Engineering Week, which will draw to a close today, offered Penn Engineers the chance to take a respite from the world of computers and mathematics.
The Engineering Student Activities Council helped prepare this week of events in order to "revitalize the student organizations and student life," said Engineering junior and E-Week Chairwoman Lauren Hedvat.
Engineering Week began this past Monday with a bagel breakfast sponsored by the Engineering Deans' Advisory Board.
"The bagel breakfast, held in the Levine Hall Lobby, is a monthly event open to all SEAS students, faculty and staff. EDAB members are present for the duration of the event to field any undergraduates' questions, concerns, issues or suggestions," said Engineering senior and EDAB President Jason Bethala.
Bethala added that "this past Monday's breakfast was a huge success. We ran out of food within two hours."
Tuesday, the SEAS International Society hosted a lecture by Chemistry professor Hai-Lung Dai, followed by a "Lab Partner Game," presented by the Society of Bioengineers. SOBE hoped that through this game, students would learn something new about their lab partners that could help foster better working environments in the future.
By Wednesday afternoon, Engineering Week was in full gear.
"Plenty of students had vengeful looks on their faces," when they prepared to attend the "Pie Your Professor" event, said Engineering senior Michael Lyons, who is also Etta Kappa Nu Lambda Chapter president.
Etta Kappa Nu the honor society for electrical and chemical engineers sponsored the pie event, donating all proceeds to the American Cancer Society, according to Lyons.
In addition to throwing pies, students and faculty were given the chance to become more comfortable interacting with one another in a nonacademic setting.
Hedvat noted that this event in which seven brave professors bore the brunt of Engineering students looking for some good, messy fun proved to be one of the most popular.
Penn engineers switched settings yesterday from throwing pies to learning about the wonders of the automotive world.
Penn's Society of Automotive Engineers sent five of its members yesterday to attend an event with the Lehigh Valley SAE about the history of the Cadillac.
"They [held] a gourmet buffet, followed by a Cadillac XLR presentation/exhibition. This is the first time for any chapter to do this event," said SAE Treasurer and Engineering freshman Arun Mathew.
SAEEvent Coordinator and Engineeringsenior Katherine Dykes added that "the purpose of the event is to allow Engineering students a chance to see technology in practice, as well as [to] interact with many industry representatives."
In addition to this technological endeavor, Engineering students were given a chance to listen to the week's keynote speaker, Thomas Cassel, the recipient of the 2003 S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award for Teaching Excellence. Cassel is the director of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program at Penn.
Today, the events come to an close with a pizza lunch hosted by ESAC. The lunch, held from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., will include both raffles and giveaways for those who attend.
"ESAC has invested much time and energy in organizing an event catered to students' interests," Hedvat said. "All aspects of [engineering students'] daily lives have developed and continue to progress due to some form of engineering ingenuity [and so] it is a great week to celebrate the contributions of engineers to society."
