UK Celebrates Engineering

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 23, 2012) — The annual University of Kentucky Engineers Day Open House, also known as E-Day, will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 in the Engineering Complex at UK. Hosted by the UK College of Engineering, the popular event features contests, displays and demonstrations for students of all ages.

The event will also be held at UK's engineering campus at Western Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (CST).

E-day is a celebration of everything engineering has to offer. From building bridges to discovering new medications to writing the software that powers cell phones, engineers and computer scientists do the things that make the 21st-century world work.

The event typically draws thousands of children and their parents to UK's campus, encouraging girls and boys in elementary, middle and high school to consider pursuing degrees in engineering. The day will provide many opportunities for students including hands-on events, laboratory tours and door prizes.

For high school students interested in attending the UK College of Engineering, a drawing for a $4,000 scholarship will be held as well.

"E-Day at UK is a long-standing tradition," said College of Engineering dean Tom Lester. "It is an opportunity to showcase some of the impressive research in which our faculty and staff are involved, the facilities in which this research and classroom learning happens, the social and professional organizations that are available to our students, and the industry partners who support engineering.  Most of all, it is a great chance to demonstrate the opportunities engineering and computer science can offer to children and their parents through fun, hands-on activities."

E-Day also will feature displays by area engineering firms and firms with sizable engineering departments. A full list of exhibitors can be seen at www.engr.uky.edu/eday/exhibitors/.

More than 20 different student groups at the College of Engineering organize and oversee contests of various forms, including the edible car contest (yes, a car made out of food items), and the egg drop contest, where students design a container holding an egg that will prevent it from breaking after a drop from a height of several stories. For a full list of contests and the schedule of events, visit www.engr.uky.edu/eday/contests/.

On Friday, Feb. 24, a talk by official E-day speaker Randal Pinkett will be held from noon to 1 p.m.in the Lexmark Room of the Main Building at UK. Pinkett has a BS in electrical engineering from Rutgers, where he was the first and only African American student to win a Rhodes Scholarship. He is an entrepreneur who founded, and remains the CEO, of a multimillion dollar information technology consulting firm, BCT Partners.  He is the author of nine books. His writing has been focused on two important interests.  His is interested in the ways computer interfaces can change communities, and also in providing mentoring and business strategies to aspiring students and entrepreneurs.  His most recent book, "Black Faces in White Spaces," (2010) discusses the complexities of race in the business world and offers a ten step plan for corporate success that is useful for anyone entering what he calls the business "game."

He achieved national recognition for his leadership abilities when he won the second year (2005) of NBC’s reality show 'The Apprentice' with Donald Trump.  As a result of his win he was awarded an internship with Trump in which he supervised the renovation and reopening of Donald Trump's Entertainment Resorts (The Plaza, The Taj Mahal and the Marina) in Atlantic City, N.J. He has made frequent guest appearances on The Apprentice since his win and also is a regular commentator on  the CNN program "CEO Exchange."

Engineers Day comes at the end of Engineers Week, an annual event sponsored by a coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies dedicated to promoting math and science literacy and ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce.

 
For more information about UK Engineers Day 2012, visit www.engr.uky.edu/eday. For parking directions, visit www.uky.edu/VisitorCenter/direction.htm.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jenny Wells, (859) 257-5343; Jenny.Wells@uky.edu