CEW Activities

Chicagoland Engineers Week includes several events for current as well as future engineers. Competitions, banquets, luncheons, and regional events all combine to create quite a full week.

• Bridge Building Contest
• Dupage Area Engineers Week Expo
• Future City Competition
  The Future City Competition is one the numerous programs held in conjunction with National Engineers Week. Visit www.futurecitychicago.org for further information.
• JETS TEAMS Competition
• MATH Counts
  
• Chicagoland Engineering Awards Banquet
• Science Chicago EWeek - click here to download flyer.
• Northwestern Career Day for Girls Program
  Career Day is a one-day program designed for female junior high and high school students who have an interest in science and mathematics. The program features a day of team-work building and problem-solving activities as well as lectures and discussions lead by Northwestern University engineers. For more information, click here.
• Argonne's Annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
• AAAEA Essay/Poster Contest -
  The Essay/ Poster Contest is sponsored by AAAEA and is open to all students in the 3rd through 8th grades in the Chicagoland area schools.  Students submit an essay and a poster about an engineer that they admire or have made an impact on their life.  The essay should explain who the engineer is and why the student admires this engineer.  The poster should depict some aspect of the engineer and the engineer’s accomplishment.  The purpose of the contest is to stimulate students to consider careers in engineering by fostering interest in engineering through research, essay writing, creating a poster and interacting with engineers. Click here for a registration form. For more information, visit our website at www.aaaea.org our e-mail us at aaaea@aaaea.org.
• FIRST LEGO League - Click here for picture of the Illinois State Finals of the LEGO League Robotics competition
  In conjunction with the Dupage Area eWeek event at the Rice campus of IIT, there will be a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) demonstration. This event will be similar to a true FLL Competition, but will be non-competitive. It will feature various middle school competition teams from Illinois. There will also be exhibitions by Junior FLL teams (ages 6-9).
• FIRST Robotics Programs -
  RoboTIP will feature FIRST robotics programs at the Museum of Science and Industry Saturday, February 24 - Saturday, February 25th. The exhibit will not only feature the various robotics program offerings from FIRST, but guests will get a chance to experience robot building and programming in 'hands on" robotics stations. The Robotics Competition is an opportunity to reach most of the teams participating is coming on January 5, 2008 when the 2008 FIRST Robotics Competition kickoff is being held at IIT. This event will feature 38 high school teams (mostly from the Chicago area) who are coming together to learn the 2008 challenge, to receive their robotics components for 2008, and to do some initial brainstorming. I have no budget or facilities to print brochures or flyers, but if you send me hardcopies of the brochure and/or flyer, I can make them available to the over 400 teens and adults who will be present. Brochures can be dropped off at IIT (3241 S Federal, Digital Media Center/Suite 115) or mailed to my home address (IIT is closed until 1/2 with limited mail delivery until 1/7). If you prefer to mail them, contact me privately and I'll provide my mailing address. Alternatively, if you let me know where I can pick them up, I will pick them up late next week.
  As exciting as the middle school FIRST LEGO League competitions are (Bob's photos below), they pale in comparison to what high school teams create and compete with at the FIRST Robotics Competitions! Many of these teams could use engineers to serve along side them as mentors. Most do not know of your organizations, nor of the many different engineering disciplines that exist. This is a great target audience to reach for your own pipeline efforts. Won't you consider attending this event, not just to promote your banquet, but to learn more about FIRST, the teams who participate, and to see what role (if any) you could play in exposing a teen to the fun of engineering? Team registration begins at 8:00, the global kickoff is at 9:00.
• DuPage Area Engineers Week 2009: Sustainability and Alternate Energy Resources
  DuPage Area Engineers Week, celebrating its 25th anniversary this coming February, is committed to making math, science, and engineering fun and accessible to learners of all ages. As part of the 2009 National Engineers Week, the DuPage Area activities will include a Speaker’s Forum scheduled for Thursday, February 19th at 6:30 p.m., and the immensely popular Engineers Week Expo on Saturday, February 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Both events will be located at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Rice Campus in Wheaton, Illinois and are free and open to the public!
  
  Engineers Week provides children and adults alike with the opportunity to experience the fundamentals of math and science at work through a series of interactive displays and presentations. Volunteers from engineering societies, education, business, and government come together to promote an active interest in learning and to show the intriguing and applicable results of numerous engineering principles.
  
  The theme of this year’s DuPage Area Engineers Week will be “Sustainability and Alternate Energy Resources.” With the demand for natural resources currently at unprecedented levels, engineers are at the forefront of applying new and sustainable ways in which the world can function. To discuss how relevant sustainability and “going green” is for Chicago area residents and travelers, this year’s Speaker’s Forum proudly features Rosemarie Andolino, Executive Director of the O’Hare Modernization Program. Andolino will address not only the logistics and timeline of the project, but also the surprisingly “green” aspects of this modernization and expansion effort. The 2009 Speaker’s Forum is scheduled for Thursday, February 19th beginning at 6:30 p.m. A brief reception will precede the presentation, which will then be followed by a question and answer period.
  
  On Saturday, February 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., future engineers and learners of all ages are encouraged to join in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the DuPage Area Engineers Week Expo. Free and open to the public, the Expo features everything from model airplanes and a wind tunnel exhibit, to lasers, robots, bicycle power, and hands-on activities with ZOOM, Design Squad, SCARCE, SciTech, and the DuPage Children’s Museum! Illinois Institute of Technology students are prepared to present and answer questions on their sustainability-related professional projects, providing further connections to this year’s theme. New for 2009, the “Buildings to Shake-Rattle and Roll!” exhibit and presentation will allow participants to build and test their own building designs to destruction. The popular cryogenics display returns again to amaze onlookers with sub-zero science and surprises!
  
  Chicago Architecture Today will again be holding their Midwest Creative Architecture Competition (MCAC) at the Rice Campus. “The MCAC is a student-based contest challenging participants to incorporate both the art and science of architecture across a broad spectrum of categories.” Entries will be on display beginning at the Engineers Week Expo on February 21st and running through March 7th. Check www.chicagoarchitecturetoday.org for further details on the competition and awards ceremony.
  
  Enjoy one or both of the free DuPage Area Engineers Week activities on February 19th and 21st. Both events are located at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Rice Campus at 201 East Loop Road in Wheaton, Illinois. For more information on the Speaker’s Forum, Expo, or anything related to the Dupage Area Engineers Week, check out the website at www.dupageeweek.iit.edu, or contact Barbara Kozi at 630-682-6040 or kozi@iit.edu.