Zach Evett, a mechanical engineering student at MSU, is a changed man.

He used to study his major in a vacuum – he had no idea that mechanical engineering could be applied other academic disciplines.

But then he agreed to participate in UGROW.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities and Summer Workshops, gives undergraduate students the chance to do research with other students and faculty, according to faculty speakers at a presentation on the program Tuesday night.

The program, which was established in 2004, tends to take students out of their comfort zones. This was certainly the case with Evett, he said.

“I am a much more mature and educated person now.”

Last summer, Evett began to build mechanical “puppets” for a theater production, Bandersnatch. These weren’t your grandpa’s puppets, though – they were full of wires and switches. Creating them took a little bit of calculus-level math, to say the least.

Evett worked with three theater student on the projects. Students, he noted at the presentation, who had no prior experience in the field of mechanical engineering. His teammates, though unfamiliar with about engineering, were dedicated and vastly creative, he said.

“Those people work. Like 14 hours a day work,” Evett said.

He said he even learned work ethic from his teammates.

“I worked with them,” he said. “I worked hard with them.”

He told the audience in Shawnee Theatre that the university should be implementing UGROW-type programs all over campus. He remarked on all the possibilities that program could create

“I feel like this has been one of the best opportunities I have ever had. I wish everyone got to do that,” Evett said. “We’re supposed to allow students to see a whole lot of things. They want us to have a very nice education here. I feel like I can really diversify myself.”

Brandon Smith, assistant professor of theater, also worked with Evett on the project.

“This is by far the most rewarding project I have worked on in my career,” he said.

Smith said one of the reasons he liked working on the project so much was because he got to work with a student who wasn’t “part of my normal demographic.”

Also, the students involved developed a unique sense of community. Put simply, Smith said, doing this project just felt good.

“When I think about what’s wrong in the world and what’s right in the world – this just feels right to me.”

Five professors and five students took part in the panel discussion.