Engineering Ambassador Activities 2004-2005
Russ College Fall Research Fair

The 2004 Fall Research Fair was a two-day event. On November 5, 2004, more than 40 middle school students from area schools participated in a variety of activities designed to stimulate their interest in the engineering and scientific fields. Russ faculty and Engineering Ambassadors carried out the competitions and experiments.

During the morning hours, the students participated in experiments and competitions, including a structure building and an egg drop. In the structure competition, the students used gumdrops and tooth picks to build a structure capable of supporting a stack of CDs. In the egg drop competition, the students were charged with creating a system -- using a variety of household items such as Styrofoam cups, moth balls, and plastic shopping bags -- to support an egg dropped from Stocker's main entrance bridge. The students then visited the Russ College Fall Research Fair, held in Walter Hall's rotunda. Afterward, Engineering Ambassadors escorted the students to Boyd Dining Hall for lunch.

On November 6, 2004, the Ambassadors helped with the Fall Research Fair, which was open to the public. Faculty, staff, and students displayed current research projects from academic and research units across engineering disciplines. Projects on display included highway pavements of the future; fuel cell power sources; nanotechnology applications; intelligent computer networking; Synthetic Vision Systems for aircraft navigation; gas and pipeline corrosion prevention; the "aeromobile" a prototype for 21st-century personal transportation; and biomedical engineering applications.

Overall, the Engineering Ambassadors helped manage the middle school visit and set up the Fall Research Fair on Friday, then registered fair workers and public guests, and helped with clean up, on Saturday.