If you haven’t heard already, this week (Feb. 14th-20th) is National Engineers Week. We at eGFI couldn’t be more excited, and hope that you’ll join the festivities. Many schools and universities across the nation have special events planned. If you’re near DC, you can visit us at Discover Engineering Family Day (Sat. Feb. 20 at the National Building Museum), where engineering daredevil Nate Ball will be demonstrating his ATLAS Ascender. Swing by the eGFI table and enter to win a free iPod Touch!
If there were any night to live up to the expression “once in a blue moon“, it should be tonight. Not only will December 31, 2009 be the final day of the final year of a decade, but it will also be a night when a blue moon appears.
A blue moon is the term for the second full moon in a month, which occurs about once every 2.7 years. The last blue moon to appear on New Year’s Eve was in 1990, and the next won’t happen until 2028!
National Lab Day, a new nationwide initiative “encouraging young people to be makers of things, not just consumers of things”, will be coming to you in May 2010, says President Obama. Look out for engineering students and professionals visiting your schools next year – it should mean another opportunity to get your hands dirty and participate in fun science-related activities!
If you happen to be in the area, be sure to check out STEMfest tomorrow at Discovery World in Milwaukee for a day of fun science exhibits! Admission is free.
This weekend thirty-one colleges will compete in Nashville for the 11th annual ChemE Car Competition, where teams of undergraduates design small vehicles powered by a variety of different chemical reactions. Check out some of last year’s competitors after the jump.
If you plan on visiting the University of Rochester tomorrow, be sure to watch out for flying pumpkins:
“Local students will test their engineering prowess by slinging pumpkins with catapults and trebuchets of their own design on the day before Halloween in what has come to be one of the campus’s most entertaining and anticipated rituals.
Update 11/02/2009: It seems some engineers got a little overzealous with their pumpkin tossing this past weekend: a cannon built by students for a contest at California State University in Fullerton accidentally launched a pumpkin over 120 yards, directly into the Titan Stadium scoreboard. The impact apparently left a small hole, but luckily the scoreboard still functions and “nobody seemed to be in a huge panic.” [UPI]
