{"id":3790,"date":"2015-04-29T09:35:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T13:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2015-04-29T09:38:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T13:38:46","slug":"engineering-and-physics-open-house-connects-with-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2015\/04\/29\/engineering-and-physics-open-house-connects-with-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering and Physics Open House Connects with Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Engineering<\/a><\/p>\n

Though most of the Elizabethtown College\u2019s open house events are meant to attract prospective students, the Engineering and Physics Open House looked to connect the College to area engineering firms and other regional businesses. The Office of Institutional Advancement sponsored the event Tuesday, April 14, to highlight the department and connect students with community members to create intern and employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

The College\u2019s Engineering and Physics program is smaller and newer compared to other institutions, but \u201cthere are a lot of exciting things happening,\u201d Dr. Tomas Estrada, assistant professor of engineering and physics, said, citing larger graduating classes and expanding facilities. The program, which used to be a 3 + 2 program, meaning students completed three years of their education at the College before moving to a different institution to finish the last two, has become a four-year program. According to Estrada, the event was intended to place a spotlight on the success of the department and \u201cmake the surrounding area aware of the kinds of grads we\u2019re producing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of that effort, students were an integral part of the open house. In a manner similar to Scholarship and Creative Arts Days, students presented posters highlighting their work in the Masters Center atrium. Many of these students were sharing work they had done as part of their senior capstone course, junior or senior projects or summer research. \u201cWe wanted to give students the opportunity to talk and engage [with the attendees],\u201d Estrada said.<\/p>\n

Senior David Boretti presented his senior project, an automated soccer ball launcher, with several of his group members. He explained that he and the others hoped to \u201cpotentially network with companies who were in attendance.\u201d Boretti met with several prospective employers with whom he was able to connect. He landed two interviews with local companies and is now undergoing the interview process.<\/p>\n

\n

Everyone was excited to be there, the set up was perfect and the engineering department did an excellent job of showcasing its facilities, professors and students<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Estrada said in addition to the \u201cimmediate results,\u201d the open house was an effective way to refresh the department\u2019s relationships and forge new ones. Boretti added that he appreciated the opportunity to practice presenting in front of \u201cunfamiliar faces\u201d and learning to network professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was excited to be there, the set up was perfect and the engineering department did an excellent job of showcasing its facilities, professors and students,\u201d he said. Boretti and his peers had the opportunity to connect with 15 companies from the surrounding area, including the Lancaster Science Factory and PPL Electric Utilities Corp.<\/p>\n

Emily Landis represented the Lancaster Science Factory. \u201cI frequently hear people express surprise to learn about Elizabethtown’s robust engineering department,\u201d Landis said. \u201cSeeing the space and meeting the professors and students helped me to better understand the strengths of E-town’s program, and now I can better communicate the wonderful impact it is making.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the first interaction the Lancaster Science Factory has had with the department. Landis shared that Dr. Sara Atwood, assistant professor of engineering and physics, has \u201cinitiated collaborations between several teams of engineering students and the Science Factory to build new interactive exhibits.\u201d There are currently two in progress.<\/p>\n

Sugirtha Judd, who took part in the 3 + 2 engineering program at E-town from 1982 to 1985, attended the open house on behalf of PPL Electric Utilities Corp. \u201cIt was a great chance for me to see a different approach to educating engineers,\u201d Judd said. \u201cIt also gave me a chance to see how much E-town has grown and that engineering had taken root.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changing utility industry could definitely benefit from the education philosophy of E-town’s engineering curriculum,\u201d Judd said, adding that there\u2019s a great need for leaders in the industry. \u201cGood communication and business skills as well as great technical skills will be the key to success for engineers in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though most of the Elizabethtown College\u2019s open house events are meant to attract prospective students, the Engineering and Physics Open House looked to connect the College to area engineering firms and other regional businesses. The Office of Institutional Advancement sponsored the event Tuesday, April 14, to highlight the department and connect students with community members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[775],"tags":[891,339,523],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","tag-engineering-and-physics-department","tag-sara-atwood","tag-tomas-estrada","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3793,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/3793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}