College's annual 'E-Day' event draws prospective engineers to Auburn

Feb 23, 2013 (Opelika-Auburn News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- One of the year's biggest attractions to the Auburn University campus isn't another sporting event. It's Engineering Day.

Commonly known as E-Day, the annual event brings more than 2,000 middle school, high school and junior college transfers to Auburn's campus to learn about the various majors offered by the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Jim Killian, director of communications and marketing for the College of Engineering, said the event has been held for more than two decades and is the largest single non-sporting event held on Auburn's campus each year.

"E-day is part of Engineers week, which is a national celebration in which we try to draw attention to the engineering careers out there," Killian said.

Killian said students had the opportunity to chat one-on-one with engineering students and faculty at displays in the Student Center.

"Most of our visitors are high-school students who are thinking about majoring in engineering in college ..." Killian said. "This allows them a sort of hands-on experience of engineering. They can really see, feel and touch what engineering is about." Killian said there were displays from each of the college's departments. He said students could observe everything from the paper-making process from the chemical engineering department to bridge models by civil engineering students.

"We do it that way because that's sort of the focal point of the event and they can go from one [department] to the other," Killian said. "If they have an interest in one of those they can go on a departmental tour to see that department's classrooms and labs." The electrical engineering display was one major attraction at the event.

"This is ANRAV, which stands for Autonomous Nautical Radiation Assessment Vessel," said Markus Kreitzer, senior in computer and electrical engineering.

Kreitzer, who will begin his graduate studies at Auburn in the fall, said ANRAV was a response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

"I read up on it, and it was so hard for them to really track where all this nuclear waste was going," he said. "I thought, what if we build a robot that can autonomously go out there, powered by the sun, and survey an area to track this nuclear waste " Kreitzer said an ANRAV model at the event was a highlight of their display.

"We were definitely recruiting students and telling them about how interesting electrical engineering is," Kreitzer said. "I always say electrical engineering is the glue that keeps all the other fields of engineering together." Killian said other displays included Formula SAE and Baja SAE racecars, which were built by students from the ground up. He said these displays show students the rewarding side of majoring in engineering.

"This allowed the students to see some of the fun things that engineering students get to do," he said.

Killian said students came from all over the South, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Kentucky. He said E-Day gives them the tools to know exactly what field of engineering might be best suited for them.

"When students come to a university, some know exactly what they want and others need to look around a bit," Killian said. "This answers any questions they may have." AU Engineering According to http://www.eng.auburn.edu/, Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering offers the following undergraduate degrees: --Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering --Bachelor of Biosystems Engineering --Bachelor of Chemical Engineering --Bachelor of Civil Engineering --Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science --Bachelor of Science in Computer Science --Bachelor of Software Engineering --Bachelor of Wireless Engineering --Bachelor of Electrical Engineering --Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering --Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering --Bachelor of Materials Engineering (Department of Mechanical Engineering) --Bachelor of Polymer and Fiber Engineering ___ (c)2013 the Opelika-Auburn News (Opelika, Ala.) Visit the Opelika-Auburn News (Opelika, Ala.) at www.oanow.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

[ Back To Technology News's Homepage ]