FAU Hosts Ocean Engineering Events for Museum of Discovery and Science Ocean Exploration Camp
Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering hosted 20 students from the Museum of Discovery and Science’s (MODS) Ocean Exploration Camp for three days of ocean engineering activities.
“Joint outreach undertakings, such as this collaborative workshop with MODS, help us inform the community about all the challenging and exciting activities in engineering at FAU,” said Javad Hashemi, Ph.D., chair of the FAU department of ocean and mechanical engineering. “We want to show the K-12 students that engineering education is fun and leads to fruitful careers.”
The FAU department of ocean and mechanical engineering program team members included: Hashemi; Manhar Dhanak, Ph.D., professor; Karl von Ellenrieder, Ph.D., associate professor; Rob Coulson and John Frankenfield, senior engineers.
Campers ranged in age from 12 to 14 and spent two days at the MODS in Fort Lauderdale and three days at FAU’s Dania Beach SeaTech campus. At SeaTech students had an opportunity to hear about careers in ocean engineering, received a tour of the SeaTech facility, heard a lecture about the challenges of working in the oceans and saw a demonstration of an unmanned surface vehicle in Whiskey Creek. Students also learned how to build a solar-powered boat and tried it out in the SeaTech pool.
At the MODS facility students learned about coastal marine and coral reef ecosystems, conducted estuary and barrier island field work and learned about the natural history of sea turtles.
For more information, contact Cheryl Halle at 561-297-1399 or challe@fau.edu.
August 23, 2012