E-Day: Engineering Discovery, Exploration and Fun for All Ages
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Video by UK Public Relations and Marketing.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 27, 2015) — The field of engineering can be demanding – constant problem-solving, experimenting and delivering tomorrow’s innovations – but it can also be fun, especially on days when Newton’s Third Law of Motion can be tested through a balloon race, laser beams are shot through Jell-O, and 10-year-olds learn the basics of construction blasting with a dynamite demonstration.
At the University of Kentucky College of Engineering, that kind of day takes place once a year to celebrate everything engineering has to offer, and to expose students from elementary to high school to the vast opportunities in the field. After all, how often does a 14-year-old get to explore a fully functional solar car built by college students?
Approximately 150 contests, demonstrations and exhibits will engage and entertain, and teach a lesson or two in science, technology, engineering and math, at this year’s E-Day, or Engineers Day, Saturday, Feb. 28, at the end of National Engineers Week.
"E-Day at UK is easily the best celebration of the joy of engineering that I have ever seen," said John Walz, dean of the College of Engineering. "This will be my third time attending and I still haven’t made it to all of the different exhibits and activities. It is fun, educational, and offers something for everyone."
On the UK campus, E-Day will take place from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at various engineering facilities. E-Day will also be celebrated at the college’s Paducah Campus at West Kentucky Community and Technical College from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
UK students and departments, government organizations and industry groups host the activities, including several new events this year. Attendees will still have the chance to show off their skills in traditional favorites like the LEGO bridge, volcano, egg-drop and edible car contests, but will also get creative in the chocolate composite, candy crane, Coach Cal’s mansion makeover and haul truck racing contests.
Longtime E-Day attendee and current UK computer science sophomore Zack Anderson described his experience at E-Day throughout the years as seeing things he's never seen before. "I mean some of these projects are extraordinary," he said.
Entertaining and engaging, the contests and activities are also learning experiences.
For example, young builders participating in Coach Cal's mansion makeover contest, sponsored by the Department of Civil Engineering's construction engineering class, will be tasked with creating their own version of UK men's basketball coach John Calipari's house.
Supplied with a budget and certain resources priced for the occasion - Popsicle sticks, skewers, toothpicks, glue and tape - participants will work to build a structure that withstands a load and fits within certain dimensions. Just as construction project planners often face unexpected situations, participants my experience "bad weather" (rain causes delays so they are required to pause a minute before continuing construction) or other circumstances.
Another project, "egg drop crash survivability," otherwise known as the egg drop, sponsored by the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) at UK, has drawn crowds of curious students and parents for years.
"It's not a task that requires advanced computations, but it is something that gets students thinking about subjects like physics, by encouraging them to think about the forces on the egg," said Katherine Gerwig, vice president of the chapter. "It's always fascinating to see the many different ways the students approach the same problem each year; even after years of the competition, students still manage to come up with unique improvements to their designs."
For Anderson, the egg drop is a must-see event. "If there's one thing that I remember out of everything, it was always the egg drop, every single year. You couldn't miss the egg drop…you had to go to the egg drop," he said.
Anderson began attending E-Day when he was six years old and made a tradition of it, attending until he was 13. With both parents being chemical engineers, and his mother Kim Anderson the associate dean for administration and academic affairs at the College of Engineering, E-Day was more than a day full of exciting activities. It became Anderson's opportunity to figure out if he should follow in his parents' footsteps of chemical engineering, or go a different route.
He conducted his first electrical engineering experiment at E-Day with a battery and a few wires. But what caught his eye and has stuck with him since is computer science.
"I remember there being a computer science booth set up to where they had their supercomputer…I mean I knew what a computer was, but I didn't know what a supercomputer was.
"And I remember we actually, I believe, sat there for three hours because I just had so many questions. I discovered that computer science was my thing, what I wanted to do in life, because of Engineering Day, and I wouldn't have gotten that experience anywhere else," said Anderson.
With many demonstrations and contests for younger students, E-Day is also perfect for the high school student that may be interested in engineering, but isn't quite sure what kind or what to do with an engineering degree.
"It really is a game-changer as far as trying to figure out, 'okay well, is this really the field that I want to go into?'" he said.
In addition to sparking Anderson's curiosity in computer science, E-Day also ignited his interest in attending UK. He was impressed that UK students were not only interested in their own projects, but were able to share what they were doing with so many others, and noticed how much UK faculty members appreciated their students.
After years of participating in E-Day and two years as a computer science student at UK, Anderson is now involved in a project working to display vital signs in real-time on Google Glass for doctors conducting surgery. He is also working with a local optometrist to take photos of the eye with Google Glass, instantly transmitting any growths or disorders to patients' medical records, rather than spending 30 minutes setting up a large machine.
In the near future, it may be Anderson and his Google Glass projects captivating the minds of young students at E-Day, following suit of those who inspired him.
"I wanted to learn how to make stuff, and not only did I want to learn how to make stuff, but I wanted to learn how to make it better, and I learned that through E-Day," Anderson said.
For more information about E-Day, visit http://www.engr.uky.edu/eday/ or contact Chelsea Hansing at 859-257-5823 or chelsea@uky.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu
