ASU Polytechnic’s 2026 Innovation Showcase highlights students’ skills and dedication to their studies

On Friday, May 1, 2026, Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus proudly hosted its Spring 2026 Innovation Showcase. This Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering event highlighted the hard work and dedication that ASU Polytechnic students put into their team projects. These projects demonstrated the talents and expertise Sun Devils have in various fields, such as aviation, software engineering, human systems engineering, manufacturing and robotics and autonomous systems. 

Brynn Perry, a Sun Devil senior studying mechanical engineering systems, was one of the students selected to speak to local high schoolers on a panel at the event. She, alongside several other students on the panel, answered questions from aspiring Sun Devils in the audience about what attending ASU Polytechnic campus was like, their personal experiences, stories about their friends and favorite professors, what they plan on doing after graduation and gave advice for those new to college. 

Perry said her favorite part of studying at the Polytechnic campus is “having opportunities to learn different fabrication skills such as 3D printing, additive manufacturing and welding, along with all of the Makerspaces." She also said that ASU Polytechnic has “a lot of good resources related to her major.”

Perry also explained why she chose to attend ASU’s Polytechnic campus, as it was a very important decision for her. She said that the tour of the Polytechnic campus was her favorite out of all the ASU campuses she visited. 

“It’s a cool campus,” Perry said. “It still has all of the resources and funding that ASU has, but in a more intimate feel with smaller class sizes.” 

She also explained that she greatly appreciated the fact that the Polytechnic campus has so many resources that allowed her to directly apply her skills learned in class to real-world experience. Perry also valued that at the Polytechnic campus, students can start as a generic engineering major, and then choose which specific focus they want to study as time goes on. 

“I got to spend two years getting an idea of what I like and don’t like, and then I got to pick what I wanted to do,” Perry said. 

Perry said that while entering college and choosing your major can feel intimidating, it's all a part of the learning process.

“I’ve always been a very ‘Type A’ student — I (feel like) I can’t fail, I can’t mess up… But I think that learning that failing is a part of the (engineering) process and learning to love that process is important,” she said. “When your goal is to just learn, you’re never really failing. You’re always learning.” 

Engineering automotive systems student Christopher Gartland said his participation in this year’s Innovation Showcase is one of the best hands-on experiences that he has had.

He explained that he enjoyed being able to apply what he learned in his classes to a project that would go out to help the public. 

“ASU specifically was on my radar due to their automotive bachelor’s program — I knew I loved cars and I knew I wanted to do automotive engineering, and ASU had that option,” Gartland said when asked why he chose to attend ASU. 

He also said that he enjoyed his initial tour of the Polytechnic campus and knew that he wanted to attend there because of its resources specifically geared toward his major, which other college campuses did not have. 

“I’ve learned a lot of skills that will carry on into the industry,” Gartland said, explaining that studying his degree taught him crucial teamwork and communication skills related to the engineering field.

The 2026 Innovation Showcase was a stellar presentation of everything that Fulton Schools’ Sun Devils have worked on over the course of their experience at ASU. Projects involving aviation, solar power, vehicles and robotics were put on display for all to be inspired by. High school students got the unique opportunity to ask college students questions in order to help them prepare for their own postsecondary education experience. Students’ hard work paid off, and ASU looks forward to seeing more bright minds at next year’s showcase

Photos by: Autumn Williams, ASU Student Life