To inspire the next generation of engineers you can tell them about engineering. Or, you can show.
On a sunny day in late July, about 50 young people from around the world carried model trebuchets outside to a lawn at the University of Rhode Island. Arming them with Ping-Pong balls, the students competed for the most accurate launch. It was an exercise in understanding how to engineer a design, build it and make it work.
For the students in the Summer Engineering Academy, the day of trebuchets was par for the course. Under the direction of mechanical and industrial engineering Professor Manbir Sodhi, students gathered for an introduction to engineering via a real world, hands-on approach.
“In engineering, sometimes you don’t know what to do and then you think about it,” says high school sophomore Tharun Somasundar, 14, of East Greenwich, R.I. “When you figure it out that feeling of euphoria is really good.”
Encouraging excitement about engineering through activities was the goal of the four-week summer camp that ended July 25.
“If you’re an engineer, you like to see something made. That’s important for an engineer and that’s why we structure the academy with hands-on activities,” Sodhi says.
Besides trebuchets, students learned CAD, built and used 3-D printers, made electronic dice with LED lights, coded robotic software and learned about the history of engineering. They also headed to local businesses, including Amgen in West Greenwich, R.I. There, plant employees ushered them through the drug production lines and explained how the pharmaceutical company develops proteins as the basis of disease-fighting drugs.
The trip marked the first time many students saw a high-tech manufacturing facility and their first opportunity to meet engineers solving real problems.
Nina Gardner, 17, of Kingston, R.I., admired the complexity of the Amgen plant and its R&D facilities. Long interested in engineering, the trip helped solidify her desire to enter the field after high school. To couple her passion for engineering and her desire to travel, Gardner said she’s considering applying to the University of Rhode Island for its International Engineering Program. The program combines degrees in a foreign language and engineering as well as a year abroad studying and interning.
“The International Engineering Program at URI sounds really good and interesting,” Gardner said.
Some students thought the URI engineering program sounded so interesting they traveled halfway around the world to experience it. A group of students hailed from Turkey and Azerbaijan. In previous years, students have come from Germany, India, Mexico and Pakistan, making the academy a global experience.
This year, Ilayda Buyukdogan, 17, of Robert College, Istanbul, Turkey, saw the Engineering Academy advertised in her school and, on the recommendation of friends who had attended, enrolled.
After time in the College of Engineering’s facilities and field trips to local companies, Buyukdogan discovered a love of engineering, attracted by the opportunity to work on engaging projects that can influence society.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be an engineer,” Buyukdogan says. “Now, I decided I want to be an engineer.”
Although Buyukdogan will return to Turkey, Sodhi’s work to inspire the next generation of engineers will not stop. During the academic year, he organizes a pre-college engineering program at the Providence Career and Technical Academy and Mount Pleasant High School, both in Providence, R.I.
“The students have fun and I see them grow,” Sodhi says. “That’s rewarding both for me and the students.”