Apr 15, 2011 - Claremont, Calif. -

More than 150 student projects will be featured May 2-4, during the 41st Annual Projects and Presentation Days at Harvey Mudd College.

The public events provide a platform for undergraduate students to unveil findings from their individual research and Clinic projects.

This year’s projects explore alternative energy sources, suggest solutions to world hunger, examine strategies for nuclear waste disposal, and even address the potential of coyote urine pellets as an organic form of rodent control. They represent a breadth of scientific areas including biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics, rocketry, medicine, computation and more.

A highlight of Presentation Days, on May 2 at 4:15 p.m., will be an address by Richard Olson '62 (shown right), a member of the HMC faculty since 1976. He will present the talk "Harvey Mudd College and Liberal Education: Historical Reflections." Olson, professor of history and Willard W. Keith, Jr. Fellow in the Humanities, is an expert on the interrelationships between the natural sciences and other cultural domains, including moral philosophy, the social sciences, political ideology and religion. His book Science and Religion, 1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin, was named to the annual Best Books List for 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Books & Film magazine.

On May 3, students will present Clinic Projects, unique capstone experiences that allow students to provide solutions for corporate, national laboratory and agency sponsors. The Clinic Program, an internationally recognized hallmark of Harvey Mudd College, engages juniors and seniors in the solution of real-world, technical problems for industrial clients. Founded as an innovation in engineering education in 1963, this program has been expanded to other HMC academic departments and copied by institutions worldwide. Companies retain all intellectual property rights that arise out of the project, and it is not uncommon for HMC students to be named on patents. In recent years, Clinic sponsors have filed between 10 and 15 patent disclosures at the end of their projects. Almost 1,300 projects have been completed since the program's inception.

Research presentations are free and open to the public.

View Clinic Projects program