous cornhole robot with computer vision and a motor-driven conveyor that launches bags at regulation distances.
The bigger picture
Design Day and the Interdisciplinary Capstone Course are part of a lineup of competitions, maker fests, major-specific design classes, entrepreneurial and business mentorship, and industry and community projects in the Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Program.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
None of this would be possible without all the hard work behind the scenes. We are grateful to the donors, program director and mentors, university and industry partners, sponsors, judges, faculty, staff and alumni who help make the program a highly successful enterprise.
A special thank you to Nancy Berge and her family for their support of the Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Program.
Bear Down, and support our Wildcat engineers!
David W. Hahn
Craig M. Berge Dean, College of Engineering