UL Engineering and Technology Week

[NewsCopy]

2006

The UL College of Engineering is having its first annual Engineering and Technology Week all of next week at both Madison and Rougeou Halls on the UL campus. Historically, engineering has hosted only a single day of events. This year will feature a full week of events including a student paper competition, a graduate student poster competition, seminars by two internationally known speakers, an engineering and technology quiz bowl, a joint meeting of departmental advisory boards, and Expo Day. The highpoint of the week will be Engineering and Technology Expo Day to be held on March 29th. Highschool students interested in careers in either engineering or insutrial technology are encouraged to attend. Over 800 high school students are expected. The day will feasure more than 25 industrial displays highlighting everything from rockets to sonar boats to advanced surveying systems to high voltage displays. Additionally, many industries and other entities that employ engineers and/or technologies will have displays as means of highlighting their organizations and allowing them to develop communications with potential future hires. If you know of any businesses interested in participating with Expo Day, have them contact the engineering dean's office to arrange their visit. The day will also feature tours of each department in which research and educational displays will be set up. A free lunch will be provided to all. Freebies of all types ranging from decals to informational brochures will be handed out. High school students will compete against each other in the "EGG DROP" competition. All students (K-12, community college, or university students) are invited. The general public is also invited to visit our fine engineering faculities on Expo Day. If you have students interested in engineering/technology please bring them. They can attend as individuals or bring their whole class as a field trip. Monday night (3/27th) in Room 324 of Rougeou Hall, Dr. Joe Bozell, an internationally known expert on biomass to chemicals, will present an overview of bio-products that can be manufactured from renewable resources, such as Louisiana biomass. His presentation will start at 0530 PM. The general public is invited. Should be very interesting! Please pass this information along to all those who may be interested. UL Engineering would love to host over 1,000 students on Expo Day. Dr. Mark Zappi, P.E.

[NewsCopy]

2007

Greetings! I am way late on getting the word out on this, but have been tucked away working on a couple of very large proposals for UL. Anyway, the College of Engineering will be hosting our Second Annnual Engineering and Technology Expo Day at and around both Madison and Rougeou Halls on Wednesday of next week (Mar/28) - check in will be under a large tent in the front of Madison Hall. Last year, we had 800 regional high school kids show up to tour the many laboratory setups our engineering/technology kids had operating, along with approximately 25 companies and government entities showing off their equipment and displays.

Last year, the students and I had hit the phones about a month ahead to pull off a great turn out of displays. This year, this bunch of students are great but a little shy. On the other hand, I was forced to hide away until this beast of a proposal was turned in - last Thursday - thank God!!!! But, I am now scrambling to catch up.

The high school tours will start at 0800AM and run through 1200PM. All high school students interested in learning much more about engineering or technology are invited to attend. This is truly a great event for students. Additionally, this event is open to the public. If your child's school is not going as a group, your student can attend as an individual. We will hand out an excuse letter detailing where they have been - of course, its up to their school to accept our letter (we have no control of that).

We still have room for additional companies and govenment entities to set up displays. Large equipment that can be located around the building to show off all aspects of engineering/technology would be wonderful. Call the Dean's Office if your group would like to be involved (PH337-482-6685). We would love to have your group represented - this event will offer a tremendous opportunity to encourage high school kids to go into engineering and technology while exposing our fine engineering/technology kids to your companies. If you are in the technical staffing arena for your group, this will be a great opportunity to interface with our wonderful students.

After noonish and starting about 0230Pm, the UL College of Engr students will be setting up bar-b-q pits and other implements of good food for their own picnic. We are inviting companies, alum, and the public, to feel free to walk around the area and get to know our UL students better. Many companies have taken us up on this offer as a means of discussing job openings within their companies - kind of an informal interview set-up. More and more companies are wanting to connect to our students early with hopes of having them interested in the company upon graduation. In fact, a couple of companies are now making job offers in the junior year to beat the crowds.

On Monday night in Rougeou Hall Room 324 at 0600PM, Dr. Steve McCutcheon of the USEPA will present a technical talk on the Use of Wetlands as a Method to Treat Contaminated Waters (aka. Phytoremediation). All are invited!

Then on Thursday evening at 0600PM in the Abdalla Hall Auditorium, Mr. Bruce Niemeyer Area Manager for Chevron (big catch for us) will present a talk on technical challenges facing the energy industry. I have heard that he is very good. This is open to the public as well. Both talks will last about an hour or so.

Finally, Friday night, we will be restarting our tradition of the Engineering and Technology Banquet at the Petroleum Club - tickets are $15 for non-students. This will start at 0600PM as well. This event will provide a foundation for all engineering and technology friends and students to visit and celebrate our college.

Please consider being involved - I know this is late, but our kids have worked very hard to make this a special event.

Dr. Mark Zappi, P.E.

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The UL College of Engineering and the Student Chapters of LES and ASCE will host a presentation by a leading engineering expert on March 26 at 6 p.m. in Rougeou Hall room 324. The presentation is a part of Engineering and Technology Week at the university. Dr. Stephen C. McCutcheon, P.E., D.WRE, from the University of Georgia, will give a presentation titled “Phytoremediation: Success in Interdisciplinary Research Programs to Address Pressing National Problems.” McCutcheon is an internationally known expert in ecological engineering and phytoremediation, water quality, hydrology, hydrodynamics, sediment transport, cleanup of toxic organic materials and metals and environmental engineering. He is a director of the Board of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is a past-president of the American Ecological Engineering Society. He has authored three books and numerous publications. The rest of the story