Field Trip to UA for SHPE and ALEx!

On Thursday, March 3rd some students were on a field trip to the University of Arizona for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and Advancement of Latinos in Engineering (ALEx) for a series of workshops.

By having students interact with each other and professionals they will hopefully be inspired. By asking questions and using analytical skills that also teamwork and critical thinking, they learn valuable skills.

Here they are in a workshop sponsored by Raytheon where students must work together to design a missile defense system that is not only effective but cost effective.

In this workshop, students work on their communication skills to build a complex circuit. One team member has a picture of the completed circuit and, without looking at the results, has to orally guide the team to build it.

Below - students add a sensor array circuit to a remote control car that is to be driven while behind a curtain. Students have an overhead view of their “rover” that is searching for hidden “minerals” on the “asteroid”.

Students in this workshop rescue astronauts using color-coded instructions that they have to give the tiny autonomous rescue bots.

And finally, here we see students design a table using a cool concept called “tensegrity” (tension integrity). The table must have supports that include ropes under tension for stability. It seems counterintuitive, but is great!