Campers prepared to say goodbye on Friday as they presented their final projects for fellow campers participating in the second annual KU Survivor: Engineering Outback Camp, held July 22-27. The camp gave high school students interested in pursuing engineering careers the opportunity to sample the academic programs offered by the KU School of Engineering.
They could choose from five engineering disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, electrical and computer science, civil, and architectural engineering.
Twenty-seven campers attended the six-day camp, which was down from the 34 students who participated last summer. Camp director Dawnelle Prince said approximately 50 percent of past campers have since applied to attend the KU School of Engineering.
"We want students to get an overview of the engineering department," said Dawnelle Prince, director of recruitment for the KU School of Engineering. "Our goal is to get them interested in the school itself."
Campers divided into their respective fields of interest to participate in one of four academic sessions offered during the week. Four faculty instructors led the lab sessions which focused on projects relating to their engineering areas.
Mechanical engineering students built a class race car. Aerospace students constructed individual rockets and one giant class rocket. EECS students designed video game graphics and learned to write software code for video game development. Civil engineering and architectural engineering students combined efforts to build model houses, measure their indoor temperatures, and experiment with changes in the interior climate controls.
"The projects are similar to the ones real college students are doing here at the university," said Dr. Mario A. Medina, an associate professor in the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering Department. "We want students to get a feel for the college so they aren't so overwhelmed when they get here."
While lab sessions took up a large portion of the camp, Prince said much of the week was designed to be fun.
On Monday, students took part in the GPS-guided "Amazing Race." Equipped with hand-held global positioning devices, they ventured across campus for a scavenger hunt. Prince said the purpose of the activity was to familiarize the students with the KU campus. The Navy ROTC sponsored a Frisbee tournament in the afternoon.
Following Tuesday's lab sessions, campers gathered in a hangar at the KU Garrison Flight Research Center in north Lawrence. Dr. Ronald M. Barrett-Gonzalez, an associate professor in the KU Aerospace Engineering Department, gave them a guided tour of the hangar and allowed them to examine its inventory of airplanes and remote-controlled helicopters. Later that evening, campers made s'mores by roasting marshmallows over a roaring jet engine.
Photo: Andy Greenhaw
"My favorite part of camp was the jet engine marshmallow roasting extravaganza," said Vince Ciaramitaro, a camper interested in aerospace engineering. "It was really cool to see the engine change colors like that."
Campers traveled to the Kansas City area on Wednesday morning for a tour of the 358,000-square-foot Harley-Davidson Vehicle and Powertrain Operations. Following an industry luncheon, they toured Perceptive Software, Inc., located in Lenexa, and spoke with professional engineers involved in software design. The road trip concluded with a dodge ball tournament held in the basement of the software engineering complex.
Upon returning to Lawrence Wednesday afternoon, campers attempted the "Rock Climbing Challenge" on the 42-foot climbing wall at the KU Student Recreation Center.
The group traveled to Clinton Lake on Thursday to watch the aerospace engineering students launch their rockets into the morning sky.
Campers gathered in the parking lot of the KU Student Recreation Center on Thursday afternoon for the "Race Car Exhibition" and watched the mechanical engineering students showcase their newly-constructed machine.
The group will attend their final lecture sessions Friday morning and the camp will conclude with group presentations in the afternoon, after which students will check out of Oliver Hall and head for home.
"I think this is a very successful program," said Prince. "We hope to see many of the campers return as KU engineering students in the future."