Engineering week makes science fun

As the small clouds of white gas pouring out of the bowl grew,
so did the crowd surrounding the demonstration table.

Fourth-year chemical engineering student Stephen Sass eyed the
crowd from behind the table as he emptied the silver ladle full of
liquid nitrogen into the bowl, creating larger white clouds and
bringing the mixture one step closer to its completed state: ice
cream.

As part of Engineers Week, hosted by the Engineering Society of
UCLA, various engineering groups on campus came together to show
students the practical applications of engineering. The event is
primarily being held in the Court of Sciences all this week.

This is the 31st year UCLA has held Engineers Week and is the
60th anniversary of the engineering society.

A common message from the participants in the event was that
this is their opportunity to show other students, from both North
and South Campus, that engineers can have fun.

“We’re not just book-smart. We like to do fun things
with the (information) we learn,” said Brenda Chang,
president of ESUC and a fourth-year mechanical engineering
student.

In Sass’ activity on Tuesday, he and other student members
of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers demonstrated how to
make ice cream using milk, sugar, vanilla and liquid nitrogen.

As animal-print paper cups full of the ice cream were passed out
to the crowd, exclamations of amazement could be heard from all
around.

“It tastes just like ice cream,” said a surprised
Dennis Do, a fourth-year biology student.

Fourth-year physics student Clara Yoon was also surprised by the
taste of the mixture. “I wasn’t sure what to expect. It
looked like cottage cheese from far away, but it tastes like ice
cream.”

Matt Silverman, a fourth-year chemical engineering student, said
many students often do not understand the practical applications of
engineering. He said the demonstrations are a fun way to show
people how to use engineering knowledge.

But with the Court of Sciences largely devoid of students,
especially the non-engineering ones the participants said they are
trying to reach out to, the message of how much fun engineering can
be may remain a secret among those in South Campus.

Brenda Chang said the turnout has not been as good as she would
have liked, but hopes things will pick up as the week goes on.

Today’s event is Kids’ Day, where students from the
Seeds University Elementary School come and see the demonstrations
and participate in the projects, said Alan Chang, a fourth-year
mechanical engineering student and former president of ESUC.

Alan Chang said students from underprivileged elementary schools
in Los Angeles are usually invited to the event, but because those
schools were on spring break, ESUC decided to invite the University
Elementary students.

“Kids make it more lively and interesting,” he
said.

He said he hoped the message of fun from the engineers will
reach the elementary students and they will leave the
demonstrations thinking engineering is more than just science.

Science & Health stories run every Tuesday and
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