In 1969, Americans first traveled to the moon with technology similar to that which Julio Cesar Benavides says now can be found in his watch.
Almost 50 years later, Benavides developed a new equation he said is more efficient than the one NASA currently uses to send an astronaut to the moon.
The College of Engineering Research Symposium offered many graduates, Ph.D. students and some undergraduate students the opportunity for professional development and the chance to defend their work.
The event started at 8 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m.
The symposium integrated paper presentations and poster projects for judging at the Nittany Lion Inn. Judges included faculty and industry members.
The categories included a variety of topics ranging from energy and the environment to future technology and advanced design.
Most presenters proposed new technologies that build upon old ones and competed for a $1,500 travel grant.
Shahrzad Hossein Yazdi (graduate-mechanical engineering) won the $1,500 top prize. Sezer Atamturktur (graduate-civil engineering) won a $1,000 grant and Gopal Nadadur (graduate-mechanical engineering) won a $500 grant. Gino Banco (graduate-mechanical engineering) won for best poster.
Undergraduate winner Jonathan Fry (sophomore-electrical engineering) is familiar with competing. This is the second time he has presented his project on real-time navigation for autonomous water vehicles via virtual mapping and sensor fusion. Fry's project, a boat, would essentially be able to drive itself and detect its surroundings.
It can also perform functions from "friendly identification and recovery" to "target identification and elimination," according to the symposium's event program.
Many of the students and faculty emphasized the symposium included a wide range of subjects and a more varied audience.
Bala Krishna Juluri (graduate-engineering science and mechanics) thought the broad range of topics was a drawback.
"It's hard to explain to people not in [engineering]," he said, adding even though you have good presentation skills, it's hard to present something in only 15 minutes.
Beside student presentations, the symposium also included two keynote speakers.
George E. Keller II, of the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center, explained to students during lunch the demanding field of engineering and how to broaden their knowledge of various subjects.
Keller also spoke about problems of the future, such as energy, the environment and global warming.
"These problems will all be solved by engineers. They will be the change makers," he said. "They have the ability to problem solve and make things happen."
Michael R. Lorenz, recipient of the 2006 Penn State Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award, concluded the symposium with his keynote speech, "The Green Machine."
