School of Engineering celebrates National Engineers Week

This week, the Tufts University School of Engineering celebrated Engineers Week (E-Week). Engineering students, in conjunction with faculty, the Career Center and the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), organized and hosted a series of celebratory events and activities, according to Darryl Williams, the Dean of Undergraduate Education for the School of Engineering. Williams said the week-long programming displayed the achievements of Tufts students and helped build a community among prospective engineers on campus. Campus E-Week events corresponded to the national Engineers Week, which was initiated in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers. 

Williams explained the purpose of Tufts' E-Week celebrations.

“We were thinking comprehensively about how to really showcase the wonderful things that are happening at Tufts' School of Engineering,” Williams said.

Sopuruchukwu Ezenwa, a student organizer for the week and member of the engineering student council, added that community building was another important focus of E-Week. 

“We definitely want to build a community and let other people know that engineers are here [at Tufts] and, in a way, celebrate ourselves,” Ezenwa, a senior, said.

According to the official event schedule, E-Week began with a kickoff event hosted in the Alumnae Lounge, and engineering-related activities followed throughout the rest of the week. Examples of such events include a "Sumo Bots Challenge" in which participants were tasked with designing a robot that pushed its opponent out of the ring, and a "Family Feud"-style game involving survey responses from Tufts students.

The university also hosted inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen for a keynote speech yesterday. Kamen is most widely known for inventing the Segway personal transporter and developing the iBOT mobility device. He continually advocates for science and technology education, according to the Tufts Alumni website.

“We were really excited when Dean Kamen’s office agreed to participate. We know that a lot of people are familiar with the work he’s done,” Williams said.

The Career Center played an important role in this year's E-Week. For the first time, the engineering alumni networking night took place during E-Week.

“We typically see over 100 students and more than 40 alumni for networking night, and this year we moved the event into [E-Week] to make it one of the big-deal events of the week,” Robin Kahan, the Associate Director of Engineering Career Services, said.

In addition to the networking night, several alumni hosted lunches where students could meet and network with working professionals in a more private setting. Both events served to improve students’ networking skills and give them valuable insight into potential future careers, Kahan explained.

Alumni from the School of Engineering are often eager to return to Tufts and view the E-Week events as a great way to give back to the Tufts community, according to Kahan.

“The alums that come, come back year after year ... They really view it as a great way to give back,” Kahan said, adding that one alumna she knows has come every year for 12 years. 

Community outreach was another large part of this year's E-Week programming, Ezenwa said. Middle school students from the Medford Boys & Girls Club were invited to Tufts to interact with current engineering students. Ezenwa said that an "Exploring Engineering" event on Feb. 23 would be aimed at introducing middle school kids to STEM through hands-on activities.

In past years, E-Week was a student-run affair with a small degree of faculty involvement, according to Williams. He said that the greater role of the administration this year has allowed E-Week to expand in scope and attract more students than before.

“This is the first time that Tufts has done more robust planning efforts. In the past it has been more student-driven,” Williams said.