Formula 1 raced out of town a couple weeks ago, leaving an indelible mark on Las Vegas no matter how you perceived the race and its associated traffic woes.

But it will be back next year, and the year after and the year after that until at least 2032, thanks to 10-year partnership between F1 and Clark County. 

The longstanding partnership leaves room for continued traffic improvement ideas — and one UNLV student group will present one possible transportation solution at the College of Engineering’s biannual Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition. The group’s new and improved pedestrian bridge proposal, which seeks to efficiently transport pedestrians to inaccessible spaces in the middle of Strip, is one of about 40 innovative ideas that will be on display at the Wednesday, Dec. 6 contest showcase.

The competition is the coda to a UNLV Engineering student’s academic experience, a capstone event that challenges students to get hands-on with their education and present commercially viable prototypes and community improvement ideas to a panel of industry judges.

When

Wednesday, Dec. 6

2-4:30 p.m.

Where

Projects will be on display at two campus locations:

• Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall 
• Foundation Building Blasco Event Wing

Details

From climate change and water resource management, to cyber threats and the future of work: there is no shortage of engineering and computer science challenges waiting to be solved.

And UNLV College of Engineering students are up to the task, thanks in part to the college’s longtime bi-annual event: Senior Design.

With just a couple weeks to go until graduation, students are wrapping up their technology advancement creations, which will be judged across a variety of categories. Teams who build the most commercially viable and sustainable projects will take home top prizes.

In addition to prizes and bragging rights, the competition prepares students to enter the workforce ready to solve challenging problems that impact the Las Vegas community, nation, and world.

Nearly 40 projects will be up for judging next week, including:

Math Unity Game

Every summer, the UNLV College of Engineering engages young learners through a variety of STEM-focused summer camps in order to spark an interest in engineering and computer science. This student group has the same goal in mind with an interactive game to aid high schoolers in learning calculus. The team’s goal is to develop a game that makes students feel like they’re not learning math, and, as a result, encourage them to pursue STEAM degrees.

Augmented Reality Translator Visor

The wearable AR visor aims to consolidate real-time language translation, object recognition, and historical/contextual information into a single device —  upping the ante on convenience by  eliminating the need for users to carry multiple gadgets or use a hodgepodge of different apps. The visor offers “an immersive, hands-free solution that enhances language comprehension,” and makes it especially valuable for travelers, language learners, and those in diverse, multilingual environments. 

Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment

Between 2014 and 2018, an annual average of 27 accidents and over 90 citations were attributed to wrong-way crashes in Nevada, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation. One student project seeks to reduce the frequency of wrong-way drivers (WWDs) on the U.S. 95 freeway system from Summerlin Parkway to the Spaghetti Bowl through the placement of signage and detection technology along U.S. 95 exit ramps. According to the team’s proposal, the technology will alert WWDs of their error, giving them an opportunity to self-correct before entering the freeway system, with the goal of reducing traffic-related deaths, damages and delays caused by WWDs.

Media

Media will be allowed to video, interview, and interact with student teams.

Media interested in attending should contact Natalie Bruzda at 702-420-4844 or natalie.bruzda@unlv.edu.