OUTREACH

Elementary Engineering Extravaganza

By Saipriya Namasivayam

Pitt SWE's Elementary Engineering Extravaganza outreach event was held in person this semester for the first time since the pandemic! 22 eager and inquisitive elementary school students came to Benedum Hall on Sunday, February 12th to attend this superhero-themed event. They kicked off the morning learning about the different disciplines of engineering and what each one entails. Then, they got crafty and created some rubber band-powered Batmobile cars using popsicle sticks, bottle caps, and straws, all while learning about the concepts of potential and kinetic energy. In the other main hands-on activity, they created paper bridges to help the superheroes cross the river and help save the city of Pittsburgh. We also had other clubs including Pitt Women in Computer Science (WiCS) come in and hold an activity as part of an expo where the kids cycled through different activities each related to a different discipline of engineering. Finally, we had one of our corporate sponsors, Nuclear Naval Laboratory, present to the kids about nuclear engineering and also hold an activity that taught the kids the three ways of protecting yourself from radiation. Our attendees all said they enjoyed the event and learned something new. Thank you to Pitt WiCS and NNL for participating in our E3 event this year and thanks to all the amazing Pitt SWE volunteers and the co-chairs who helped make the event a success!

Middle School Engineering Day

By Amy Zhang

This semester, around 20 students from the Pittsburgh area attended Middle School Engineering Day to learn about engineering. The day began with a professional presentation from Avient, where they introduced their services, products, and sustainability initiatives within the company. Then, the students were challenged to fit themselves through an index card, build rubber band cars, and fold paper airplane launchers! The day ended with a game of jeopardy to introduce them to each field of engineering within Pitt’s school of engineering.

High School Engineering Day

By Saipriya Namasivayam

This spring, 26 students from local high schools attended Pitt SWE’s High School Engineering Day, which took place on Saturday, February 25th in Benedum Hall. The event started off with two of Pitt’s engineering clubs, SOAR and RAS, coming in to talk to the students about what their club has to offer. This was followed by a fun activity about brainstorming and idea generation held by TAs from Pitt’s Art of Making class. Then, Pitt SWE along with one of our corporate sponsors, EATON, ran a hands-on activity, in which the kids had to build robotic arms with cardboard, straws, and string. The student portion of this event ended with a tour of Benedum Hall, which was led by our Engineering Ambassadors. In addition to the student portion of the event, we had 18 parents attend a parent program which was run with the help of Mary Zeis, an active member of the Pittsburgh SWE section. The parents who attended learned more engineering and what the transition to college might look like for their child with a presentation by first-year engineering advisor Devin Ulm. Both student and parent attendees had a great time coming to Pitt's campus for this event. Thank you to SOAR, RAS, Art of Making, Engineering Ambassadors, Mary Zeis, Devin Ulm, and EATON for participating in this semester's HSED, and thanks to all of the Pitt SWE volunteers who made this event possible!