ENGINEERS WEEK 2016 NIKHILESH DE, MADHURI BHUPATHIRAJU AND SAMANTHA CASIMIR STAFF WRITERS
Students designing canoes out of cardboard need to think about buoyancy, the boat’s structure and the material’s integrity, said Kaustubh Deshpande, a School of Engineering senior and president of the Engineering Governing Council. They should consider how tape can reinforce edges and what sort of stress acts on corners. The fifth annual Cardboard Canoe Races were just one event during Rutgers’ celebration of National Engineers Week, an annual celebration of engineers and their work around the nation. It usually occurs near George Washington’s birthday, as he is considered the first engineer in America. Planning for E-Week began last semester, but the actual preparation began at the beginning of the spring semester, said Taylor Au, a School of Engineering junior and chair of the Engineers Week Committee. The
committee is made up of about 20 members who met weekly to set up and organize the events. “It’s a pretty large and wide effort. I really like that because I’ve been able to meet more diverse people in engineering,” Au said. Engineering is an area that interests people of all ages, Au said. “We want to expose other people to engineering and show people what we’re all about, and share our passion for what we do,” she said. “Engineering is a discipline that spans all years and all ages. It doesn’t matter who you are, we (wanted) people to get excited about E-week from the start.” Engineers week lets students showcase their abilities, Deshpande said. Many people have the idea that engineering revolves around science and mathematics, which he said is not necessarily true. “There’s fun elements to it, and also you see the product of what you’re doing, which is fun,” he said. “(E-Week) SEE ENGINEERS ON BACK
DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR
February 29, 2016
Engineers Week Page 2
Engineers Week ends with splash at annual Cardboard Canoe Races ALLISON BAUTISTA
first-year electrical and computer engineering student, had a different strategy to win the “Titanic Award” for the most theatrical capsize. Using only cardboard, trash bags “Our strategy was to sink. We’re and duct tape, Rutgers engineers both big people. We weren’t going had one hour to build fully functionto make it very far. We built the al canoes for a race across the Patio boat and said, ‘Okay. We need to Pool in the Sonny Werblin Recremake it far enough so we can do ation Center on Busch campus. the arm pose (from the Titanic),’” On Friday, Feb. 26, the annuKim said. al Cardboard Canoe Races saw Though they paid tribute to Jack its biggest turnout yet in its fifth and Rose, the “Titanic Award” year. Twenty-two pairs of engiinstead went to team “Dhoom neers lined the hall outside the 4,” who were pool entrance, able to pose surrounded by with a salute scraps of card“It doesn’t matter if you’re chemical, biomedical, while sinking board boxes, materials science or industrial — all the different backwards off empty rolls of majors learn how to problem solve and their canoe. duct tape and The “Cruithe canoe crethink critically.” sin’ in Style ations of their Award” went to competitors. TAYLOR AU the team with Par ticipants Event Coordinator and School of Engineering Junior the most flair. came from sevPhilip Whong eral different backgrounds, from undergradu- Those who made it across the and Matthew Sze, both School of ate students to professors, deans pool were timed, while judges as- Engineering sophomores, brought pointed bamboo hats and named and alumni, said Taylor Au, a sessed designs. Among the swimmers was themselves, “Fresh Off the Canoe” School of Engineering junior and Ahmed AbdRabou, a biomedical in their attempt to earn this award. event coordinator. “Our first plan was to stand on “It doesn’t matter if you’re chem- engineering junior. His canoe ical, biomedical, materials science flipped over early into the race, the boat and actually look like or industrial — all the different forcing his team to swim the rest Vietnamese fisherman. But that majors learn how to problem solve of the way. Planning ahead for the went bad because our boat looked like Swiss cheese,” Whong said. “I and think critically,” she said. “This event is necessary, he said. “I’d (focus) on more enforce- think we may (have been) up for a (task) is (about) thinking outside the box because cardboard is ment through the base of the ca- style award. We were pretty fresh.” The award was eventually probably the worst material you noe, trying to plan ahead because in past years I hadn’t planned granted to team “Spaghetti Katz,” can use to build a boat.” With the nature of cardboard ahead. I did research about 30 who decorated their canoe with a in mind, some participants brain- minutes before, which works for sign of their team name and had stormed ideas beforehand on how my exams but not for this,” he said. matching cat costumes. Speed But winning the race was not was compromised for style, said to stay afloat with such an unideal everyone’s goal. Keon Kim, a Andrea Nguyen, a School of material for a boat. CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“We did some research, but the videos we saw — they all had high-quality cardboard. Coming in here, when we saw the ‘low-quality’ cardboard (from thin shipping boxes), we needed a new last-minute design,” said Sonica Khatri, a senior civil engineering student. After the one-hour building session, the teams filed into the pool area, carrying their canoes proudly over their heads. Two teams competed in each race.
Christine Monroy, left, and Emily Barnes, right, successfully made it across the course, being one of the few teams to do so. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR
Engineering junior and one-half of “Spaghetti Katz.” “I think (our canoe) was too narrow so we had trouble balancing. Next time we’ll make it wider. We ran out of tape very early on because we put a lot on the base so that it wouldn’t break. Otherwise, the structure was good. It didn’t buckle,” Nguyen said. Earning the award felt “amazing,” said Dianne Le, a School of Engineering junior and the other half of the team. The team had designed prototype boats before the actual contest to ensure theirs would be successful. “We followed one saying, which is ‘failure to plan is planning to fail,’” she said. “We literally prototyped a mini-boat last week as well as a large-sized one yesterday. The one ... we prototyped yesterday ran into a lot of issues so we thought it was good we (made it).”
The “Fast and Furious Award” went to the team who crossed the pool the quickest. This turned out to be Lydia Prendergast, the assistant dean for Academic Services at the School of Engineering, and Cecilia Vargas, the assistant dean for the Dean of the School of Engineering. “You want to have bigger surface area on the bottom so it will be more buoyant,” Vargas said. “Make the sides high so when you go in it won’t sink too much. And then you want to put some bracing along the bottom and the sides for buckling.” The energy at the event was “infectious,” Le said. She plans to compete again next year because of how much fun she had last week. “It’s for free, and there’s food and friends. What else do you need? It’s a great experience,” Au said.
Undergraduate former interns discuss experiences, provide tips
Samuel Rios, a senior, spoke about the work experience he gained from internships. He won first place at “Interns Present.” MANQI YANG
SHIVANG PANDYA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Internships are a crucial part of any university’s undergraduate college careers. Lockheed Martin and Phillips 66 recently promoted an “Interns Present” event at the Fiber Optics Building on Busch campus. As a part of Engineers Week, this event consisted of select undergraduate students who presented their internship experiences to an audience of professors, peers and other members.
The competition’s ultimate goal was to inform every student about the many opportunities that are present. Not only did these presenters talk about their experiences, they also gave tips on how to tackle interviews and make the best out of their resources. In addition to providing students with work experience, internships allow students to put their unique skill sets to work. Internships give students the fundamental skills needed to work in the public arena, including teamwork and an affable nature.
A variety of different engineers presented their internship experiences at a myriad of companies. For students to really excel in their internships they have to be proactive and not only stick to one type of field, said Nikhil Kumar, a School of Engineering senior studying biomedical engineering and computer science. “Biomedical engineering is a very new field. Therefore, if you purely study only biomedical engineering, it is very hard to get a job,” Kumar said. “That is what (inspired) me to get a minor in computer science. It is best to keep an interest in an area that has a better perspective.” Kumar’s internship at Merck & Co., one of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies, allowed him to expand beyond his boundaries and really test his knowledge and ability, he said. Though it may seem unimportant, Kumar was able to gain a lot of insight from the classes he took as a sophomore and junior, which helped him in his internship. “‘Introduction to Linear Algebra’ and any core computer science course is important. Experience in Java, (a programming language) is very beneficial because it puts you a step above the others,” Kumar said. Being able to share his experiences with his peers made his day, he said. Sometimes to gain an internship, the best thing to do is to be flexible
about the options out there. The most basic of classes may seem unimportant, but being able to extract the knowledge from these classes is what really helps boost the internship experience, Kumar said. Even internships outside specific fields can help students, said Justin Yu, a School of Engineering senior studying chemical and biochemical engineering. Yu said most of his internship experience interning at Deloitte University was powered by his prior internship experiences. “I think what internships help you do is they help you realize what you want to do, what you can do, and how to push yourself further,” Yu said. The mentoring that comes with an internship truly helped shape his experience, Yu said. “I think that people with more experience really help you fix some of the things that you might not realize are wrong,” he said. “The cool thing about Deloitte is they saw you as a colleague, they don’t see (themselves) as a superior and you as an underling.” In addition to the mentorship aspect of an internship, he focused on his experience consulting at Deloitte. It involved teamwork to communicate ideas to a client, Yu said. “It really made sense to make a (presentation) that really highlighted the things we did,” he said. “We put it this way in this week and we realized there’s a better,
more efficient way to make it the next week.” Yu demonstrated what he did and how he did it, so attendees could understand the type of work he did at Deloitte. He is graduating in May and will be working at KPMG, another major consulting company. The event showed that internships can help a student determine a path they want to continue working through, simply through the experience. Spencer Chang, a School of Engineering junior studying electrical and computer engineering, said it was much more than he expected. Chang learned a lot from the many different engineers that presented and how unique their opportunities were, he said. The event overall was a success, he said. Not only did many different engineering students talk about their experiences but attendees, especially fellow Rutgers undergraduates, were inspired to pursue an internship as well. The presenting students not only shared the plethora of skills they gained, but also the passion they had for their fields and gaining and broader education, Chang said. The students, he said, brought passion to their internships and created a memorable experience. “They did a really good job of having a bunch of people mix, like across a lot of different industries, and they show you a lot of different things,” Chang said.
February 29, 2016
Engineers Week Page 3
Groups compete to earn funding during first ‘Shark Tank’ HARSHEL PATEL DIGITAL EDITOR
Creating ideas to better the world is easy, but developing them takes time and money. Last Wednesday, students had the opportunity to earn the funding they need to realize their goals. On Feb. 24, Verizon hosted a “Shark Tank” in the Busch Student Center to allow engineering student organizations the chance to share their ideas with potential investors for their organization, as part of National Engineers Week. The event was inspired by the popular entrepreneurial television show, CNBC’s “Shark Tank,” said Jennifer Arnau, a Verizon employee who manages the relationship between Rutgers and Verizon. “Normally I’ll get a 20-page proposal and we want to do something different. Rather than reading the proposal, why don’t we have them present why we should support their organization, she said. Organizations were given five minutes to present their ideas to the Verizon investors, or “sharks.” Students were given freedom with how they presented their ideas, as the sharks were looking for creativity in addition to the quality of the product, she said. In addition to a presentation with the sharks, each group provided posters to highlight their organization and proposal. Presentations were held in a private room, while a live broadcast was made in the International Room alongside the posters. The sharks also take into account how the presenters plan to use their funding, the activity of the organization, the quality of the presenters’ posters and any incentive there might be to fund the organization, she said. Nine groups were in attendance, including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society for Hispanic Engineers and Wolfpak. Three winners
Students had the opportunity to win funding for their ideas during the first “Shark Tank” event, held as part of Engineers Week. Each group had five minutes to convince the judges that their projects were most worthy of the funding. SAMANTHA CASIMIR / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER were selected, earning prizes of group to present at the event, dis- sharing information about local $250, $500 or $1,000, according to playing their application’s abilities events currently taking place, and made the app to as a solution, to the “sharks.” the event’s website. The group was represented by Sundararajan said. “We’ve been recruiting at Veri“Suppose I’m at a really cool zon for several years, specifically Felix Young, Wolfpak’s treasurer at the School of Engineering, for a and a School of Engineering se- bake sale or a really lit party, I variety of the internship positions nior, and School of Arts and Sci- could post that picture or video on we have at the company,” Arnau ences junior Arthi Sundararajan, Wolfpak for everyone around me said. “Most of the organizations Wolfpak’s marketing chair and to see,” she said. They also noticed the progresare actually groups that we’ve graphic designer. sion of the worked with in social media the past, just “Rather than reading the proposal, why don’t we have a p p l i c a t i o n , being on cam“Yik Yak” from pus recruiting.” them present why we should support being only textApplicants their organization?” based to evensubmitted batually including sic informaJENNIFER ARNAU pictures and tion, such as a Rutgers Campus Manager for Verizon University Relations and Diversity Recruitment Team videos. The andescription of onymity gives the organiza“We want to change the way students freedom of speech withtion and what their presentation will be. All presentations had to in- that information and media is out judgment, Young said. Being able to pinpoint a face to clude a technology component, so shared in a community, and the a relatable component was taken way we do so is through our app,” an opinion opens up students to Young said. “(The app) allows stu- potential harassment, Young said. into account as well, she said. “We see that Rutgers is such a One of the organizations pres- dents to share pictures and videos ent was Wolfpak, a technology anonymously with all the users diverse place and there’s always so many protests and events going organization with an application around (them).” The organization noticed on, we wanted to empower our uscentered around anonymous media sharing. They were the first the difficulty in promoting and ers, even just a freshman, to have
a voice to reach the community of 30,000,” he said. The organization went through a PowerPoint presentation that highlighted their group’s mission statement, goals, ideas, accomplishments and growth strategies, Sundararajan said. Wolfpak hopes to use investments to grow the app and allow people around the world to voice their opinions, Young said. They want to enable freedom of speech without external pressure. The ultimate goal of the event was to not only expose entrepreneurs in the School of Engineering to potential investors, but to give them experience for the corporate world. Students are attracted to the event due to Verizon’s brand name, with the prize as an added incentive, Arnau said. “They know us as a technology innovation company. We have several types of careers that we offer to them as far as developing where their future is going to go in the STEM arena,” she said. Verizon wants the organizations to view them as not “just a phone company,” but a brand that innovates in places such as the Verizon Innovation Centers, she said. Arranging the “Shark Tank” event allows them to show how Verizon is relatable to other areas of engineering. They also aim to give students experience in performing business presentations, which she said are an important part and valuable skill for the corporate world. Wolfpak ultimately placed second, with the Society for Hispanic Engineers earning third and the Minority Engineering Educational Task winning the grand prize. “The sharks will be giving them feedback on how they present, and what they could’ve done better, for future presentations,” she said. “It’s a give and take, and in the light of (Engineers) Week, we really want to do something that really focused on the engineers.”
Verizon hosts panel to discuss post-college life GABRIELA AMARAL
previously thought of the company as a career option. Panelists answered some preStudents constantly learn pared questions then opened valuable lessons about how to the floor to questions from stuachieve success through their dents. After ward was a networkinternships and projects, but ing reception, giving panelists having established profession- the time to interact and mingle als share their experiences is with attendees. Panelists discussed the imalways helpful. Verizon hosted an industry portance of innovation and constantly propanel as part gressing to imof National Enprove technolgineers Week “We pitched our at Rutgers on organization as a whole ogy. They also talked about We d n e s d a y, and what we do and how interns where severwhy Verizon should and new hires al individucan gain the reals discussed sponsor us.” spect of senior their post-colleadership. lege lives. AKANKSHA PATHAK “Understand The profesSchool of Engineering Sophomore the work, and sionals at the do the work.” panel were involved across different lines of said Orlando Vaya, one of business, science and technical the panelists. All the panelists stressed the career paths. The goal of the panel was to expose the Veri- importance of taking initiative zon brand to science, technolo- and finding solutions before begy, engineering or mathematics ing asked how a student can be students who might not have noticed in the company. CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Professionals spoke to University students last Wednesday about their careers after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. Networking with senior members of companies during internships is one way to advance a career before it begins. EDWIN GANO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Earlier in the day, Verizon hosted a “Shark Tank” for students organizations, also tr ying to show Verizon’s diverse career paths, said Jennifer Arnau, Rutgers campus manager for Verizon University Relations and Diversity Recruitment Team. “We have successfully hired Rutgers engineering students to our company, we have a lot of Rutgers alumni who work for us and we look for the best and brightest here,” Arnau said. The networking panel enabled students to “pitch” themselves
to a leading technological organization, while also allowing Verizon to get a better understanding of who the students at Rutgers are, she said. Gaining a better understanding of Rutgers students and student organizations makes it easier for Verizon to identify what organizations to look into and recruit from throughout the year, she said. Ultimately the event was a way for industr y representatives to get a better understanding of potential new members to the
field and for students to interact with potential employers. Akanksha Pathak, a School of Engineering sophomore, was there representing the Society of Women Engineers and was one of the organizations that participated in the Shark Tank event. “We pitched our organization as a whole and what we do and why Verizon should sponsor us,” she said. “I’m also here because of possible internship opportunities, since I think they will be accepting resumes today.”
Darshan Nandha, left, and Dennison Adad, right, competed in the Cardboard Canoe Races, making it most of the way across the course, but capsizing before completing the lap. This is the third year the team competed in the event. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR
John Roche, left, and Osbel Dorvil, right, proposed a new type of ground-breaking radar during the “Shark Tank” event last Tuesday. SAMANTHA CASIMIR / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ENGINEERS Engineering is important field of study that will continue to grow in future, Deshpande says CONTINUED FROM FRONT
is a way to show off, it’s not serious. Ultimately you do have engineering principles (in the activities) but it’s fun.” Grade-school students came to Young Engineers’ Day to work with Rutgers students on pasta bridges and Arduinos, she said. Attendees learned about basic engineering principles through these activities. Over the week itself, Au said the Rutgers community had the
of students at the school, but broke down barriers between students and the faculty members, she said. As chair of the committee that planned the events, she was able to meet several accomplished professionals in the field. “(I was able to meet) strong female engineers, people who are doing unpaid internships but are turning trash into anaerobic terras at terracycle, deans and faculty members who are leaving their desks and building cardboard canoes,” she said. “ It’s fun
“Engineering, while it may seem hard, it’s a really passionate field. Everyone who does it, does it because they love it.”
Stephanie Tu, a first-year student, enjoyed the activities at the NERD Olympics. SAMANTHA CASIMIR /STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
KAUSTUBH DESHPANDE School of Engineering Senior and President of the Engineering Governing Council
Ahmed AbdRabaou, a junior, participated in the egg drop, where he created a cage to protect it as it fell. SAMANTHA CASIMIR / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
opportunity to participate in hands-on activities and learn more about the School of Engineering. “We had engineering organizations do different types of hands on activities so the public could come by. You could be a student, a visitor, a dean or faculty member and you could make ice-cream, more pasta bridges. It was just some activities so that people could celebrate engineering together,” she said. “E-Week is not just for engineers, it’s for everyone.” The events throughout the week not only boosted the morale
DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR
being able to be creative outside of the classroom.” Engineering is an important field that will only grow in the coming years, Deshpande said. Students who enter the field for their careers will have an advantage as it continues to grow. Deshpande said being exposed to it outside of normal classroom lessons can demonstrate to non-engineering students how much fun it can be. “Engineering, while it may seem hard, it’s a really passionate field,” he said. “Everyone who does it, does it because they love it.”
Pieong He, a junior, represented the School of Engineering’s mascot at the Cardbaord Canoe Races. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR
SAMANTHA CASIMIR / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ENJOYING ENGINEERING Students created canoes and presented projects during National Engineers Week, when members of the School of Engineering celebrated their work while enjoying time away from midterm examinations and normal classwork. The events were sponsored by the school and companies, and organized by students during the course of the week.