Days of discovery

Renewing a century old tradition of outreach, students from around the state sampled the many flavors of UW Engineering at Discovery Days.

Nearly a thousand students in the College of Engineering designed and presented exhibits and experiences during Engineering Discovery Days. Mark Stone / University of Washington

The first time Darrien Liang experienced UW Engineering Discovery Days was in 2018, when he was a student at Tyee Middle School in Bellevue. Among the scores of engaging exhibits, eye-catching demonstrations and experiential experiments he  encountered, the one he found most captivating was an opportunity to extract DNA from a strawberry using a PCR tube.

“I recall asking the presenters so many questions about the science behind DNA,” Liang says. “And being able to handle some of the chemicals and equipment myself made me feel like a scientist.”

Fast forward to 2026. Liang is now a sophomore studying bioengineering at the UW — inspired by that fateful genetic discovery nearly a decade ago. And at this year’s Engineering Discovery Days, he led a student challenge to construct matching DNA polymerases and another to perform a video-guided mock laparoscopic surgery in hopes of sparking the same passion he has about the intersection of engineering and medicine.

Engineering is everywhere

Liang’s exhibit was one of 129 interactive activities and hands-on experiments designed and staffed by engineering students across all disciplines.

But Discovery Days is all about the students who visit. For two gloriously kinetic days — April 30 and May 1 — campus pulsated with adolescent energy and curiosity.

This year, UW Engineering welcomed more than 12,000 students, teachers and chaperones, representing elementary and middle schools from Ferndale to Aberdeen to Yakima, and everywhere in between.

“For many elementary and middle school students, this is their first time on a college campus — or their first time meeting an engineer,” says Nancy Allbritton, the Frank & Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering. “We think a lot about that pipeline. How do we spark curiosity early and help more young people see themselves belonging in engineering? Many of the exhibits connect engineering to everyday experiences, like food, health, or things you use every day. That’s a big part of the goal of Discovery Days — showing that engineering isn’t just theoretical, it’s everywhere.”

Sampling applications

To wit: visiting students took the controls of a flight simulator, built bridges out of spaghetti and batteries out of coins, guided robots through a maze, created electrical force fields to move objects and make pickles glow and designed video games. They made their own ice cream, operated a 3D printer, launched water rockets and fired vortex cannons, raced mucus through a digestive system and even walked on water (to explore the mysteries of non-Newtonian fluids).

And that’s just to name a few of the exhibits and activities that demonstrated engineering in action — and in everyday applications.

The most special part of Discovery Days is how it emphasizes — to visitors and volunteers alike — just how applicable the principles of engineering are.”

Darrien Liang 
Senior in bioengineering

“The most special part of Discovery Days is how it emphasizes — to visitors and volunteers alike — just how applicable the principles of engineering are,” says Liang. “The diverse exhibits reveal the many problems that engineering has already helped to solve, and spark further imagination for what other problems can be solved using engineering skills.”

Century of innovation and inspiration

For more than 100 years, Engineering Discovery Days has welcomed the state’s 4th- through 8th-grade students to discover the many ways that engineering can be creative, important and fun.

Andy Yang, who also attended Discovery Days in 2017 as a student at Islander Middle School on Mercer Island, remembers feeling inspired by his first encounter with engineering. “What stuck with me most,” he says, “was the curiosity and feeling that I could build something amazing one day.”

That day has already arrived. Now a senior studying mechanical engineering at the UW, Yang leads operations for Washington Superbike, a streamlined electric racing motorcycle. And yes, the student club’s prototype was a hot exhibit at this year’s Discovery Days.

“Discovery Days is special,” Yang says. “It can show younger students what is possible with engineering — and what they could build even before they begin their professional careers. The sparked curiosity and inspiration could be the start of many impactful futures in engineering.”

Hundreds of UW engineering and computer science students wowed thousands of visiting elementary and middle school students with more than 100 exhibits and experiments, from game design (top right) to ice cream making (bottom right). Kiyomi Taguchi / University of Washington and Matt Hagen