UC Welcomes Even More Students to Fourth-Annual Science & Engineering Expo

The University of Cincinnati (UC) will welcome about 350 future scientists, engineers and mathematicians from 28 schools across the five-county southwest Ohio region when it hosts the fourth-annual Science & Engineering Expo on Saturday, March 15. With their parents, plus approximately 600 UC faculty, staff and student volunteers and 200 volunteer judges from area schools and businesses, the university will host more than a thousand visitors 

Closed judging begins at 9 a.m. in the Great Hall of Tangeman University Center (TUC). The competition — open to grades 7–12 across Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Preble and Warren counties — offers more than $51,000 in scholarships and awards. The UC contest has individual and team poster exhibits that will be critiqued by more than 200 judges with backgrounds in science and engineering. More than 100 of UC’s Cincinnatus and Honors Scholars will spend their day volunteering as runners and campus guides.

Top contenders at the UC Science & Engineering Expo (SEE) may also qualify for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, billed as the world’s largest pre-college science competition, which will be held in Atlanta, May 11–17, or the Discovery Channel Young Scientists Challenge for grades 5-8, which is expected to draw 60,000 children from around the country to compete to be one of the 40 finalists to travel to Washington, D.C., for competition in October.

UC hosts the competition with the intent of making science and academic achievement a celebration for the entire family. As judging takes place in the Great Hall, more than 500 of the expected parents and siblings of competitors can take in an array of exciting, hands-on science-related activities in Tangeman University Center and elsewhere on the UC campus.

The awards ceremony takes place at 4 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center. Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, will serve as emcee for the awards ceremony. Additional speakers at the ceremony include Valerie Gray Hardcastle, dean of the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and Associate Provost Tom Cruse, chair of the UC Science & Engineering Expo.

Prior to the awards ceremony, however, the students and their parents will hear from National Geographic Explorer, anthropologist — and former NFL cheerleader — Mireya Mayor. Mayor is a Fulbright scholar and National Science Foundation Fellow, dividing her time between research in Madagascar, appearing as a correspondent on the "National Geographic Ultimate Explorer" television series, and completing a PhD in anthropology.

“The rain forest appears to be a gigantic, green mishmash of unknowns," Mayor says. "We are still discovering new species and who knows what else may be out there. But we do know that every tree and creature in it plays a vital role in our existence—ensuring their survival helps to ensure ours.”

Earning her the nickname of “female Indiana Jones,” Mayor’s "Ultimate Explorer" TV expeditions have taken her to Central Africa’s gorillas, underwater with the six-foot Humboldt squid and into a veterinarian’s haven for leopards in Namibia.

Mayor’s discovery of a new species of mouse lemur in Madagascar put her own work in the spotlight. “It was one of those things you never thought could happen in the 21st century,” she recalls. Documenting her find in hopes of obtaining full protection for its habitat required arduous field work during the monsoon season. “There we were, tromping through remote areas of jungle, rain pouring, tents blowing into the air, looking for a nocturnal animal that happens to be the smallest primate in the world.”

View the list of schools participating.

Visit the UC Science & Engineering Expo Web page.