The University of Akron will host two interactive summer camps designed to give teenage girls a glimpse at engineering professions and a head start on a possible career path.
SEE UA! camp participants form design teams and create projects ready for competitions held throughout the camp.
SEE UA! camp, which takes place June 9 to June 14, immerses high school-age girls in biomedical, civil, chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering. Students will work as teammates on design projects such as programming an LED display to function similarly to an LED scoreboard. Campers live in campus residence halls where UA upper-class engineering students serve as residence assistants. A day camp option also is available.
The Multiplying Your Options (MYO) camp, also held at the UA campus, takes place 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., June 17 to June 21 for girls entering the seventh and eighth grades. Girls will participate in hands-on engineering activities, including designing edible cars.
"They can use candy, cucumbers, carrots and other foods to design a car that can move freely down a ramp with rotating wheels," says Heidi Cressman, director of the University's Women in Engineering program. "The basic idea of both camps is to give girls an understanding of what engineering really is so that they can make an educated decision as to whether or not engineering is for them."
SEE UA! and MYO campers will tour local engineering companies, including PPG Industries in Barberton. In addition, SEE UA! campers conduct research in a UA laboratory, which culminates in a judged poster contest.
Registration for both camps ends March 31. For more details, visit Women in Engineering online.
Story by Tyeal Howell
Media contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.