Engineers Week Promises
a Mix of Education and Lighthearted Fun: Games, Demonstrations
and Exhibitions, April 12 to 16
Date: April 9, 2004
Contact: Chris Sutton ( chris@ea.ucla.edu
)
Phone: 310-206-0540
Engineering students scoop liquid nitrogen
ice cream for afternoon passersby along Bruin Walk. |
Concept cars, concrete canoes, a radio-controlled
blimp and liquid nitrogen ice cream – it must be Engineers
Week again, an exhibition running from April 12 to April 16. Admission
is free and most events take place at Bruin Plaza and in the Court
of Sciences on the UCLA campus. See the complete
schedule.
Engineering students scoop liquid nitrogen ice
cream for afternoon passersby along Bruin Walk.
Engineers Week (E-Week) is a combination of the educational and
the playful, an intriguing mix of science lesson and carnival
attraction. Balloon launches and pie-eating contests are side-by-side
with speech processing demos and visualization portal tours. Visitors
can play Jeopardy, build aluminum foil boats, or clean up an oil
spill with cotton balls.
E-Week began as a national event in 1951, becoming
a regular event at UCLA in the early 1960s. While National E-Week
is held every February to celebrate George Washington’s
birthday (America’s first president had a background in
engineering and land surveying), UCLA traditionally holds its
E-Week in the Spring Quarter to avoid Southern California’s
seasonal wet weather.
E-Week activities are created, organized and carried
out by student members from a number of engineering societies,
coordinated by the Engineering Society of the University of California
(ESUC). All week engineering students will be applying the lessons
learned in class with hands-on displays, games and exhibition-style
demonstrations.
Some familiar student projects will be on view,
including concrete canoes, human-powered vehicles, miniature robots
and electronic racecars. Returning this year is a parody of the
popular “American Idol” reality program, which organizers
describe as just like the original, “but without the insulting
comments.”
Organizers hope to familiarize the campus with
the engineering profession and its place in today’s technological
world. Organizers say engineers can understand and explain important
technical issues like nuclear power, rapid transit, and space
exploration, so the public can make informed decisions.
For more information about E-Week, visit ESUC’s
website at www.esuc.ucla.edu. |
