Chicago Area High School Science and Engineering Discovery Program

The MAE Center collaborated with the Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water with Systems and the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems to present a Science and Engineering Discovery Program at partner high schools in the Chicago area. The program is open to high school students at all grade levels and accepts up to twenty-five students from each school. The objective is to increase high school students' science and engineering awareness and to introduce those interested in pursing a career in science or engineering to the center's and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Seminars are presented that give an overview of what science and engineering entails, from the myriad fields within each discipline to the many career options. It examines how scientists and engineers influence our everyday world. It also dispels common stereotypes of what constitutes the "typical" scientist or engineer with a look at well-known and unknown engineers, as well as, life as a graduate student.

Students from Lane Technical High School, Morgan Park High School, Young Women's Leadership Charter School, and Lincoln Park High School explored earthquake engineering academic and career options with a hands-on activity conducted by MAE graduate students Curtis Holub, Ryan Hopeman, Nick Burdett, and Tracy Smith. A slide presentation about the New Madrid Seismic Zone highlighted MAE Center research and Student Leadership Council programs. The students were introduced to principles in structural dynamics so as to better understand how buildings respond to severe earthquakes. This demonstration emphasized one of the main tasks of earthquake engineers, the development of the next generation of earthquake-resistant structures so as to reduce human and financial loss. The students explored the effects of different variables on structures and learned about methods for strengthening buildings as they viewed the performance of their K'Nex models on a tabletop shake table.