E-Week honors progress in field of engineering

By Wendy Su
Daily Bruin Contributor

Monday kicks off Engineers Week, a week to celebrate
achievements of the engineering profession.

The goal of the week is both to familiarize the campus with the
engineering profession and its achievements as well as to reinforce
the sense of community within the campus.

“It gives engineering students the opportunity to see what
they can be involved in,” added Rex Lorenzo, a third-year
computer science student and E-Week 2002 chairperson.

Some highlights of E-Week include the Son of Boelter Beast, the
unveiling of a concept car, the E-Week Blimp and the
micromouse.

Last year, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designed
and built a robot called Boelter Beast ““ named after the
Boelter engineering building ““ and entered it into Robotica,
a robot competition on The Learning Channel. ASME hopes to enter
the Son of Boelter Beast, which will be revealed during E-Week, in
Comedy Central’s “Battlebots” this spring.

The Society of Automotive Engineers designed a car that will
compete in the Mini-Baja, a race that takes place in Manhattan,
Kansas.

The E-Week Blimp returns this year, built by the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Last year the blimp
carried a camera and took aerial shots of the Courtyard of
Sciences.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers presents
the micromouse. Using sensors and a step-by-step problem solving
procedure, the micromouse is able to move around in a maze to find
the shortest path to the center, Lorenzo said.

Students can also test the applause meter, which measures the
volume of applause, enjoy ice cream cooled with liquid nitrogen,
and have root beer floats with spoons produced in a fabrication
machine. Hands-on activities include building an egg-holding device
that will keep the egg safe during its fall from a high rise and
making bottle rockets with the Society of Women Engineers.

“The world needs engineers because a lot of the progress
we make is because of engineers,” said Devendra Singhal, a
second-year chemical engineering student

E-Week started nationally in 1951, but the first documented
E-Week at UCLA was in the 1960s. Faculty, alumni, administration,
and students have worked together to keep this event going, Lorenzo
said.

“We need more than just a week,” said second-year
computer science student Balaji Vasu.

Nationally, E-Week is held in February in commemoration of
George Washington’s birthday because Washington was a
surveyor, an engineering profession. Due to the usual rainy weather
of Los Angeles in February, however, UCLA’s E-Week is held
during spring quarter.

Monday’s events will take place in Westwood Plaza before
moving to the Court of Sciences for the remainder of the week. The
events will run each day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Lorenzo expects 500 people to attend each E-Week event.

E-week is hosted by the Engineering Society of UCLA.

For more information about E-Week go to http://esuc.ucla.edu.