The 12th annual Penn State Wilkes-Barre Engineering Open House was held on Thursday, October 11th. Approximately 120 high-school students attended this event to observe different aspects of the engineering field.
During the opening session of the day, students were welcomed to campus by Chancellor Charles Davis. Dr. Tom Seybert then explained the engineering options at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, as well as the 2+2 programs in engineering.
The next portion of the day involved the students participating in on-site visits to see and explore practical applications of engineering at one of four companies of their choice. These companies included Architectural and Engineering Group in Plains, Borton/Lawson in Wilkes-Barre, Frontier in Dallas, and Quad 3 in Wilkes-Barre. Two on-campus choices were also available, a workshop by Martin Rogers Associates of Wilkes-Barre and a Surveying Engineering demonstration with Surveying professors Dr. Charles Ghilani and Dr. Frank Derby.
Upon returning to campus, the students had the opportunity to rotate through four presentations given by Penn State Wilkes-Barre faculty on the topic of the campus' engineering courses. These topics included Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Surveying Engineering/Geographic Information Systems.
"Our goal in holding the Engineeingr Open House is to provide high-school students with the information necessary for them to make clearer decisions on their future career choices, and in the process show them their options at Penn State Wilkes-Barre," explains Director of Academic Affairs Dr. Albert Lozano. "We have found that students receive more value from visiting companies' work settings rather than sitting in on traditional lectures. We are happy to be able to work with these companies in providing students with the best possible resources to explore the engineering field."