E-Week helps students ‘See the Engineer’ within themselves

Olive Branch H.S. students Lee Ward, Alex Drew and Kayla Toney explain their water tower design, made to withstand simulated earthquake effects, to the judges at the 2013 Engineering Day Competition. Photo by Nathan Latil/Ole Miss Communications

Engineering students at the University of Mississippi are using the creative side of their brains to increase engineering awareness.

National Engineers Week, known on campus as “E-Week,” was held in February. The annual series of daily campus activities is aimed at creating an awareness of engineering throughout the community and introducing the degree and profession to middle and high school students and to Ole Miss students who are undecided about a major.

Engineering Day was the culmination of the weeklong observance. Co-sponsored by the School of Engineering, the Division of Outreach and Continuing Education, and the Center for Mathematics and Science Education, the event brought more than 150 high school students from across Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama for a full day of interacting with engineering students, taking individual and team math, science and engineering tests, and participating in a water tower model-earthquake simulation competition.

“The high school students participated in discussions about their water tower design and construction with engineering faculty and professional engineers,” said Maxine Woolsey, engineering school outreach education specialist. “They also had [an] opportunity to interact with Ole Miss engineering students and CMSE graduate fellows.”

The competition consisted of three parts: the water tower portion, packing factor and written exam.

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“The packing factor challenge was created by graduate fellows in the CMSE. We hope that the challenge will be implemented in the Introduction to Engineering class taught to incoming engineering students,” said Susan Peterson, CMSE STEM outreach coordinator.

Scheduled events included the Engineering Student Body luncheon and competitions sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; a luncheon provided by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; and a paper airplane competition sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In addition,  a scavenger hunt for engineering students was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Geology Club; and the Engineering Career Fair was held, which allowed industry professionals to interview engineering students seeking internships, co-op positions and employment opportunities.

Also, the Society of Women Engineers hosted both the Mr. Engineer 2013 competition and annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day for high school girls. The CMSE and School of Engineering co-hosted the annual North Mississippi region MATHCOUNTS for middle school students.

“Through outreaches such as E-Week, MATHCOUNTS and Engineering Day, we anticipate increasing interest in the School of Engineering year by year,” said Marni Kendricks, assistant dean in the School of Engineering. “We want to introduce engineering as a degree and a career to more Mississippi secondary school students serious about their futures. We want to expose more students to this amazing field.”

For more information, visit the School of Engineering, call 662-915-5780.