In an impressive display of creativity, collaboration and global impact, undergraduate students from around the world gathered at Rice University’s Bioscience Research Collaborative July 24 to present the results of their seven-week Summer Experience in Engineering Design (SEED) internship. This unique program, hosted by the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) and the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, offers students the chance to work on real-world engineering problems in multidisciplinary teams.
“SEED gives students the chance to take ownership of tangible, meaningful projects that stretch their thinking and their skills,” said Kevin Holmes, a lecturer at Rice and director of SEED. “What makes this internship so powerful is the combination of technical training, hands-on design and an international, mission-driven perspective. These students aren’t just learning — they’re solving problems that matter.”
This year’s SEED cohort included 13 students, five of whom came from Rice360’s international partner institutions in Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. Their diverse backgrounds and shared commitment to engineering for good were evident in the showcase’s standout projects.
To help automate indoor farming, students on team Big S designed a compact camera system to mount inside Big S’s microgreen grow machines. The system includes a vertical lift mechanism that allows for remote monitoring without disrupting plant growth. The challenge — getting reliable camera movement and connectivity in a small space — pushed the students to think differently about engineering constraints.
Another team partnered with Seth Siegel-Gardner of Local Foods, a Houston- and Rice-based chef and entrepreneur, to perfect a grit puffing machine. By optimizing thermal controls and refining the mechanical system, the team created a more consistent and scalable solution.
“This was a great example of food technology and mechanical engineering coming together,” Holmes said. “It’s not every day you get to engineer snacks!”
A third team worked alongside Rice’s Office of Sustainability to solve a water waste problem created by autoclaves used in campus research labs, which can waste up to a gallon of water per minute. The team tackled the challenge by designing a retrofit device that recycles cooling water and safely dissipates heat.
A fourth group teamed up with Sylvia Dee, associate professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences and civil and environmental engineering, and Mark Torres, associate professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, to refine a water sampling device for environmental monitoring during rainstorms. The device can collect 31 samples over 24 hours, and the interns’ updates improved injection precision and timing reliability.
“This device is critical for climate and hydrology research,” Torres said. “The interns’ contributions brought it to the finish line.”
Another project took the interns just a short distance from Rice’s campus to the Houston Zoo, where the students enhanced an egg incubation system. The team worked to refine sensor integration and ensure stable, automated operations in hatching environments, ultimately supporting the zoo’s conservation efforts.
A final team worked with Rice360 to tackle a real-world problem the organization witnesses globally: In many hospitals, cords and tubes interfere with Kangaroo Mother Care, a lifesaving practice that promotes skin-to-skin contact between newborns and parents. The team designed a wearable system to organize medical accessories comfortably and safely and support vulnerable newborns in low-resource settings around the world.
Throughout the seven-week program, students not only learned technical design and prototyping but also practiced teamwork, communication and user-centered thinking.
“What makes SEED different is that it is so immersive,” Holmes said. “These students aren’t just brainstorming ideas. They’re building prototypes, meeting with clients, refining designs and thinking about the end users every step of the way. It’s an invaluable opportunity in engineering education.”
Supported by generous donors, SEED continues to expand its reach and impact, both on the students who participate and the communities their work aims to serve.
“These students leave with a deeper understanding of engineering’s potential to drive social change,” Holmes said. “And they’ve already made a difference.”