Engineers announce National Engineers Week plans, preparing local students for new horizons

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  Committee members with various professional engineering societies are completing arrangements for scheduled events that will prepare local students in "Engineering New Horizons," which is the theme of the 2015 Engineers Week, Feb. 22-28.

Local events for the week include a MathCounts® competition, a student design competition, an Engineer-for-a-Day program and a banquet.

The MathCounts competition is 8 a.m. on Feb. 21 at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. The competition, which is open to local middle school students, challenges mathletes to solve problems, that if answered correctly, could advance them to the state competition. The winning team will be recognized at the Engineers Week Banquet.

High school teams will participate in the Student Design Competition at the Hands-On-Science Center in Tullahoma on Feb. 24. Tenth through 12th grade students design, build and compete their designs against other teams. The teams will be given kits with identical materials and will have one and a half hours to design, build and test.

Prizes will be awarded to the top three scoring teams.

Engineer-for-a-Day is Feb. 26. Engineer-oriented, junior and senior high school students will tour AEDC, have lunch and then go with a mentor to observe engineers at work. Some students will stay at AEDC, others will visit companies in the local area.

On March 2, the Engineers Week Banquet will be at the Manchester/Coffee County Conference Center. The banquet speaker is Dr. John Schmisseur who joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering in Aug. 2014. He instructs and leads research at the University of Tennessee Space Institute.

Prior to joining the UT faculty, Schmisseur was the chief of the Energy, Power & Propulsion Sciences Division and program manager for Aerothermodynamics within the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). During his tenure at AFOSR, he initiated and led a national strategic research plan which has guided the research efforts of multiple federal agencies, championed the transition of basic research capabilities that have advanced flagship national hypersonics technology programs and transformed test and evaluation capabilities, and envisioned the HIFiRE program which unifies the efforts of AFRL, NASA and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization to advance fundamental hypersonic science and technology via flight research.

The banquet social begins at 5:30 p.m., dinner begins at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are available through Feb. 23 and the cost is $30. Tickets may be purchased through a committee member by calling 454-4335, 454-4495, 454-6093, 454-6542, 393-6632 or 454-4345.

The Engineers Week activities are sponsored by the Tullahoma Chapter of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, the Highland Rim Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Tennessee section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals, the Project Management Institute, and the Arnold Association of Professional Societies.

During the week of activities, volunteers have the opportunity to conduct hands-on activities with students; talk to a group of students about engineering; or participate in community engineering events.

Volunteers are invited to assist in the events. To volunteer or for more information, call 454-6316.