Who says engineering is all work and no play? Not the creative undergraduates at the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering who created the pulsating, 250,000-bulb Winter Light Show (above).

They’re in great company. A few years back, University of Toledo electrical engineering major Alec Connolly synchronized holiday songs airing on a downtown radio station with 3,000 twinkling lights strung outside in the shape of a Christmas tree.

He dreamed up the idea during a co-op with the iHeartMedia, when his boss, the director of engineering and information technology at iHeartMedia, threw a bag of holiday lights on his desk and challenged him to figure out how to program them to blink to live music rather than a narrow set of prerecorded songs.

Then there is Tech Twinkles, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s annual student-mounted holiday light show. The event features a cappella performances, hot apple cider, cupcakes, and selfies while strolling through the trees. The tradition was started in 2014 when Veronika Jedryka ’17, Teresa de Figueiredo ’17, and Jane He ’15 realized how early it gets dark outside during the winter. “We thought it would be great to add some kind of brightness to MIT’s campus and lift people’s spirits,” Jedryka explained in an MIT news account,  “especially during a tough time with finals and final projects.”

Of course, engineering is not all sweetness and lights. Faculty and students do lots of serious year-round research on such breakthrough technologies as white lasers, smart LEDs, and photonics. Utah State University faculty and students dazzled at ASEE’s Annual Conference in Salt Lake City this past June with an enormous display of research – topped by a blue-lit A.

Back in 2012, Washington State University’s Haluk Beyenal, then an associate professor of chemical and bioengineering, and his graduate student Timothy Ewing created an unusual light display powered by a microbial fuel cell – essentially a bucket of muddy water full of bacteria with wire that could channel the energy generated by the creatures eating. The lights spelled MFC, which remained glowing all year in the hope it would prompt students to ask questions about the unique alternative energy source.

The funding source for this outreach project: A prestigious 2010 National Science Foundation CAREER grant for outstanding early-career engineering and science researchers. Bayenal is now directs a biofilm lab that takes students out in the field – no matter what time of year.

For an artist’s take on seasonal displays, check out Bruce Munro: Winter Light, a transfixing – and tranquil – series of colorful installations at the Minnesota Arboretum.

Filed under: K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features

Tags: holiday light shows, microbial fuel cell, MIT Twinkle Tech, University of Minnesota College of Engineering and Science Winter Light Show, University of Toledo, Utah State University, Washington State University