Thirty-two rising ninth-grade students from Tennessee and surrounding states will get an up-close look at the challenges and marvels of the engineering field from UT engineering faculty and professionals during the College of Engineering’s Engineering Volunteers for Ninth Graders (eVOL9) program.
The program takes place from June 23 to 28 on the UT campus.
During eVOL9, students will live in a residence hall, engage in hands-on engineering fundamentals activities, receive ACT math preparation, compete in engineering challenges, and tour an engineering industrial plant. Throughout the program, students team up to apply what they’ve learned and work on an engineering design project.
The college’s Engineering Diversity Programs Office offers the summer engineering program to provide an introduction to engineering, showcase the applications of math and science, and help students learn what engineers do in the real world. Since it began in 2000, the program—formerly called Introduction of Sophomores to Engineering Principles (INSTEP)—has hosted 230 middle school students. It has grown from twenty-three participants in 2000 to thirty-two in 2013.
The Battelle Tennessee Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Innovation Network is sponsoring the program. Battelle is a global research and development organization committed to science and technology for the greater good. The company partners with the UT to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
For more information, visit the College of Engineering website.