The IGNITE Innovation Showcase is an opportunity to view displays, exhibitions, presentations, panels and speakers, celebrations and awards, poster sessions, and explore what innovation looks like at Iowa State!
Browse the displays that will be live the entire week below, organized by floor in the Student Innovation Center.
This showcase features student proposals for the future of Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt Park, developed in partnership with Polk County Conservation. Blending ecology, recreation, and community engagement, the work presents innovative, conservation-focused visions for outdoor experiences.
Location: Room 4222
The Graduate Research and Innovation Showcase brings together graduate students from across disciplines to present posters featuring conference research, course-based projects, and works in progress. This event celebrates graduate innovation and provides a space for scholarly exchange, collaboration, and the sharing of diverse perspectives.
Location: 3rd Floor (Across from Room 3138)
Explore how future teachers are transforming classrooms through robotics, educational technology, and creative lesson design. Stop by to see interactive projects that bring computational thinking and engineering learning to life.
Location: 2nd Floor Open Display Stations (Outside of Room 2206)
Exploring the intersection of digital design and hands-on making, junior-level Fashion students transform textile concepts into physical outcomes using industry fabrication tools in the Textiles Makerspace.
Location: 2nd Floor Open Display Stations (Outside of Room 2206)
Ever wondered what it takes to build a robot in 3 days? Unearth the secrets of INDY, the Ri3D club’s first 72-hour robot!
Location: 2nd Floor Open Display Stations (Outside of Room 2206)
This display is of student work from ARCH 5280, exploring how AI-generated imagery informs design processes that move between digital speculation and physical fabrication.
Location: 2nd Floor (Across From Room 2206)
For 30 years, Iowa State Learning Communities have enriched the student experience through shared courses, co‑curricular opportunities, and a strong sense of community. We continue to evolve to meet the needs of incoming students, creating meaningful connections leading to student success at Iowa State.
Location: 2nd Floor Digital Display (Across from Room 2239)
Bovine Liver Phantoms: Iowa State Scientific Illustration & Visualization and Veterinary Medicine develop cutting-edge 3D printed and cast veterinary teaching models.
Location: 2nd Floor Digital Display (Across From Room 2239)
Projects revealing the systematic structure and uses of human language and the human-like language generated by AI.
Location: 2nd Floor Spandrels (Across from Room 2260)
Come check out the work that Scientific Illustration and Visualization students did this semester!
Location: Outside Room 2106
Daily Innovations is a curated exhibit featuring innovative student work from across campus. It includes projects from several disciplines, including course-based work, ranging from digital media and research to prototypes and physical creations. For a complete list of projects, visit the Daily Innovations page.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (North Wall)
From plans to paws—visit our booth to see how construction engineering students build dog houses while making a difference in the community.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (North Wall)
“Acts of Inhabitation” showcases student work from a hands-on studio where design students prototype adaptive, regenerative systems. The display explores how we live within ecosystems and highlights ideas for a more positive, sustainable future.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (East Wall Under Jumbotron)
View a 1:6,000 scale model of a western watershed and learn how log check dams combine with soil additives to stabilize surface conditions during desert rainstorms after a wildfire.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (East Wall)
This exhibition shares recipes and objects 3D printed from local waste materials (such as coffee, orange peels, egg shells, and tea). This work was completed during an interdisciplinary studio in the College of Design.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (Southeast Corner)
ARCH 4330 | 5330 mock ups of ceramic facade designs in collaboration with the Ceramics Studio in the College of Design.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (Southeast Corner)
Altered States explores how we see ourselves and form our identity. Student’s perceptions will be incorporated with alterations that express aspects of identity. These can include becoming an animal; reflecting on age; gender; robot; figure from history or ??
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (South Side Of Stepatorium)
This project reimagines textile waste as opportunity, as students design fashion accessories from reclaimed textiles and garment components. Through hands-on experimentation, they create mini collections—including hair accessories, bag charms, and jewelry—for retail at Innovate 1858.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (Outside Innovate 1858)
Please join us to explore how collaboration among architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning can support small-town development. Discover strategies for housing rehabilitation, neighborhood revitalization, and long-term resilience through community-based design.
Location: 1st Floor Atrium (Under Stepatorium)
Stop by and see the hard work the Robotics Club has done this semester. This will feature the hard work of the Lower Body Exoskeleton team, as well as work done by the other teams.
Location: 1st Floor (Outside Room 1202)
Check out the creativity, technical precision, and teamwork, exhibited by Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering (IMSE) students in Design, Cut and Weld! Students used a 24” x 24” steel sheet to create an artistic 3D object combining CAD, fabrication, and hands-on welding and tool skills.
Location: 1st Floor (Across from Room 1202)
Interior Design, Graphic Design, and Architecture students present visionary designs for a 2042 flagship coffee shop, exploring how future cafés can support community, work, technology, and social connection. Discover how design can transform the everyday coffee experience into a dynamic place for the future.
Location: Basement Atrium (South Wall)
Daily Innovations is a curated exhibit featuring innovative student work from across campus. It includes projects from all disciplines, such as course-based work, ranging from digital media and research to prototypes and physical creations.
Find out what’s happening every day during IGNITE 2026 in the Student Innovation Center.
