The University of Utah College of Engineering will be hosting its annual Engineering Day, a day full of fun demonstrations and presentations for high school students learning about the concepts of engineering and technology.
This year’s event, which is being sponsored by Rio Tinto Kennecott, will be held Saturday, Nov. 14, starting at 9 a.m. in the Catmull Gallery of the Warnock Engineering Building, 72 S. Central Campus Dr., in Salt Lake City. Registration is at 8:45 a.m., and the day will begin with welcome messages from College of Engineering Dean Richard B. Brown and others. Each student can sign up for up to three tours and presentations among 30 different disciplines. More information about the presentations and demonstrations are available at www.coe.utah.edu/eng_day. The day will be full of photo and video opportunities for local news media. Demonstrations begin at 10, 10:45 and 11:30 a.m.
For several hours, high school students — mostly from Utah — will be able to tour engineering labs on campus and talk with professors about their current research. The day was created to introduce students to various fields of engineering and to encourage them to pursue their education at the U. This year’s event is expected to bring more than 600 students from states including California, Colorado and Idaho as well as Utah.
“This is a great time to introduce students to the power of engineering and how engineers can improve our world,” said Morgan Boyack, academic coordinator for the U’s College of Engineering. “We are expecting our biggest group of students ever.”
In addition to touring the engineering labs, prospective students also will participate in demonstrations ranging from stepping into a driving simulator at the Utah Traffic Lab to watching how an anchor bolt can keep a building steady during an earthquake. Other disciplines students can learn about include scientific computing and visualization, ergonomics and safety, nuclear engineering, robotics, and video game design from the university’s nationally-recognized Entertainment Arts & Engineering: Master Games Studio.