Cincinnati-Area School Students Come to UC to Be "Engineer for a Day"

Known as the “hidden profession,” engineers find that the public has difficulty grasping the details of day-to-day engineering tasks. The NSBE members have placed great emphasis on giving each student a brief, but in-depth, perspective on the job of an engineer — using math and science skills to solve practical problems. The members hope to positively affect the numbers of African American engineers. According to the American Society for Engineering Education, only 5.4% of the Bachelor’s degrees in engineering in 2001–2002 were earned by African American students.

Black engineers and scientists will be on site from Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, Kroger, Hamilton County Environmental Services, the Department of Veteran Affairs, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, and Cintas Corporation. They will be accompanied by more than 20 UC engineering students as well as the director of the Emerging Ethnic Engineers office, Kenneth Simonson.

Middle- and high-school students from Cincinnati public schools and the surrounding suburbs in Ohio and Kentucky will participate. Among past attendees are educators from WEB Dubois Academy, Winton Hills Academy, Woodward Career Tech and Withrow University High School.

Hands-on student activities will include an introduction to physics, flight patterns of several different types of catapults, sail cars, freestanding towers and design exercises. Throughout the day, students will take organized tours of the UC Uptown campus. The College of Engineering will also sponsor tours of and demonstrations at its key research laboratories.

For more information, contact Julie Burdick , Director of Pre-Admissions

College of Engineering, University of Cincinnati (513) 556-5417