MTV meets the science fair.
Seems a little far-fetched, but that’s how Dr. Geoffrey Orsak, associate dean of the SMU School of Engineering, described Visioneering: Discover Engineering 2003, held Saturday in the lower level of Hughes-Trigg Student Center.
The event was sponsored by the SMU School of Engineering as well as the Institute for Engineering Education at SMU.
Other sponsors, including Accenture, Texas Instruments and The Science Place, had booths set up for students to visit and get in on the free gadgets.
About 500 students and teachers attended the event, representing middle schools from Dallas, Plano, Carrollton Farmers Branch, Garland, Highland Park and Mesquite school districts.
“It was pretty interesting,” said Monuplea Makor, a sophomore biomedical engineering major.
Makor said that she attended a similar event, called the Infinity project, when she was a senior in high school.
Makor spent the day as a volunteer, taking the students from place to place and helping them with their design competition projects.
A key speaker for the event was Torrence Robinson of Texas Instruments, one of the winners of the 2001 Black Engineer of the Year award. He explained to the students what it means to be an engineer. He presented a palm-sized digital camera to demonstrate what kind of work engineers have the opportunity to do.
Robinson said that this was his third year to attend Visioneering.
“I’m sure that this is the best attendance that we’ve had here in all the years that Visioneering has been offered,” he said.
Robinson said that he was excited to see the students getting interested in the field of engineering and using their creativity to solve problems.
The event opened with the students gathered in the ballroom, which was converted into a studio with an elaborate stage, light and camera setup.
Students wore School of Engineering T-shirts or surgeon’s gowns over their clothes, waving pennant flags with “Go Team!” printed on the flags.
Bob Philips, the master of ceremonies for the event, welcomed the students to Visioneering. Following him were student and professional athlete speakers, including Matt Jordan of the Dallas Burn and Tyson Walter of the Dallas Cowboys.
“I just think that Visioneering is a really wonderful enrichment activity. This will be my third year to bring students,” said Joyce Lette, a science teacher at Alex Spence Middle School in Dallas.
Lette said that she and some parents brought a few of her best students in their own cars so that they could participate in the event.
Keynote speaker Dr. Paul Pepe, director of Parkland Hospital’s emergency room, demonstrated the use of an automatic defibulator with the help of a volunteer from the audience.
Methodist Hospital of Dallas had graphic images of car accident and bullet wound victims playing on a slide show at their booth for students to see the types of cases that come into the emergency room. Students also got to see a sonogram of their hands at the booth as well.
Austin Medical Products demonstrated the use of a mobile hospital bed, which allowed one student to move about six to seven people across the room.
The presenter at the Science Place booth intrigued students with a material called Aerogel, an insulating material consisting of 99 percent air and 1 percent glass.
Students also had a chance to visit Caruth Hall and the Junkins building to experience sitting in actual college classrooms in the engineering school.
Careflight had a helicopter land in front of Dallas Hall near the flagpole. Students had the opportunity to talk with the pilots and examine the inside of the helicopter.
The event ended with the presentation of the winners of the design competition. The students had one hour to design a new concept for a futuristic emergency room.
The awards given were “Best Use of Real-Time Technology”, “You Will See It in the Future”, “Spirit”, “Emergency Room Ingenuity”, “Business Application”, “Wireless Emergency” and “High Tech, High Touch.”
