Engineering Now .: Volume 4 - Edition 5 .: February 2008

Western Engineering Bonanza 2008

Once again this year Western Engineering hosted a group of prospective students from the London area, giving them a sneak peek of what life as an engineering student at Western is like.

High school students arrived at 8:00 am on Thursday, February 21st,and were greeted with an opening address by Associate Dean of External Services, Hesham El Naggar. Dr. El Naggar took the group through a power point presentation describing the main characteristics of Western Engineering Plus. The audience also heard from current Undergraduate Engineering Society President Greg Munro.

Next the prospective students were split into smaller groups, and taken to individual presentations given by the departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Mechanical & Materials Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering. A presentation about Integrated Engineering was also given to the students as one big group.

Throughout the day, prospective students had the chance to mingle with current engineering students and get answers to their questions from a student’s point of view. Display booths gave visitors a good idea of the breadth of exciting extracurricular activities available to students alongside the strong academic programs.

Grade 11 student Kiera Belletti, from Lucas Secondary School, said she was interested in attending the event because she is unsure what educational path to take after high school.

“I really have no idea what I want to do. Somebody told me that maybe I’d make a good engineer, and also my brother is here in first year,” said Belletti, adding that because she does well in all areas of school, it makes it tougher to choose an area of study. “I don’t really have a strength in one subject. I have good marks in all subjects, so it’s hard to choose a favourite.”

UES Outreach Commissioners and event organizers Stephanie Rosengren and Vincey Chui understand how tough it is for prospective students to figure out what they want to do. And they say the engineering has a unique challenge because high school students don’t always understand what it’s all about.

“Everyone deserves a chance to know what engineering is, because not everyone knows. Everyone knows what science and physics and chemistry are, but engineering is harder to explain to students when they’re young. That is why we hold this event. It helps prospective students understand engineering from the point of view of the students who are already studying it,” they said.

The afternoon saw students given the opportunity to try some hands-on activities through the Design Competition.

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Contact

.: Becky Blue
Spencer Engineering Building, Room 2074
Telephone: (519) 850-2917 Fax: (519) 661-3808
contactwe@eng.uwo.ca