Summer camp inspires future women engineers
Thirty-six high school girls from across the Buckeye state and beyond learned about the wide range of engineering majors offered by The Ohio State University, related careers and college life during a six-day residential camp hosted by the university’s Women in Engineering program.
Sponsored by GM Foundation and Shell, WiE RISE is filled with hands-on activities, including learning how to program a Sparki robot to complete various challenges, a team design-build project to create a device capable of protecting an egg during a fall, a water purification challenge and creating a light up LED display circuit. In addition, participants met current Ohio State engineering female faculty and students and learned more about college life.
According to many participants, the camp also exposed them to new potential careers within the field of engineering.
“I’m definitely more sure about wanting to be an engineer now,” Jenna Hanning from Gallipolis, Ohio, said about her WiE RISE experience. “I really liked learning about industrial engineering because I had no idea about it and that could be my potential major now. So the camp could be life changing.”
Campers visited several research laboratories including the High Voltage Research Laboratory, the Center for Automotive Research, as well as the Ohio State Airport, where participants enjoyed a tour and flight training.
“We got to see all these different kinds of engineering. I came here thinking I wanted to be a mechanical engineer and then they introduced different things like industrial engineering,” said Gloria Campos from Dayton. “It’s just really cool that they were able to bring in people from that specific type of engineering, and give us examples of what you would do in that field and a list of traits you need to enjoy that type of engineering. It was really, really informative.”
View photos of some of the STEM fun that happened during WiE RISE 2016:
