As part of National Engineers Week, present and prospective students will come together in Saint Louis University’s Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology. The college is celebrating the week with events focusing on engineering.
“All of the events are set up so there’s a social experience with Parks,” said senior Andrew Lang, president of the Association of Parks College Students.
Lang said that most of the larger engineering schools feature a larger E-Week. However, this year has more events than years past because of increased faculty and student involvement. Monday was Admitted Student Day, where high school students who have been admitted to Parks came for open-house activities, as well as an activities fair.
In addition, the Society of Physics Students is holding a presentation today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the second floor physics lab in McDonnell Douglass Hall. The demonstration is of a Rubens’ Tube, which displays sound waves in flames.
“It’s a beautiful demonstration of physics,” said junior Chris Pierse, president of SLU’s chapter of SPS.
“[The tube] is a visual audio equalizer that uses flames. Since it’s made of actual material, it has its own resonance frequency. When you send in a multiple of its base frequency, you’ll see a sine wave in flames.”
In addition to the week, SPS was recently selected by the national organization as an Outstanding SPS Chapter for the 2007-2008 school year for excellence in areas such as physics research, public science outreach and providing social interaction for chapter members.
The Society of Women Engineers will host Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day today-one of the larger events. Local high school girls will come and be introduced to different aspects of engineering.
“Girls are not really shown [working in engineering] in high school,” said SWE President Katie Radville. “We want to even it out a little bit because it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Radville said that last year girls from local public schools were invited, but did not seem to be invested in the program.
This year, girls were invited from local private schools and about 40 to 50 students are expected to attend.
“We want to let them know it’s an option,” Radville said.
APCS sponsored several other events throughout the week, such as Tuesday’s paper airplane contest and a jeopardy game, testing students’ knowledge of Parks faculty and staff.
