The Grainger College of Engineering
Illinois Center for Transportation

X marks the spot at the 2022 Engineering Open House

4/28/2022 Noelle Arbulu

Illinois Center for Transportation graduate students Yujia Lu, AbdulGafar Sulaiman, Renan Maia and Yusra Alhadidi, from left, smile in front of their display for this year’s Engineering Open House.

Every year University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s engineering students look forward to the annual Engineering Open House.

Returning to an in-person event, EOH took place on April 8–9.

This special two-day affair gathers students from all engineering backgrounds to build exhibits that remind the public of the role science and technology play in everyday life.

The American Society of Civil Engineers Transportation & Development Institute graduate student organization planned a ground-penetrating radar treasure hunt for this year’s annual tradition.

ICT students pose as they build the EOH display at the Rantoul, IL facility, from left: Egemen Okte, Yujia Lu, Johann Cardenas, Lara Diab, Babak Asadi and Lama Abufares.

What was their favorite part of prepping for EOH?

For Yusra Alhadidi, a Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering doctoral student, it was the “frequent meetings over the past two months with all the interactive discussions.”

“Everyone brought insightful thoughts to the table,” Alhadidi said.

Lama Abufares’, a CEE master’s student, favorite part was preparing the theme.

“We started with a small idea and really brought all the details together,” Abufares said. “This was fun with the help of everyone, and we were able to accomplish a lot in a very short time.”

The exhibit had six historical sections that could contain the treasure, from dinosaurs to the space age. The planning crew built a table to house the pavement section and covered it with posters and figurines. The group then placed a metal object underneath the table and asked EOH guests to find the object using GPR.

Johann Cardenas, a CEE master’s student, stands next to the ground-penetrating radar — a real-time, nondestructive test that sends electromagnetic waves into pavements to detect various materials — treasure-hunting display.

This year’s exhibit took home 2nd place in the “Spirit of Innovation” category.

“It feels great that judges also thought that our exhibit was worthy of an award. We all worked really hard, and it feels great to be validated in this way!” said Egemen Okte, a CEE doctoral student. “Thanks to all the students, staff and engineers that helped out.”

Lara Diab, Mohammad Fakhreddine and Lama Abufares, from left, show off how to use ground-penetrating radar to Engineering Open House visitors.

But the best part of EOH?

“It was definitely seeing the kids’ excitement when they found the treasure using our GPR!” Okte said. They were so happy, and we really felt like they learned something, which is all that matters really.”

A big congratulations to everyone who contributed to this year’s exhibit. See you next year!

Watheq Sayeh, Babak Asadi, Lama Abufares and Egemen Okte, from left, pose with the 2nd place award their team received in the “Spirit of Innovation” category. “I felt very happy that we won an award,” Abufares said. “We had about 18 volunteers running the show over two days, and now I’m excited for next year’s EOH to win awards in other categories!”