Gearing Up for Transportation Engineering, A Summer Institute: Phase 4;Rept. for 1 Jan-31 Dec 03

摘要

The numbers of female and minority students enrolled in engineering schools are increasing slowly, however there is still a relatively small percentage drawn to the field of transportation civil engineering. As a consequence, there is a need to educate young people about the profession to encourage them to appreciate the contributions of engineers and to become civil engineers. This is especially true for under-represented groups. This Summer Institute project consisted of inviting forty middle school students to the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus to learn about engineering as a career and experience a variety of transportation engineering design topics. The participants gained knowledge about the role of engineers in society as well as learned how engineers use their knowledge in design applications. Several University of Alabama faulty members and Society of Women Engineer professionals acted as team mentors. As an important part of this project, local minority and female engineers served as mentors for the program. This is the fourth year of the summer program at UAH.