Weekend event to cap National Engineers Week

The Museum of Idaho is hosting a series of events to commemorate National Engineers Week. The museum, along with several other Idaho Falls institutions, will stage presentations and outreach events for young people and their parents to help excite area youth about the field of engineering and raise awareness of the contributions engineers make to our everyday lives.

“Engineering is an intrinsic part of what eastern Idaho is all about,” said Museum of Idaho Director of Public Relations Jeff Carr. “With the huge presence of the Idaho National Lab and related organizations in the area, eastern Idaho is teeming with engineers working on practical solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. But even though we’re all surrounded by engineers here, so many of us don’t really know what they do.”

“We hope kids will catch a vision for how engineering can connect the dots between ideas and real-world actions.”

Several events will feature Vera Mulyani as the keynote speaker.

Mulyani is CEO of Mars City Design, “a crowdsourcing innovation platform to bring thought leaders from various disciplines together to design the blueprint of urban infrastructure and human lifestyle for Mars,” event organizers say.

She will offer several presentations to groups of students designed to raise awareness of STEM fields and enlighten student about the opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

“Much of Engineers Week here in Idaho Falls is geared toward students, so your kids might be attending events through their schools that the public is not invited to,” said Carr. “However, the public is invited to a free presentation at the Museum of Idaho on Saturday by Vera Mulyani, who founded an innovative organization called Mars City Design. Later on Saturday, hundreds of families will also be enjoying hands-on engineering demonstrations at the museum with engineers from Fluor Idaho.”

Mulyani will speak at 10:30 a.m. Click here to get your tickets.

As of Friday, the tickets to the engineering demonstrations were sold out.

One new Engineers Week event is a reception that will give high-achieving students a chance to interface with engineering industry professionals and learn about career opportunities in multiple engineering disciplines. It is an invitation-only event.

“I know when I was in high school, it would have been incredibly useful to have had that sort of opportunity to stand face to face and ask about how my interests might line up with possible future careers,” Carr said.

Carr says that one of the goals of Engineers Week is to fire up the imaginations of area young people and get them excited about engineering and other STEM fields.

“We hope kids will catch a vision for how engineering can connect the dots between ideas and real-world actions,” said Carr. “Some academic and professional fields are just about discussing issues, but engineering encompasses identifying an issue, devising a solution, and then actually making it happen.”

Carr said the museum officials are grateful to the city of Idaho Falls, the Idaho National Laboratory, Fluor Idaho and Idaho Falls School District 91 for their roles in organizing and staging Engineers Week.

“When organizations like these put our minds together, we can make good things happen,” he said.

For more information about Engineers Week events at the Museum of Idaho, visit the museum’s website.