NIU’s 2025 Senior Design Showcase will take place this week, featuring the next wave of engineering innovation, from robotic arms and virtual-reality simulators to biomedical breakthroughs, smart-home tech and a hail-resistant vehicle known as the Huskie Hail Hunter.

Free and open to the public, the showcase challenges students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world engineering problems. Members of the news media are invited to attend.

When and where:  11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, May 2^nd, at the NIU Convocation Center, 1525 W. Lincoln Highway. Parking at the Convo Center is free. See campus map. Media can check in with Matt Baron or Tom Parisi at the Huskie Hail Hunter exhibit.

 What: NIU’s 2025 Senior Design Showcase. Projects will include the Huskie Hail Hunter, a pickup truck outfitted with an expanded metal mesh system to protect the truck’s windshield from hail damage; a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) robot arm, so named for a manipulator with six independent joints; a Smart Helmet that’s a wearable gas-leak detection system; a hydraulic autonomous leaf collection system; an Internet of Things landscaping system; and a fluid-powered bicycle that recently gained grand champion recognition at a national competition.

 Who: More than 50 teams of engineering students whose projects will be summarized in posters and reflected in tangible prototypes or other digital artifacts on display.​ In past years, the event has attracted over 1,200 visitors, including industry professionals, educators and prospective students.

Learn more.