CCEE hosts 24 high schoolers for summer camp

Every summer, through CCEE’s weeklong summer camp workshop conducted in partnership with NC State’s College of Engineering, 11th and 12th grade high school students participate in engineering activities such as constructing small-scale wooden towers, figuring out how to build a water purifier using basic soil components, optimizing structures with computer simulations, and watching large-scale testing at the Constructed Facilities Lab. 

The CCEE workshop allowed campers to get a closer look at what the fields of civil, construction, and environmental engineering entail and the many ways that these skills are woven into the things used everyday.

Students also toured Fitts-Woolard Hall, exploring lab spaces and classrooms, and the Constructed Facilities Lab, where they got to see large-scale testing. The campers had the opportunity to work in the Student Projects Lab, the Hydraulics Teaching Lab, the computer lab, and listened to talks from recent CCEE alumni and professors.  

Teaching Professor Steve Welton organized the CCEE portion of the camp. CCEE graduate students Taylor Brodbeck and Hunter Bowman and undergraduate student Anthony Rurka served as camp counselors. 

“I think the real value of the camp is the opportunity to learn about all the different facets of CCEE, and get a rough draft plan for college applications,” said Bowman, who also served as a counselor for  the camp last year. “Campers can learn what interests them, and just as importantly, what doesn’t.”

He said the biggest highlight of the weeklong summer camp workshop was watching the campers conduct loading tests on their small-scale wooden towers.

“Seeing all the different designs and how they hold up is a great way to close out the week, especially since they work on them throughout the entire camp.”