Explore Engineering Day Invites Community to Campus
February 17, 2017
The Jonsson School battlebot team visits with future engineers: The battlebot team won its first national title since 2011 and finished third internationally at the 2015 Robogames.Students from the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) present their research to visitors. The BMES helps students find opportunities in academic research, the biotech industry and medical school.
Fujitsu reps showcase their latest tech in augmented reality in the lobby of the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building.
John Harkins from Tech Titans talked about STEM opportunities and benefits to a group of local Girl Scouts who asked how they could become more involved in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.
The National Space Society of North Texas was on campus to showcase the many aspects of space exploration. The NSS promotes further probing of the next frontier and support education in the space sciences.
OnPoynt, a supplier of Drone Aerial Robotics Equipment and training for STEM Education, shows a young student a drone simulator.
UT Dallas visitors tested out virtual reality programs currently being developed by Dr. Ryan McMahan and his students in the Future Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE) Lab.
Nicole Steiner, a sophomore mechanical engineering student, teaches young visitors about simple machines and tools.A group of students from UTDesign, the Jonsson School’s senior design program, present their research project that focused on using technology to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
Families worked together on building toy helicopters at Home Depot’s “Kids Workshop.”
Preston Pettit (left) and Charles VanDergrift (right), students from the Society of Automotive Engineers, presented their research and work to the UT Dallas community.
The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science recently opened its doors to the community to explore how engineering and computer science creates innovation and invites discovery. Explore Engineering Day, which welcomed in families and students from across North Texas, offered a “Kid Zone” with hands-on activities; educational demonstrations; and fascinating tech talks by leading faculty and local engineering companies. Middle school and high school students also had the opportunity to explore college and career paths.
Visitors had the chance to see the inner workings of research labs like the Sensing, Robotics, Vision, Controls and Estimation Lab, which works with robotics, autonomous vehicles and sensor management. Employees from local companies like Raytheon, who spoke with visitors about working in the defense field, gave demonstrations and presentations to future engineering students.
Explore Engineering Day kicked off UT Dallas’ Engineers Week – a weeklong celebration of engineering and computer science. E-Week brought a number of speakers to campus like Tracy Drain who gave a talk, “Highlighting Diversity at NASA.” In her 16 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tracy Drain, participated in the development and operation of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Kepler mission searching for exoplanets and the Juno mission to Jupiter.
Other activities during the week included a karaoke night, a video game tournament and a dance party.
