The 2026 Engineering Open House, otherwise known as the nation’s largest student-run STEM fair, is taking over Bardeen Quadrangle this Friday and Saturday. Over 200 exhibits and competitions centered around this year’s theme, “Forging the Future,” will highlight the vital role engineers play in shaping tomorrow’s technology.
“Our focus is really just to show that students here are the ones who are going to be creating this future in technology and engineering,” said Ishani Patel, EOH marketing director and senior in Engineering. “The projects that they are creating here, and the innovation that they’re creating here, and the creativity that they’re having in those projects are what’s going to go into the workforce in the future.”
According to Patel, exhibits are developed over roughly a year by RSOs, research groups and individual contributors before being presented. Visitors can look forward to attractions such as advancements in accessible medical technology, innovations for life beyond Earth, solar-powered competition cars and energy generation from concrete. In recognition of the University’s extensive research community, EOH will also debut its inaugural Research Showcase. The addition will include poster sessions, presentations, and networking, giving contributors a more structured way to present their projects.
This year’s open house includes expanded technology through both the EOH app and Virtual EOH. Other additions include increased funding and partnerships toward the Startup Showcase, as well as more sustainability efforts.
The first EOH app offers attendees real-time event notifications, exhibit reviews and QR codes throughout the showcase. Virtual EOH is a website that will feature photos, videos, demos and interviews to be shared with schools around the country after the program has concluded.
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“We can both give engineers here the opportunity to broadcast everything they’ve been working on to a larger demographic, and also give people who didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to attend EOH in person a chance to see all that is there to offer,” said Aparna Kamath, EOH co-director and senior in Engineering.
The Startup Showcase will continue awarding a $5,000 pitch prize — funded by the Technology Entrepreneur Center — to one of the 10 student-led ventures in artificial intelligence, MedTech, sustainability and hardware.
“The core concept of it is the same from last year, but this year, there’s a complete overhaul in terms of the events that we’re providing, and also, just like the networking connections that you can gain as an attendee,” said Faraz Bhuiyan, EOH Startup Showcase director and senior in Engineering. “We have venture capital firms from across the U.S. actually participating and acting as judges and helping out with the various events.”
EOH is a Certified Green event, implementing initiatives such as compost bins in partnership with Zero Waste, sustainability-focused workshops that include terrarium building and recycling, eco-friendly tableware for food trucks and visitor T-shirts printed on recycled materials.
In past years, Kamath said the open house has had over 30,000 attendees, including families from the broader Champaign-Urbana community and schools throughout the Midwest.
“It’s just crazy how many people are excited to make the effort to come all the way out here to Champaign-Urbana to see what UIUC students and faculty are working on,” Kamath said.
According to Maddie Conrad, EOH co-director and senior in Engineering and LAS, the event can inspire a variety of young, aspiring engineers.
“One example that we bring up is we have heard a student talking to a teacher and saying, ‘There’s so many female engineers here,’” Conrad said. “We want to represent that anybody can do this, anybody can do anything that’s here.”
The showcase is entirely student-run, coordinated in partnership with The Grainger College of Engineering administration.
“We have the opportunity to work with so many people, both across the University itself and outside of the University as well, to create an event of this magnitude that is able to inspire so many different people and touch so many people’s lives,” Kamath said.
