Engineering Week features tricks, trivia, games and rocket cars
Series of Zoom and Facebook Live events to engage current and future engineers Feb. 22-25.
From staff reports |
Fort Gwinn, associate dean of engineering, helps students prepare their rocket cars for the Feb. 25 Rocket Car Rally in Bison Square.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made it clear how much society relies on the critical work of engineers to create a better tomorrow for us all. National Engineers Week, Feb. 21-27, celebrates the important work of today’s engineers and engages the next generation of innovators to think about the future.
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Details on the Rocket Car Rally
Lipscomb’s Raymond B Jones College of Engineering will engage Nashville’s current and future engineers in “Imagining Tomorrow” with a series of Zoom and in-person events highlighting the fun and innovative things Lipscomb engineers do outside of the classroom to impact tomorrow.
The online events, held each day Feb. 22-25, will feature robots, gravity-defying concrete, rocket cars, a talk by Casey Santos, head of business process innovation, workflow and automation at Alliance Bernstein, engineering projects impacting lives in Africa and trivia and games highlighting engineering’s women heroes.
National Engineering Week was created in 1951 by DiscoverE, an organization that works to ensure people everywhere understand how engineers, technicians and technologists make the world a better place.
Please join Lipscomb to celebrate E-Week by exploring timely topics in the field at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, noon on Wednesday and throughout the day on Thursday.
Monday, Feb. 22, 6 p.m., Zoom
"Tricks & Treats in Engineering"
We'll investigate circuits, robotics and gravity-defying concrete. Play along in a "Will It Float?" challenge in our labs.
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 6 p.m., Zoom
“(Engineering) Missions Possible"
Travel virtually with us to several communities around the globe in need of assistance and skilled hands. Lipscomb Engineering is home to the Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities, where we put the engineering skills we learn in the classroom to work helping others. Hear about our students' energy, clean water, bridge and medical service projects in Central America, Africa and here at home in Nashville.
Wednesday, Feb 24, noon,
On Zoom or in Collins Auditorium, on campus
"Engineering to Finance"
Casey Santos, head of business process innovation, workflow and automation at Alliance Bernstein, will speak on blending the engineering design process into business strategy, as well as her personal and professional story, ranging from the moon to the matrix.
Santos earned a BS in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT and began her career at the Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control Center at NASA as a propulsion systems engineer supporting multiple space shuttle missions, including the first Shuttle-Mir docking mission and the first Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.
She left NASA to be an IT consultant, implementing technology to serve multiple industries including oil and gas, finance, automotive and electronics. Santos also worked as a strategy consultant in McKinsey’s Business Technology Office in Madrid and New York before transitioning to McKinsey’s private investment office as head of IT.
Santos also has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a MA in international studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
She serves as a board director of the Women’s Forum of New York, and a board member for the YMCA of Greater New York, where she co-chairs the Hispanic Achievers Program. She formerly was a board member of both BritishAmerican Business and the Wall Street Technology Association, and was co-head of the Hedge Fund Technology Group. Santos serves or has served on the advisory boards of Box, Zoom Video Communications, Masergy, Agio and the Financial Technology Forum.
Wednesday, Feb 24, 6 p.m., Zoom
"Wonder Women in Engineering"
Hosted by Lipscomb's student section of the Society of Women Engineers, we will celebrate the female super heroes (she-roes!) in our part of the STEM world with trivia and games.
***NOTE: MEMBERSHIP OR PARTICIPATION IN THE LIPSCOMB SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS COLLEGIATE SECTION IS NOT LIMITED BY SEX AND IS OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS REGARDLESS OF SEX, DESPITE ITS NAME.
The 2008 Rocket Car Rally was held in Bison Square at night.
Thursday, Feb. 25, all-day, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
Virtual Rocket Car Rally
Lipscomb Engineering Day of Giving Facebook Page
Or in-person in Bison Square
Lipscomb Engineering is re-launching the rocket car derby, where pinewood derby cars decked out with model rocket engines compete for the trophy.
You can catch the heats and cheer on your favorite team by viewing the live cast from Lipscomb's Day of Giving Facebook. Or come in person to Bison Square. The competition begins at 10:30 a.m. #lipscombdayofgiving
The first rocket car derby was held on campus in 2006. This year, twelve teams made up of students and professors will compete for the fastest time, most innovative design and other awards.
David Collao in 2008 with his rocket car.
Also this year, the rocket car derby welcomes back a veteran of the competition, David Collao, a 2009 engineering graduate who has joined the faculty this year as an assistant professor in mechanical engineering. He created cars to compete in the first three derbies, coordinating the event in 2008.
“I decided to participate because it sounded like so much fun to buy a piece of wood and turn it into a masterpiece that would smoke other chunks of wood while looking beautiful,” said Collao. “I felt like it brought out my spirit of competitiveness and design.”
But it didn’t bring winning glory that first year: his car (which had wings) didn’t even make it to the end of the track, he said. In 2007 his car did win several races, but no design awards.
In 2008, cars carved into various pointed and sleek aerodynamic designs with monikers such as The Bomb, Lightening and Plum Inferno competed for the prize. The event was covered in the local newspaper, and Collao took home the prize for best innovation for his car called Thunder Soul.
“Students and professors came together to make it a fun experience,” said Collao.
These wooden derby cars in 2008 competed in the rally that was reported in the local newspaper.