CTE Expo 2026

Date: May 21

Location: DNHS Quad

Extra Credit Theme: What inspired me about a different CS course?

Proof of Experience

     

Caption:
Here are some photos that I took at the expo, both at my booth and other booths.

Before the Event

  • Before going to the CTE Expo, I thought that it would be a pretty typical event, where you have to deal with a very boring presentation, where there is just an overwhelming amount of slides, lots of posters, and a quick communication process with other students.
  • What’s more, I didn’t expect that accessibility would be something really useful for adding to your platform.

Curiosity Before Attending

  • In particular, I was quite interested in finding out the reaction of the general public as well as new students to this technology if provided access to it.
  • In particular, whether people would find a technology like NodCursor intuitive and useful or rather frustrating.
  • I was also very keen on learning whether this would motivate a further discussion amongst software engineers about integrating MediaPipe tracking functionality into their apps.

What I Saw

Write down booths, speakers, projects, classes, or presentations you attended.

  • NodCursor Booth (My Project): A technological assistive device, which uses MediaPipe facial landmarks to detect head position and then move the cursor accordingly.
  • Facial Recognition Bathroom Pass: A project booth run by Nikhil, Rohan, and Aditya demonstrating a digital security system, which provides entry to the facilities using face recognition.
  • Westview High School Robotics Team: An outside school booth exhibiting their custom robotic builds, mobile frame designs, and localized programming.
  • Digital Photography Booth: A booth displaying student photography portfolios, along with expertise in proper lighting and post-processing techniques.
  • Electric Buggy Booth: An actual mobile demonstration with an electric buggy moving around the hall demonstrating physical system integration.

Most Interesting Thing I Saw

  • The most exciting aspect for me personally was to observe the electric buggy which actually drove around the venue.
  • It was extremely impressive to see a working vehicle designed and built entirely from scratch by the students.
  • The way they have implemented the circuitry and controlled the motors and wired the batteries together was absolutely amazing.

What I Learned

  • This experience made me realize how much better it is to engage the participants actively rather than passively while conveying the key purpose behind a project.
  • As expo visitors were able to interact and move through a maze using solely head gestures, the practicality of the head tracking was immediately realized by them.
  • This showed us how beneficial and achievable the application of such assistive technology could be.

What Surprised Me

  • What shocked me most during this expo was the fact that I met an incoming freshman and his dad who approached me at my booth.
  • While I did not think the purpose of the expo would be for academic advising, I learned firsthand how a CTE Expo can completely transform one’s view of Computer Science & Engineering through our extensive discussion.

What Inspired Me

  • Both the amazing visuals that were shown through the photography booth and the pure genius behind the electric buggy impressed me immensely.
  • The skillful work at the photography station opened my eyes to the huge importance of presentation.
  • At the same time, the movement of the electric buggy made me interested in the sphere of electrical engineering, for it was very rewarding to see electricity in action.

Personal Connection

  • And this is where my passion for system design kicked in.
  • Although my work with NodCursor is all about software engineering and algorithm development and the face tracking framework itself, witnessing the art photography and electrical bug booths convinced me that visual artistry and hardware are essential components of the user experience as well.
  • This sparked an interest in researching the area where clear code meets tangible electrical equipment.

Interaction

Person or group I learned from: A father-son pair and robotics mentors from other teams

  • I was able to witness first-hand how the Westview High School Robotics club used their hardware cycle to make use of sensor input to control the movements of their mechanical arm and thereby got the chance to bridge my own school and theirs through these connections.
  • At my own stall, I was able to tell the freshman student about how learning coding logic from CSSE would complement the prototyping process learned in IED.
  • The father and son seriously thinking about their educational path after the talk made me aware of the power of having students engage in such activities and its influence on their future career paths.
  • Combining the skills learned in the course of IED with the logic behind CSSE helped me see the interdisciplinary nature of engineering and computer science and made me appreciate what a valuable gift it was to another student.

Depth of Experience

  • It totally changed my outlook on how student-led innovation can be approached.
  • The key takeaway for me was that computing should not be viewed solely through the prism of an abstracted digital world.
  • Seeing initiatives like face recognition passes all the way through to robotics and electric buggies opened my eyes to the fact that it is the interactions between disciplines that produce the best results.

Connection to CS or Future Goals

  • It is related to the development process of NodCursor in general.
  • It started off as an independent site tracker but became a part of the overall platform utilized by students studying computer science courses as a part of the Open Coding Society (OCS).
  • The discussions I had at the expo further strengthened my commitment to creating reliable software infrastructure and looking out for opportunities to connect it with the hardware framework.

Final Reflection

  • The reason why this particular experience had a great significance was the fact that I finally received tangible evidence of the value of all my work.
  • Seeing people truly interested in the things we presented instead of just giving us polite looks, connecting with other people like the team at Westview Robotics, and inspiring yet another person to follow the engineering path made me understand what this discipline really meant.

Biggest Takeaway

The true value of engineering can be achieved when interactive technology fills accessibility gaps, creates collaboration among schools, and encourages interdisciplinary exploration.