Hands-on activities will give students in this course an understanding of three basic engineering fields: civil engineering, electrical/computer engineering and mechanical engineering. Classroom and laboratory activities will include application and use of strain gauges, tensile testing of metals and use of programmable logic controllers. Students will have the opportunity to compare computer generated theoretical data to experimental data taken in a wind tunnel, experiment with closed loop control systems and write a program using the Java programming language. Field trips will be taken to enhance student knowledge of engineering and encourage students to interact with practicing engineers.

Facility

The T. J. Smull College of Engineering has a long history of providing educational outreach to youth. Ohio Northern is one of the few private universities to offer a complete engineering degree in which students begin taking engineering courses during the freshman year. The University has many other built-in features, including personalized education, strong interdisciplinary programs, a low student-to-faculty ratio, opportunities for co-ops and internships, and an on-going tradition of valued-centered education.

Faculty

Coordinator: Professor Laurie Laird is a mechanical engineer and the director of corporate and alumni relations in the College of Engineering. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering. Her corporate background includes various engineering roles in the aerospace industry. As a faculty member at ONU, Prof. Laird focuses primarily on the area of freshman engineering courses. She has previous summer camp experience at the University as Director of the "Girls in Engineering, Math & Science" camp, Director of the Pathways Program for middle school students and Director/Instructor at the Engineering Pathways camp for high school students.

Dr. Julie Hurtig is an electrical engineer and is Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. She holds a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. At ONU, she teaches and performs research in the areas of control systems, system identification techniques and pedagogy techniques and has been recognized with excellence in teaching awards from the ONU College of Engineering and Ohio Magazine. She has previous summer camp experience at the University with "Girls in Engineering, Math & Science" camp, the Pathways Program for middle school students and Engineering Pathways camp for high school students.

Dr. Jed Marquart is a mechanical engineer and is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the state of Ohio. At ONU, he teaches and performs consulting and research in the areas of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics. He also teaches in the freshman engineering sequence. He has had previous summer camp experience at the University with "Girls in Engineering, Math & Science" camp. Dr. Marquart is the ONU representative on the Ohio Space Grant Consortium, is a judge for local and regional science fairs and has worked with high school students through the Findlay, OH Explorers Post.

Dr. Farhad Reza is a civil engineer and is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Reza teaches in the area of mechanics and structures. His research and consulting interests are in the areas of fiber-reinforced concrete, nondestructive integrity monitoring of new and aging infrastructure and material science aspects of concrete. He has had previous summer camp experience at the University with "Girls in Engineering, Math & Science" camp and has worked with high school students through the Findlay, OH Explorers Post.