UTPB to host engineering camp

May 21—University of Texas Permian Basin will host two engineering camps this summer — UNITE and ExxonMobil.

The UNITE camp is June 17-July 12 on the first floor of the Engineering Building. Hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

UNITE is a four-week, pre-collegiate summer experience for talented high school students hosted by the University of Texas Permian Basin College of Engineering.

It encourages students to pursue college majors and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related fields through a program of focused, hands-on, rigorous academics, enrichment, and career exploration.

George Nnanna, professor of mechanical engineering, said the other camp is funded partly by ExxonMobil and is for two weeks. It will focus on students in sixth to eighth grade in the first week and ninth through 11th grade in the second week.

"They have similar objectives in the sense that the key goal is to expose the students to various aspects of the engineering discipline," Nnanna said. "Also they can explore engineering fundamentals, allowing them to be involved in practical applications of engineering, so this is going to be hands on experience. Also it provides an opportunity for the students to interact with engineering students and professors."

Most of the classes will be conducted by professors.

"As an outcome of this, it will enhance the students' analytical abilities, equipping them with skills that they can carry throughout their life and also motivate them to investigate career paths that they can choose," he added.

It will help students decide whether engineering is for them.

"By being in this program and getting exposure to how math and physics is connected to engineering, it will enable them to decide if STEM is the appropriate discipline for them. What we have done is to expand this program beyond engineering. We are bringing in professors from biological science, geological science, engineering, as well as mathematics so that they can see the relationships between science and engineering," Nnanna said.

One of the unique features this year is that they are bringing in industry representatives to talk to the campers.

"In fact, ExxonMobil has committed to giving a presentation. ProPetro has also committed. Terracon has also made a commitment," he said.

Students will see how they start with a theory in the classroom, how they take it to hands-on practice in the lab, and how that translates into industry experience.

"I think it is a great exposure and a program that is much needed here in the Midland-Odessa community," Nnanna said.

For the UNITE camp, he expects 20 students and for the ExxonMobil camp, about 35.

The UNITE camp is specifically targeting students of veterans and students that are under-resourced and underrepresented in the STEM disciplines and females.

"It's important to note that because of the quality of our program, out of maybe 40 institutions that run the program we were selected last year as one of four institutions in the nation to be featured in the IMA Educational Opportunity Program Block (Instructional Materials and Technology Allotment). That's a testament to the quality of the program that we are delivering to the students," Nnanna said.

"The other thing is for the UNITE, not only are we providing that learning opportunity, the Army is paying the students participating a $100 stipend per week. So for the four weeks that means that they have opportunity to earn $400, plus the engineering and science experience that they will be getting from us. That's really a great opportunity and also being able to be involved with a field trip to the industry," he added.

There will also be field trips for students.

He said they started this program in 2019 and it has been running continuously since then.

"Each year we have had as large as 50 students. During COVID, we had a smaller number, like 20 students. So all together I believe that this program has benefited at least 300 students," Nnanna said.

He added that they get students from Odessa, Midland and Monahans.

They have had students from Andrews.

The camp was held virtually during COVID, which gave students from Chicago and Austin a chance to take part.

During that time period, they shipped engineering kits to people's homes and then connected to students virtually to provide instruction on how they could build the engineering experiment, conduct the test and write the report.

At the end of the program, they shipped the kits back to UTPB.

"It was a little bit more expensive because we have to also incur the cost of transporting and delivering the kits. But that was a way to engage a larger audience," Nnanna said.

This year, the camp will focus on reactors and simulations in chemical engineering.

"We are also going to do mechanical engineering, looking at engines. We will also focus on solar power, as well as wind power. In the biological sciences, they will be doing a number of experiments related to bioengineering and in geology, (they) will be focusing on the relationship between geology, as well as hydraulic fracturing," Nnanna said.

"We will also be looking at water technology; how water can be treated to beneficial reuse. The students will be involved also in using advanced equipment like scanning electron microscopy. We will teach them how it works. How we can be able to characterize solids and know the chemistry of that material using the scanning electron microscope. It's really going to be a great opportunity for the students," he added.

All of this will tie back to someone in the industry giving a presentation. This could be a practicing engineer talking about the day-to-day activities in the industry, so that the students can see how these projects they do in camp relate to practical engineering in the field.

At the beginning of each session, a theory will be provided so students can gain an understanding about physics and math.

"Later on in that session, we will take them to the lab. They will work with students as well as faculty members so that they can run an experiment and then the faculty will guide them in analyzing that data so that they can be able to give a presentation themselves on the lessons learned," Nnanna said.

They will have a built-in break time about 11:30 a.m. each day to allow students a chance to interact with each other and network.

Nnanna said they are expecting about nine professors and anticipate hiring four engineering students for the program.

You don't have to be particularly good at math or physics to attend the camp.

"What we are doing is to show them that there is an opportunity for them. You don't have to be a math whiz or physics to attend. We welcome all students, but as they participate, we hope to ignite an interest that can make them consider either engineering or biological sciences, so that's really the key purpose; trying to ignite that passion," Nnanna said.

He added that the industry has been very supportive of the camp.

"It will even be better if we have additional industry funding so that instead of limiting this to a summer program, we can run it as an all year round activity whereby students during the school days or during weekends, we can bring in some students and work with them so that there will be continuous lifelong learning and exposure to engineering and science," Nnanna said.

Eventually, he said, this will create a much-needed workforce to drive the region's economy.

"It will also help in improving the retention and graduation rate of the high school students and minimize the dropout rates," Nnanna said.