Start Over

Rensselaer recently hosted the second annual Capital District Materials Camp for local high school students. Approximately 30 volunteers from Rensselaer, GE Global Research, Lockheed-Martin/KAPL, and the University at Albany led demonstrations, learning activities, and tours for 24 juniors and seniors from high schools in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties.

The students participated in projects ranging from making foam helmets for protecting hard-boiled eggs to working with electron microscopes. In one session, participants explored the design and mechanical responses of bicycles, studying the types of joints used on bicycle frames and then fabricating their own brazed, welded, and epoxy-bonded joints. Another project found the students examining the mechanics of soda containers under pressure by launching water-propelled bottle rockets. And the students put their newfound expertise to use by making “concrete canoes” out of Pykrete, a mixture of sawdust and water that is frozen to form a composite brick with properties superior to ice.

“The goal is to show the students that they could be engineers if they wanted to be engineers,” said Daniel Lewis, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and organizer of the camp. “Sometimes students don’t know engineering is actually a career choice for them.”

The Materials Camp, held during the week of June 26, was jointly sponsored by the ASM Materials Education Foundation and the TMS Foundation in coordination with the ASM Eastern New York Chapter and the TMS Hudson-Mohawk Chapter. “A lot of people aren’t familiar with materials science and engineering, but in this region we have a high concentration of professionals in the field,” Lewis said. “This is a great opportunity for them to share their excitement with local students, who will be the next generation of scientists and engineers.”

Published August 14, 2006