National Engineers Day highlights the invaluable contributions of engineers across many disciplines and the hundreds of students visiting UNO on Feb. 21 to celebrate were able to experience the wonders of engineering through interactive activities.

The University of New Orleans celebrated the value of engineering studies with a daylong event for area middle and high school students on Feb. 21 in honor of National Engineers Week.

Hundreds of middle and high school students from several parishes visited campus to enjoy dozens of interactive exhibits that included two NASA planetariums, UNO’s mini Baja Club’s go-kart, an Entergy power-generating demonstration, an underwater remote-operated vehicle and many other hands-on activities.

“We have NASA here with the planetariums, we have Entergy outside with several hundred thousand volts sparking and arcing, and then we have engineering companies with interactive demonstrations,” said Kim Jovanovich, UNO electrical and computer engineering professor and the event’s organizer, while addressing a University Center ballroom filled with students. “Many of them are our students and many of them are past students of ours who are working for some of those companies as practicing engineers. You should spend as much time as possible with them.”

Indeed, that was the goal and purpose of the event Jovanovich said.

“Celebrating National Engineers Day at UNO allows us to expose the young future engineers of the greater New Orleans area to experts in the field of engineering and technical companies that critically depend on engineers for success,” he said. “In many cases, these young students do not have access to the engineering community or even know an engineer, so this event helps us to bring that opportunity to those students, where they can meet engineers and see demonstrations of exciting technology.”

From a laser pattern generator to students pedaling a stationary bike to generate enough energy to power on LED lights to demonstrations about gravity and the impact of weight to being able to determine the structural integrity of a plastic straw tower, students were challenged to think about the impact and contributions that engineers make.

“Engineers are complex problem solvers and always are at the forefront of technological advancements and innovation. Engineers have played an important role in shaping the world around us,” Jovanovich said. “Space and ocean exploration, energy sources, infrastructure and transportation systems, healthcare technologies, communication networks, advanced materials and electronic devices are just a few of the contributions engineers have made.”

Leading students through the exhibits and activities were faculty and students from the UNO’s Dr. Robert A. Savoie College of Engineering, local industry professionals, as well as representatives from student organizations and campus chapters of professional engineering groups, including the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The event carried hints of a county fair-type atmosphere as students gathered around tables asking questions, laughing at themselves, and participating in demonstrations such Selina Rollins’ visual take on mathematician Daniel Bernoulli's principle and the inverse relationship of fluid velocity and pressure.

A fluid is anything without a defined shape, like air or water, said Rollins, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering and president of the UNO chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. She created a “vortex air cannon” using a 36-gallon trashcan with a circular whole cut in the bottom and the top covered with a clear shower curtain secured with plenty of large rubber bands.

“There’s this really, really, old guy, he’s dead, but we still use his principles all the time,” Rollins said, drawing chuckles from the crowd of students who have encircled her and her large makeshift drum. “Bernulli says that when a fluid is moving at a fast pace or a fast velocity the pressure is low. He says when you’re moving at a slower pace or slow velocity the pressure is high.”

Rollins filled up her plastic drum with smoke and invited students to tap the covered end while she pointed the open end at a stack of plastic cups on a nearby table. Two things occurred. Smoke circles floated slowly into the air as the drum was tapped. And, with more forceful taps – the cups tumbled down.

“The air around us is a fluid. Is the air around us moving at a fast velocity or a slow velocity?” Rollins asked. “Is my hair moving? Are my clothes coming off me? Are there hurricane force winds? Noooo! So, if the air is moving at a slow velocity, then the pressure is high.

“If I fill this up with a different fluid and I hit it—is that fluid moving at a slow velocity or a fast velocity? It’s moving at a fast velocity because it has force behind it. That means the pressure is … low! That’s right!”

Since the fluid smoke inside the drum has a lower pressure and faster velocity than the surrounding fluid air, the high-pressure air in the building is the force that helps the low-pressure smoke hold that perfect ring shape, Rollins said.

Nearby, UNO electrical engineering graduate student Miguel Trejas demonstrated the effects of speed on laser patterns. At slower speeds, the laser on the wall could appear to just be a circle, but by manipulating the speed knob, one could create more intricate patterns.
 
“When you speed it up, more lines will appear,” Trejas said. “It’s a single laser but it’s moving around so fast that it makes the image appear multiple.”

Jovanovich said the event is part of UNO’s ongoing commitment to educate and inspire young students who have an interest in pursuing careers in engineering.

“The University wins because we can attract and enroll students from the area to prepare them for a career through outstanding academics, and the area wins because a new college graduate is placed in the local workforce,” he said. “And what better place is there to hold an engineering event like this, than the University of New Orleans with the support of the Dr. Robert A. Savoie College of Engineering?

“Recognizing that UNO offers the only civil, electrical, mechanical, and naval architecture and marine engineering programs in the metro area, it makes us the ideal host for such an event.”