Click here to view an audio slideshow about the KU Survivor: Engineering Outback summer camp.
The connection between s’mores and aerospace engineering may not seem obvious at first, but participants of the KU Survivor: Engineering Outback summer camp soon saw the relationship between the two when they got to make s’mores using the engine of a small jet.
According to Dr. Ron Barrett-Gonzales, associate professor of aerospace engineering, the jet engine reached a temperature of approximately 3600 degrees Fahrenheit within seconds. Students were able to roast marshmallows even while standing at a distance from the engine. Everyone in the area was required to wear earmuffs to protect themselves from the loud noises emitted by the engine.
“This is probably the loudest sound that these young people will hear until they get to the likes of a Zeppelin concert and stand in the seat next to the speaker bank,” Barrett-Gonzalez said. “This is 128 decibels.”
Activities like making s’mores, field trips and hands-on projects are the main components of the weeklong camp. Although three hours of their mornings are dedicated to lectures, the rest of the afternoon involves working on projects.
Dawnelle Prince-Parks, director of recruitment for the School of Engineering, said that the interactive approach contributes to the enrollment of future students. Last year was the camp’s first year, and over 50 percent of the senior men who participated in the camp applied to the School of Engineering, Prince-Parks said.
“With the guys, we try to make it very project-intensive,” Prince-Parks said. “More so than just lecture time in a classroom, we want them to be very interactive. With over a 50 percent application rate, that makes the camp extremely successful for us.”
Participants completed projects based on which engineering discipline they chose to study. The ten disciplines offered by the University are: aerospace, architectural, chemical, civil, computer, computer science, electrical, physics, mechanical and petroleum. For example, the mechanical students worked on an SAE Formula One race car, while the aerospace students built rockets and launched them at Clinton Lake, Prince-Parks said.
“For computer science, we’re doing a graphic model,” Steffan Counts, a high school senior from Kansas City, Mo., said. “So far we’re still in the planning stages, I’m not sure what exactly the graphic model will be, but it’s pretty exciting. It’s very invigorating.”
In addition to the projects, participants went on a field trip and visited various companies to expose themselves to the 10 disciplines of engineering offered by the University. One night, the students looked at small propeller planes at the University’s hangar. The next day, they toured a Harley-Davidson factory and Perceptive Software, a software company based out of Shawnee, Kan. These activities allowed the students to consider a different track in engineering that they may not have had a previous interest in.
“I want to expand my horizons, see all the different types of engineering,” Counts said. “Even though I’m in electrical engineering/computer science, I might drift into another one. You n ever know.”
According to Prince-Parks, the camp has a 50-man maximum. However, only 27 students participated in the camp this summer, including two returning campers. While Prince-Parks said that this is a good-sized, manageable group, Barrett-Gonzalez said that the camp has the potential to reach out to more students.
“There are so many cool things that go on with this camp and it’s like, this is one of the least discovered secrets in the Midwest,” Barrett-Gonzalez said. “If kids in Sedalia or out in Salina knew about this thing they’d be here in droves. There are a lot of people who just need to find out about it.”