You have one hour to design the medical emergency room for the future. Go.

That’s the task facing hundreds of middle school and high school students at February’s Visioneering: Discover Engineering 2003 event at Reunion Arena.

Visioneering is an annual event started two years ago by the Institute for Engineering Education at SMU and the SMU School of Engineering as part of a federal mandate to inspire and inform younger students about a career in engineering.

“The future is built around the ideas of people with engineering [experience],” said Geoffrey Orsak, associate dean of the SMU School of Engineering and executive director of the Institute for Engineering Education at SMU. “I don’t care what frat party you’ve been to. This is bigger.”

Orsak describes Visoneering as “MTV meets the science fair.”

The theme this year is “Designing the Emergency Room of the Future.” Along with the many presentations, visuals, upbeat music and hands-on learning, the students will participate in the design competition in which they have one hour to devise a futuristic emergency room. Afterward, they will present their designs, which will later be displayed at The Science Place in Dallas.

Medical and engineering professionals, as well as professional athletes, will be at Visioneering, including Texas Instruments’ Torrence Robinson, a winner of 2001’s Black Engineer of the Year Award.

This year’s event will be filmed and broadcast on Cable Channel 1, reaching approximately 12,000 schools across the nation. The broadcast is scheduled for Feb. 21.

Bob Philips, an SMU alumus, will host the event this year along with current SMU students Misty Giles and James Orr.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” Giles, an undergraduate in the School of Engineering said. As a female engineer, she encourages other young women to attend the event and learn about the field she said.

“It’s a great advantage for the middle school kids,” said Orr, a business finance major and a graduate of the School of Engineering. “[Visioneering] will get them excited about engineering and get the word on the street.”

Approximately 350 children attended Visioneering 2001; in 2002, that number rose to 800. This year should attract more interested children.

“SMU is a national resource, and Visioneering is an example,” he said.

Glenn Javens, a School of Engineering alumus who works for the consulting and technology firm Accenture said, “When I was growing up, an engineering degree was not ‘cool.’ The Visioneering project is a way of explaining the other side that many of us never saw growing up. It shows real application of engineering to students earlier in their careers so that they are excited and pursue an engineering degree in college.”

This will be Javens’ third year to participate in Visioneering.

“The design competition is always so much fun,” he said. “It is amazing some of the ideas and concepts of the future that the children have.”

Last year, the students had to design a futuristic computer.

Orsak, the executive director of the institute, agrees.

“These kids are pretty inventive,” he said.

The event is scheduled for Feb. 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m and will be filmed live as the official event of National Engineers Week. For more information about Visioneering and the Institute for Engineering Education at SMU, visit www.theinstitute.smu.edu.