Community Connections: Thousands Flock to Open House
Engineering Open House attracts largest crowd to date
- Future engineers follow the launch of a water-propelled rocket.
The College of Engineering’s annual Open House has broken another record.
More than 6,350 people from over 75 schools across the region attended this year’s event, making it the largest open house the college has sponsored to date and maintaining the gathering’s ranking as the biggest event of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Participants included students from elementary, middle and high schools, area colleges, teachers, parents and members of the community.
The crowds had more than 100 exhibits and hands-on activities to choose from, all intended to demonstrate principles that engineers deal with in the real world.
Participants could learn robotics by watching soccer-playing AIBO dogs compete or seeing how smaller Lego robots navigate a maze or play golf. They could see how a wind tunnel works first-hand, experience what designs work best in a paper-airplane contest and observe the launch of water-propelled rockets.
Students built girders out of 2-by-4 lumber, then watched as their structures were placed by earthquake engineers into a huge tester to see how much force they could withstand before buckling. Some participants tried their hand at designing a protective enclosure for a raw egg to see if it could survive a 6-foot drop. Others explored luminescent plankton, delved into the technology behind animation, watched as a robotic fish was put through its paces, or made liquid-nitrogen ice cream.
Afterward, a number of impressed students sent fan mail.
One hand-written thank-you card from a group of elementary school students read:
- Inquisitive students get the lowdown on Mechanical Engineering's human-powered submarine.
“Dear UW School of Engineering, My friends and I were so happy because that’s the biggest school we’ve seen. We are thankful that you guys let us go to the UW school of engineering. I really enjoyed going in there for real. I wish I could go to that school. Thank you!”
Another missive continued the theme:
“Thank you University of Washington for making our class feel welcome. All of our class really enjoyed ourselves. Some of us are thinking about becoming engineers.”
The letters underline the value of the annual open house, and justify the hard work of staffers and time sacrificed by already busy researchers to make the event a success, according to Dean Denice Denton.
“We need to continue to expose our younger generations to the excitement and the importance of engineering,” Denton said. “Helping young students move past the stereotypes and see engineering for what it really is -- the process by which civilization is built -- will pay priceless dividends in the future.”