Oregon Section SAE Inspire 72 Future Engineers - By Betty Kendall

Thanks to the mentoring involvement of 22 volunteers from the Oregon SAE Section, the A World In Motion (AWIM) program at the Truck and Bus Conference was a resounding success.

On Tuesday, a total of 55 middle school students from Fernwood School in Portland, and Wy' East School in Vancouver, WA, participated in six hours-three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon - of activities related to engineering. Organized and managed by Pat Barrett and John Olson into duplicate sessions, the students' first activity was to visit the exhibit hall. There they were infused with the excitement of Jason Wilkening's national micro-baja competition.

The students returned to their meeting room, where they divided into design teams of four students each, plus at least one engineer. Each team was given a small electric vehicle, which had been pre-assembled for speed. Each engineer mentor explained a few fundamental principles of torque and gearing systems to the students and described some of the design, test, and manufacturing steps professionals employ to produce a marketable vehicle. Using this information and the AWIM kits, each team was challenged to produce a car that would run up a thirty-degree incline*. The students had no previous background in this area of physical science and, after just a few minutes of orientation, the results were amazing. Nearly all the vehicles that were reconfigured by the teams exceeded minimum specifications. Everyone, including the adults, had fun.

After they had completed the vehicle construction challenge, the students revisited the exhibit hall. There the engineer mentors and the exhibitors answered their questions about smart cars, fuel cells, and performance vehicle design, among others.

In addition to Pat and John, those mentoring on Tuesday were: Dick Hunger, Antonio Edgar, Mike Fogarty, Megan Frankovich, Sherry Frankovich, Brandon Greenley, Ross Lisle, John McConnel, Scott Minnix, Wayne Slagle, and Tad Wienicke.

On Wednesday, the Section was host to seventeen students from several Portland area high schools. They had asked individually to meet with professional engineers in order to learn about careers in engineering and how to prepare for them. This, too was a tremendously successful experience for the participants. The discussions went overtime, and it was apparent that the majority of students left with even more enthusiasm about the possibility of pursuing careers in engineering.

On both days, as they left the sessions, students were heard to comment, "Hey these guys (engineers, gender neutral) are really cool" and, "But I had more questions to ask".

Meeting with the students on Wednesday were; Dave Bryant, Brad Fresch, Brandon Greenley, Keith Neubauer, and Carl Trabant.

*The 30-degree incline that was used had been built for the event by students at Levi Anderson School in Beaverton, and donated to the section.

The AWIM committee wishes to thank all the cool volunteers who donated their valuable time and thought to help make this event such a success. They touched many lives on those two days.