Approximately 100 female high school students will tour the University of Idaho campus Friday as part of the 15th annual UI Women in Engineering Day.
The event aims to introduce students to engineering and offer them a chance to experience life at UI, said Rob Patton, spokesman for the UI College of Engineering.
Each year, high school students participate in a design challenge as part of the event. Zombie bridges tested the skills of last year”s event participants. This year, prospective engineering students are tasked with designing and constructing balloon cars out of office supplies.
“When you have an experience to build something that can be implemented in the real world, it”s inspiring for students,” said Alyssa Ertel, president of the UI chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
Ertel said the design challenge was built around the themes of transportation and sustainable energy. Drawing inspiration from the movies “Interstellar” and “The Martian,” she said the event will require participants to design a car.
Before construction of a balloon car begins, contestants have to purchase supplies and gain approval from engineers on the design plan. Ertel said this was done to give participants a realistic experience of engineering.
“Everything has a cost and just like in real life, everything has an environmental impact,” Ertel said. “So, we really wanted them to think about how much they are using – how they can build the best car using the least amount of resources.”
Once the cars are created, teams will see which design can travel the furthest. Following the testing, participants are judged on distance traveled, teamwork, creativity, costs and environmental impact.
Ertel said they are excited to see the designs students would create.
“I really want them to come away inspired to be an engineer, because it”s really easy to lose sight of as a student what you”re doing and why you”re doing it,” Ertel said.
Ertel said the design challenge”s Mars theme can also be attributed to this year”s keynote speaker.
Sophie Milam, a Vandal alumna who participated in a NASA simulated Mars seclusion mission, will speak on her professional experience. Milam”s speech is the first keynote address in the event”s history.
“Sophie has done a lot of really great things for the field of engineering and the field of science for a woman of science,” said Karina Eyre, vice president of the UI chapter of SWE.
Women in Engineering Day is important, since it encourages young women to become engineers, Ertel said.
“All women, whether or not they consider themselves good at math or science, should really come,” Ertel said. “It”s so much more than what you learn in the classroom. It”s more than just equations. It”s being able to apply things to a real world problem.”
Women in Engineering Day has seen past success for UI engineering recruitment. In the past two years, 30 percent of the attendees later enrolled at UI. To incentivize UI enrollment, Patton said each person who registers at the event and later enrolls the university receives a second semester scholarship.
Aleya Ericson can be reachedat [email protected]