National Engineering Week

By Jason McGlynn

Rodney Guishard, Program Director, Office of Knowledge Management, speaking about engineering at the Davies Middle School in Hamilton Township.

On February 22, 2007, in celebration of National Engineering Week, two teams of engineers and computer scientists from the Technical Center went to two schools in the community to get kids interested in the engineering field. Jensyl Guy, Latasha Reddick, Jamaal Lipscomb, Jeffery Henderson, and Michael Ogundoju went to the science lab at Pleasantville High School and showed a 13-minute DVD documentary entitled “Who Are Engineers” followed by a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Exploring Engineering.” The presentation was used to brief the students on the different types of engineers, why engineering is important, the different work phases of engineering, the technology of a couple of engineering products, the major fields of engineering and what each field involves, and the steps necessary to become an engineer. The event was conducted twice and approximately 45 students ranging from grade nine to grade twelve attended each session. The students were very receptive to the documentary and presentation and most of them showed interest by answering and asking questions during and after the presentation.

Jennifer Morris and Andy Lamb from Capacity Modeling and Analysis, speaking about engineering at the Davies Middle School in Hamilton Township.

Rodney Guishard, Program Director, Office of Knowledge Management, and Jennifer Morris and Andy Lamb from Capacity Modeling and Analysis gave a presentation about engineering at the Davies Middle School in Hamilton Township to three 8 th-grade classes containing about 120 students each. The presentation covered the definition of engineering, how engineers contribute to society, what they do, the various types of engineers, as well as some of the requirements for becoming an engineer. Jennifer and Andy presented an in-house developed airport simulation model as an example of a Software Engineering product. Jennifer described and demonstrated how the model is being used to assist airport authorities in determining the impact and airport design modifications needed to accommodate the new super sized Airbus 380 passenger aircraft at selected airports. At the conclusion of the presentations students asked questions and were provided a handout about engineering. The students and faculty from both schools were appreciative and thanked the presenters.