Engineer-for-a-day program is alive and well in 2010

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. --  Sixty-three students from eight mid-state counties recently attended the engineer-for-a-day program at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) and other area businesses.

According to Early McKnight, a systems support engineer for Jacobs Technology Inc., participation in the program may have hit an all-time high.

"Certainly, as far back as anybody can remember, this is the largest group we've ever had," McKnight said regarding the event, which dates back at least as far as the early 1960s.

McKnight, along with Harry Clark, an engineering specialist for Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA), and Mike Hamby, a senior system engineer with Jacobs, helped organize the event, which was one of several activities held during National Engineers Week, coordinated by the local chapter of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers.

The increase in participation might be attributed to area high school guidance counselors, who did a particularly good job of getting the information out to the students this year, according to McKnight. The majority of AEDC participants in the program were engineers or scientists, but a number of other employees served in support roles and helped make the day a success, McKnight said.

"People are busy, and oftentimes people don't get the credit that they deserve," McKnight said. "That's one of the things I wanted to do this year - to let people know that we really do appreciate them putting forth the effort to help the students. It's good for the center, it's good for the students, it's good for our nation, and we really do appreciate it." Howard Frederick, an ATA electrical design engineer, who served as a mentor for some of the students, explained the importance of the engineer-for-a-day program.

"It's such a good opportunity for them to see this, and it seems important to me that they do because it would be hard for them to think, 'well I want to go into electrical engineering,' if they don't really know what an electrical engineer does," Frederick said. "This is a very intensive engineering place, where they can really see a lot of different aspects of it and get a feel for what an engineer does."

The students, mostly juniors or seniors in high school, are generally surprised at how big everything is at AEDC, according to Frederick. "I've done this several times and that's a pretty typical reaction," Frederick said.

"They haven't had any engineering classes yet, really. They've had some basic high school level science and math, so they're getting exposed for the first time to some of the practical engineering and problems that we face." "We get a good bit of participation from area businesses ... and it's very important that we have that cooperation," McKnight said.

That participation allowed the program to offer exposure to areas of engineering and science that are not normally utilized at AEDC. The list of all of the area industry participants included AEDC, Calsonic, Jacobs Technology Inc., the Tullahoma Utilities Board, Duck River Utility Commission, and Oliver Rhodes and Associates. The engineer-for-a-day activities began with a welcome and interactive talk from AEDC Commander, Col. Michael Panarisi. Next, recent engineering graduates explained to the students why they became involved in the discipline and came to work at AEDC, followed by a question and answer session.

Students were then given a tour of major base facilities. A luncheon at the Arnold Lakeside Center followed with a speech by AEDC Fellow Dr. John Adams on aerodynamics. Students then spent the afternoon with their various mentors.