January 20, 2004

Boise State Hosts First-Ever 'Engineering Day' Friday, January 30

“Most technological advances — televisions, computers, the Internet, the space shuttle, airplanes — can be attributed to the work of engineers,” writes Celeste Baine in her book “Is there an Engineer Inside You?” Baine, director of the Engineering Education Service Center in Eugene, Ore., will speak at Boise State University’s first-ever Engineering Day on Friday, Jan. 30, in the Engineering and Technology Building at 1375 University Drive. Activities will take place from 2:30-4:30 p.m. This free event, sponsored by the College of Engineering, is open to junior high and high school students, teachers, parents and community members of all ages interested in engineering. Participants should go to the lobby of the Engineering and Technology Building, from where they will be directed to activities. From 2:30-3:30 p.m. participants are invited to see, touch, hear and even taste real-life engineering designs by Boise State students. * The mechanical engineering student club will demonstrate a hydro-turbine and their mini-baja and micro-baja vehicles that they will enter in off-road competitions this spring. * The Society of Women Engineers will have fun with liquid nitrogen and make ice cream. *  The civil engineering club will demonstrate software that will allow participants to design a bridge, test it to see if it would succeed or fail, and modify it to improve the design. * Participants can also see Boise State’s wind tunnel, which tests aerodynamic shapes, lift and drag, how models of buildings behave in wind, and how air flows around a scale model. From 3:30-4:30 p.m. Baine will present “Engineering Makes the World Go Around,” a practical talk about engineering and engineering education loaded with real-life advice and plenty of humor. For more information about Engineering Day or engineering programs at Boise State, call 426-4432 or e-mail laburusa@boisestate.edu. -30- Contact Leandra Aburusa-Lete College of Engineering 208 426-4432 laburusa@boisestate.edu Media contact Pat Pyke communications and marketing 208 426-1987