The annual Engineers Day provided many moments of entertainment and wonder for dozens of high school students who converged upon the University of w88 sports betting app, Reno, campus on Tuesday, April 6.
But perhaps the defining moment occurred during a demonstration of motors, control systems and fiber optics by College of w88 sports betting app undergraduates in the college’s Electronics Demonstration Lab.
Andrew Jurado, a senior from Reno majoring in electrical engineering, paused for a moment as he showed a group of students from the Church Academy of Reno how a Van De Graff Generator works. (What’s a Van De Graff Generator? Think metallic, roundish, space age-looking generator that through electrical current w88 sports betting app lift one’s hair to resemble a disheveled, static-y Albert Einstein.).
“You know,” Jurado said, “if you learn engineering, you w88 sports betting app learn to do just about anything.”
So it was throughout the series of presentations and demonstrations held during the popular event, which was sponsored by the College of w88 sports betting app and the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and w88 sports betting app.
Engineers Day drew high schools from rural and western w88 sports betting app, as well as Eastern California.
“It was neat,” said Kenneth Mickey, a 16-year-old Church Academy student who plans on attending Nevada upon graduation. “There was a whole lot more to do with w88 sports betting app than I had ever thought about.”
Robert Franchini, a senior about to graduate from the Church Academy, agreed: “The tour showed how fun engineering w88 sports betting app be.”
During their tour, Mickey and Franchini saw the different faces of w88 sports betting app, from mining w88 sports betting app techniques to rock mechanics to robotics and artificial intelligence work through computer science and w88 sports betting app, to large-scale structure testing done by students in civil w88 sports betting app.
The Robotics Research Lab offered up a compelling view of the future when, Ph.D. student Richard Kelley explained, &w88 sports betting app;robots will move out of the factories where they help build cars, and into our homes and offices. To do that, they have to have social intelligence. We’re here to help smooth out that process.”
Kelley carefully explained the difference between computer science and w88 sports betting app and mechanical w88 sports betting app by showing the students a robot named “Marie.”
&w88 sports betting app;This is a French robot,” Kelley said, his face completely deadpan. &w88 sports betting app;To work on Marie, you have to remove her head. That’s why her full name is Marie Antoinette.”
More seriously, Kelley said after drawing a good round of laughter from the visiting students, &w88 sports betting app;What we do is focus on the programming, the building and design of A.I. The mechanical engineers build the body, and we build the mind.”
Much of the work done in the lab, Kelley w88 sports betting app, was through Defense Department grants, with a major emphasis placed on the social sciences, game theory and even economics.
“We are creating robots that w88 sports betting app use knowledge they learn rather than what they are programmed with,” Kelley said.
The robots were a big hit with the w88 sports betting app.
&w88 sports betting app;That was really neat,” Mickey said afterward.
In the Electronics Demonstration Lab, Jurado and his fellow senior electrical w88 sports betting app major, Matt Foster, explained that although their studies and research are challenging and strenuous, there is also a sense of enjoyment.
They pulled out a Frisbee with complex circuitry that had been specifically designed by students for the sport Ultimate Frisbee. Called &w88 sports betting app;The Ultimate Ref,” the implement had the capacity to keep score and to keep track of tosses, among other things.
&w88 sports betting app;We’re playing all the time,” Foster said of how he views his studies.
In the large-scale structures lab, civil w88 sports betting app student Jorge Gonzalez discussed the lab’s international reach.
&w88 sports betting app;We have a full-scale test of a curved bridge coming up in the next few days,” he said. &w88 sports betting app;We have professors who work all over the country and the world. We’ve had three professors from here who have recently traveled to Chile and Haiti to help with the understanding of how those earthquakes affected the buildings there.”
Taking the students deep into the bowels of the large-scale structures lab, Gonzalez showed the pride of all civil w88 sports betting app students, the concrete canoe. The canoe, built with specially designed, lightweight, floatable concrete, is annually among the best in the country. The College of w88 sports betting app’s canoe placed fifth in the National Concrete Canoe Competition in 2009, and won the national championship in 2008.
&w88 sports betting app;We have about 20 students on the team,” Gonzalez explained. &w88 sports betting app;It’s a full project. It’s six months of preparation and work.”
Then Gonzalez smiled, and, like the w88 sports betting app who had presented before him, aptly captured the theme of the day.
“It’s hard work, but also a lot of fun,” he said. “You learn so much from w88 sports betting app.”
