The 92nd annual Engineering Open House, or EOH, hosted by the students of the Engineering Council, brought a variety of new exhibits and special features under the theme “Dream, Design, Discover.”

The open house included over 230 exhibits and attracted about 20,000 visitors to the Engineering Quad on Friday and Saturday.

“The central committee (of the Engineering Council) came up with and agreed upon the theme because we wanted to promote engineering to audiences of all ages,” said Stan Chang, director of the event. “It was our way of making a connection to the diverse audience that EOH attracts.”

One new addition to this year’s open house was an exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the first James Bond film, “Dr. No.” The exhibit displayed two vehicles, the “Q” boat and Jaguar XKR, used in the James Bond films. Also on site Saturday was alumnus and former EOH volunteer Michael VanBlaricum. VanBlaricum is president and founder of The Ian Fleming Foundation, an organization working to preserve and study the works and objects of James Bond, created by author Ian Fleming.

One of the most visited events was the Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition, an annual two-day robotics competition sponsored by technology company Advanced Micro Devices and run by students. The event, which started in 1987, brings students from universities across the Midwest to compete in teams with their robots. This year, in order to win, teams had to navigate their robots through a course while collecting foam balls to deposit into scoring bins.

“We’ve prepared all week for this event,” said Peter Chinetti, an Illinois Institute of Technology team member. “This is a great place to be and I hope we keep going for the top spot in the event here in the future.”

Back for the first time since 2008, the Tesla Coil Concert lit up the Bardeen Quad for about 2,000 guests Friday night. The concert consisted of music played on Tesla coils, which are high frequency transformers which emit bright electrical sparks. The electrical arcs were modulated to make music for the performance which included songs such as “Risky Business,” written by Scott Wyatt, emeritus professor of music, and University technician Mark Smart, “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” and the Super Mario Bros.’ “Ground Theme.”

Along with the light produced from the Tesla coils, additional lights were strung around the quad before the concert by freshmen in Engineering Alex Smith, Brady Salz, and Matthew Dierker. The three held their own type of concert at their first-annual exhibit called “Party Rock Illinois,” which consisted of a string of about 1,500 feet of flashing Christmas lights set to dance tracks.

Salz said planning for the light display had been taking place since October, but the making of the exhibit was executed over a period of 12 hours from Thursday night to Friday morning with the help of friends.

“I’ve slept for five hours because of this,” Salz said. “It was worth it because we had a surprisingly good turnout.”

From the Discovery Channel show “Build It Bigger,” host Danny Forster came to the University for a set of events. A group of 26 EOH attendees ages six and older were given the chance to enter into a lottery to come to a meet and greet at Grainger Library.

That evening, Forster also gave a presentation, which focused on the relationship between architecture and engineering. His presentation brought about 1,000 viewers to Foellinger Auditorium.

Natalie Reyes, special event planner of the Engineering Council, said this year’s EOH saw a good turnout.

“Every year, we are getting bigger and better than we were,” Reyes said. “Next year will be even better.”