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Fun, bounce houses and snow cones: Engineers on the Green helps boost student involvement

By Marissa Adams
San Diego, Calif., Oct. 13 -- Tritons of all majors got to take a study break Oct. 6 at the Engineers on the Green fair in Matthews’s quad. Students made themselves busy playing games, making friends and most importantly gathering information about student engineering organizations eager to recruit members.

Tables were set up for students to peruse, and many were laden with T-shirts, candy, flyers and more to help pique their interest. Free food, snow cones and two bounce houses set the relaxed, carnival vibe that one wouldn’t usually associate with the field of engineering.

The fair featured over 20 organizations of various focuses— all offering something a little different to students. Many have more specific goals like Women in Computing, which seeks to advance women in technical fields, and Material Advantage, a group for students interested in materials science and engineering, but all groups focus on helping students grow professionally and socially.

Some groups, like the co-ed professional engineering fraternity, Theta Tau, let prospective members spin a wheel for prizes like 5-hour energy drinks, phone cases and water bottle sleeves while well-spoken members stood ready to explain their goals and answer questions. Others set up carnival games like the Coca Cola bottle ring toss organized by Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical and computer engineering honor society. A few tried their best to fling plastic rings around the bottle necks, but it proved to be tricky.

A few of the organizations chose to show off their projects to entice students. The Seismic Design Team brought out their balsa wood model tower which they build and compete with in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Competition, and intrigued students carefully crowded around it.

Triton Racing, Â鶹´«Ã½’s formula racing team, displayed their car, which was designed by student engineers and whose parts were built almost entirely by students too. Each year, the team builds a new one, starting from square one and eventually entering it into the SAE Formula competition in Lincoln, Neb.

"Triton Racing gives students highly applicable experience in a serious engineering field and has landed members positions at such companies as Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and Northrop Grumman," said Nathaniel Goldberg, Triton Racing's director of public relations. "We want new talent not just so they can help us develop a cutting-edge race car, but so that they can develop themselves as engineers."

After fun and festivities in the hot sun, some students left as new group members and others left with a handful of flyers to help them choose. But there was no shortage of groups to help them navigate the next school year, the professional world—or maybe just a great project with friends to support them on the journey.

Media Contacts

Ioana Patringenaru
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-0899
ipatrin@ucsd.edu