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“I’m looking forward to seeing how we do,” says Gale, a fourth-year computer science major who has attended MICS three times. “It’s neat to see all the other ideas and how people accomplish the task.”

While the robotics competition will pit institutions against each other, the overall focus of MICS is collaboration and education. The symposium, established in 1967, focuses on the teaching of computing and its use in learning processes along with the incorporation of the study of this technology in the curriculum.

UW-Eau Claire, which last hosted MICS in 2010, will welcome 155 students and faculty members from 21 institutions across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota to campus for workshops, seminars and presentations.

“What’s cool about having it here is the ability to have more of our students feel that excitement,” says Dr. Benjamin Fine, associate professor of computer science and an organizer of this year’s event. “This is like Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity for our students, but it’s regional.”

Students submit papers, posters and presentations on a range of topics, but Fine says artificial intelligence has become popular in recent years. What makes the event unique is its focus on student-based research.

“Getting a publication out is always nice if you’re going into grad school. It gets that one feather in your cap,” Fine says. “And even if you’re not going into research or grad school, getting exposed to other students from other curriculums, from other degrees, you never know what connections are going to play a role down the line.”

Gale, a nontraditional student who served 20 years in the Navy before enrolling at UW-Eau Claire, is excited to see which research topics are brand new and which ones have carried over from prior years.

“Some people continue previous people’s research, keep it growing,” he says. “It’s nice to see what some of those are.”

MICS’ programming and robotics competitions and cyber security workshop will offer engagement opportunities not found in the classroom, says Dr. Jim Seliya, associate professor of computer science.

“Students get a firsthand experience whether they’re building their own robot or just seeing how students come up with their own innovative ideas,” says Seliya, who has attended the last three MICS events. “Seeing that in action may excite them to take a course and study how to build a robot, the programming language skills you need.”

As he puts the final touches on preparations, Fine says he will enjoy being exposed to new ideas.

“This book gets filled up with more questions than answers every time I go,” Fine says, holding a notebook. “The trick is when everybody leaves is to figure out what I can reasonably do in the next couple months or the next year, because you’re going to have more ideas than you can tackle right away.”

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