Middle schoolers see possibilities in science, math during UMaine conference
By Jessica Bloch

Bangor Daily News

ORONO, Maine — All they knew when they left school Thursday morning was that they were going on a girls-only, science-related field trip to the University of Maine campus.

Dedham School seventh-grader Jordan Theriault, for one, was skeptical about the day ahead.

“I wasn’t sure it was going to be fun or not,” Theriault said. “I heard we were going to learn about careers so I thought it was going to be boring.”

Yet a few hours later, Theriault and her classmates watched intently as Lego robots they had programmed zipped along the floor of a UMaine classroom.

The girls had learned how to program the robots during an afternoon session of “Expanding Your Horizons,” a daylong conference geared toward providing girls with opportunities to explore different fields and careers in science, engineering, mathematics and biology.

More than 500 girls from 25 middle schools statewide attended the conference, which took place around the campus. Other workshops included water wheel design, bridge building, the science of animal skulls and pelts, and an analysis of lobster health.

The Dedham students were paired up with Ellsworth Middle School students for the robotics workshop.

Dedham School health teacher Beth Handley intentionally didn’t tell her students the purpose of the conference before the group arrived at UMaine.

“I wanted them to be excited and not to make a predetermination of whether they were going to like it or not,” Handley said. “I want them to see science and math is available to them, and not only the traditional science and math for girls, such as nursing, and [that it’s available] in a fun way.”

The groups from Ellsworth and Dedham seemed to have a good time as they tested the computer programs they wrote for the Lego robots. Their task, as assigned by instructor Tom Bickford, was to make the two-wheeled robot roll across the floor from one line to another four feet away.

Once that task was accomplished, the groups were instructed to make the robots roll the four feet, turn around, and then roll back. The groups that finished those tasks were challenged to program their robots to roll all the way around a plastic storage bin.

Students cheered when they completed the tasks, while others whose robots didn’t roll as expected hurried back to their computers to make changes in their programs.

Encouraging students to go into engineering and computer fields is something that should be done as early as possible, Bickford said.

“At this point, the U.S. isn’t where it should be in terms of producing engineers or computer programmers,” said Bickford, who is the director of the nonprofit, Orono-based Maine Robotics, which offers camps and instruction sessions for youngsters. “It takes a long time to make an engineer or computer programmer.”

Theriault might consider that route as a career, but Thursday she was more concerned with getting her robot to roll around the plastic container.

“It was [more fun] than I thought,” Theriault said as the workshop ended. “I learned more about robotics and how stuff works, more than I knew before. It would be fun [to do robotics as a job], but it would be a lot of work.”

Dates: June 27 – July 2, 2010 for Campers Entering Grades 9-12
Go to  www.umaine.edu/met/cadcamp for more information and forms to register!

This camper breaks her comfort-zone boundaries on her way to the top of the MaineBound climbing tower.

At the University of Maine Creative Design at CAD Camp you’ll have fun while you design your own wall hanging using computer-aided design software! We know you’ll really like the other kids who attend. You’ll get to know your new camp friends on the ropes courses, on the climbing wall, canoeing, and just hanging out. In the computer-aided design sessions you’ll experience some of the latest professional 3D modeling software. The computer classroom is air-conditioned with up-to-date computers and “comfy chairs.” You’ll get lots of individual help from our team of CAD faculty professionals and returning campers. You’ll leave with new computer skills and career training – and you’ll have so much fun along the way you’ll want to learn more!

“I enjoyed this camp very much. I learned a lot and felt that I made new friends. The camp was well run and I felt it was set at a good pace. The food was good and the Maine Bound programs were fun!” – Madison – CAD Camper

Two girls at CAD Camp enjoy the good weather canoeing on the Stillwater River by the University of Maine.

Scholarship applications can be downloaded from the web site.

Here’s what 2009 campers wrote to our sponsors including the Maine Department of Transportation, Bentley Systems, and the College of Engineering:

“In the beginning I didn’t really sign myself up for this camp, my mom did. I’m so glad that she did. I had a great time. Meeting all these new people, and designing things I never thought I would be able to do. The whole CAD program was really interesting and fun. But I have to admit that my favorite thing was the Maine Bound part. I like the outdoors and all the new things I got to try like: the zip line, the ropes course, rock climbing, and all the other group activities. This was an amazing experience. And I really want to come back next year,” says Katherine.

“I hope you continue to fund this program, for this training is the first step to many careers. I love the physical activities and the CAD training including the instructors and assistants. The dorms are good and the food too,” says Robert.

Contact: Lisa Carter, Maine Bound Coordinator – 5795 Maine Bound Adventure Center, Orono, ME 04469 (207-581-1794)
Email: Lisa.carter@umit.maine.edu

Future engineers check out wind, electricity at annual expo

ORONO, Maine — Ben Nichols needs to know something about engineering since he wants to fly jet airplanes when he grows up.

Nichols, 11, of Hermon on Saturday learned a little bit about the many ways engineering is essential to life in the 21st century at the 12th annual Engineering Expo at the University of Maine. He was one of the 1,000 or so students who visited the more than 60 exhibits set up in the Field House.

Many of the exhibits allowed people to try out different engineering skills on small projects, applying principles used on large-scale ones. The Advanced Structures and Composites Center helped attendees put together model wind turbine platforms.

The center recently received a two-year $7.1 million grant to test-design floating platforms to hold wind turbines off the coast of Maine. The exercise Saturday allowed participants to use a pinwheel, foam cubes, plastic bottles, wooden dowels and other materials to design their own models of those platforms.

Each completed platform was placed in a tank of water and a fan was used to create wind to determine its buoyancy and stability. Each design also was rated on its visual appearance.

In addition, the cost of manufacturing the components used in making each platform along with the carbon-offset cost of materials was calculated to score every design.

Peter Drown of Bangor is an economics major who works with the center. He said Saturday that the “cool-looks factor” was outweighing the “cost factor” in most entries including Nichols’.

“That’s OK because they’re being very creative,” Drown said.

Wind and creativity also were important components in the sailboats students could make at the 4-H booth, where Alisha Targonski of the Maine Cooperative Extension program was helping youngsters whose boats just sat in front of a large fan.

“I don’t tell them how to fix the problem,” she said. “I ask guided questions such as ‘Why don’t you think it will sail?’ ‘Why do you think your mast is leaning in a certain direction?’ and ‘What’s the best way to stabilize that mast?’”

At an exhibit about electricity, a group of middle school students from Gardiner huddled in front of a table on which two large round balls sat. One girl grasped the ball with her right hand and a fellow student’s hand with her left. Other students soon joined to form a chain. Suddenly, the students jumped and broke hands.

“It went all through me,” Adam Fortier-Brown, 13, of Randolph said of the electrical current that has just passed through him and his classmates. “I felt it in my hand, arm and head. It’s not like a burn, it’s more like a tingle, and it’s kind of scary.”

Not scary enough to keep him and many of the other visitors from lining up to get zapped more than once.

The expo, titled Brain Power 10 and co-sponsored by the Maine Engineering Promotion Council, culminated a week of activities celebrating Maine Engineers Week. It is held in Orono during in even-numbered years and at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham in odd-numbered years.

The event was designed to introduce children to many different fields under the heading engineering, to let them know that Maine firms want and need engineers, and to recruit students to programs available in Orono and Gorham.

“Maine is not producing enough engineers to replace those who are retiring,” Chet Rock, associate dean of the college of engineering, said two years ago to explain how the program got started.

Rock said Saturday that about 18 months ago he learned firsthand that the expo is successful.

“Every year we have the seniors in the department speak to the incoming freshman,” he said. “[In the fall of 2008], this senior stood up and said she’d never thought about being an engineer until her dad dragged her to the expo when she was a junior in high school.”

Rock and his colleagues hope there were a lot of children just like her at Saturday’s event.

MATEC began offering graduate level UMaine classes in the fall ‘09  semester, using distance technology, with courses in civil, mechanical, and information engineering fields to meet the needs of Bath Iron Works and other companies. The first course was in astronautics. This spring ‘10 semester, courses offered included Formal Foundations of Information Systems and Structural Dynamics.

In the fall ‘10 semester, classes include:

Aeronautics – MEE 498
Contact the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at 581-2120

Topics in mechanical engineering not regularly covered in other courses. Content varies to suit needs. May be repeated for credit, with departmental permission.

Prerequisites & Notes
permission.

Credits: 1-3

Solid Mechanics – MEE 546 FE
Contact the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at 581-2120
MEE 546  Finite Elements in Solid Mechanics
Basics of the finite element method with emphasis placed on applications. Fundamentals of matrix algebra and computer solution techniques. Derivation of relatively simple spring and beam elements which uses the direct approach and truss, frame, plane strain, plate bending, and axisymmetric elements which uses the variational approach. Isoparametric formulation introduced.
Prerequisite(s):  MEE 456
Graduate: Rec (3) Credits: 3

One or more of the following courses from SIE will be offered:
Contact the Spatial Information Science & Engineering Dept. at 581-2188

SIE 505 Formal Foundations of Information Systems
Increases student’s understanding of the approach to information systems and science by formalisms.  Draws on mathematics to increase familiarity with formal syntax and language, develops understanding and technical ability in handling  structures relevant to information systems and science.  Includes a review of fundamental material on set theory, functions and relations, graph theory, and logic; examines a variety of algebraic structures; discusses formal languages and the bases of computation.

Prerequisites & Notes
Spatial Information Science & Engineering or Information Systems graduate student,  or permission of instructor.

Credits: 3

SIE 525 Information Systems Law
Current and emerging status of computer law in electronic environments: rights of privacy, freedom of information, confidentiality, work product protection, copyright, security, legal liability; impact of law on use of databases and spatial datasets; legal options for dealing with conflicts and adaptations of law over time.

Prerequisites & Notes
Graduate standing or permission of instructor.

Credits: 3

SIE 550 Engineering Databases and Information Systems
Theoretical foundation for the representation of knowledge in information systems and logic-based programming as a tool for fast prototyping. Object-oriented modeling and database schema design for engineering applications. Database management systems and their suitability for engineering data, transaction concepts and query languages, including SQL.

Prerequisites & Notes
Graduate standing or permission of instructor.

Credits: 3

SIE 555 Spatial Database Systems
Covers internal system aspects of spatial database systems. Layered database architecture. Physical data independence. Spatial data models. Storage hierarchy. File organization. Spatial index structures. Spatial query processing and optimization. Transaction management and crash recovery. Commercial spatial database systems.

Prerequisites & Notes
SIE 550 and programming experience in Java, C++ or C.

Credits: 3

Want a brief introduction to renewable energy technologies
and how they might meet our future energy demands?

Consider EET 498, Section 990:
Renewable Energy and Electricity Production

Introduction:

A new course is being offered in the Fall of 2010 to present renewable energy topics, which will introduce the different types of renewable energy technologies and geographical considerations required when evaluating renewable energy resources. This unique approach allows students to not only understand the technologies but also the viability of a particular site.

Beyond the renewable energy and resource presentation, the course will cover power plant economics and fuel concerns. The course will compare costs between renewable energy technologies and conventional fossil fuel plants. The course will also look at the scale and location of electric power producing plants.

This course will be taught by two licensed professional engineers who have worked in the renewable energy field who will surely give you a new way of thinking about energy. Dr. David Dvorak is an expert on fuel cell systems and has been developing a graduate program in renewable energy in Iceland.

Mr. Paul Villeneuve has worked extensively in the power generation, supply, and delivery arena and was heavily involved with the first commercial scale wind farm in the state of Maine.

Who Should Register:
This course will cover more than just the science of renewable energy technologies. As a result, those who are interested in policy regarding renewable energy are also encouraged to enroll. Further, those interested in economic evaluations of proposed power plants will also find the course to be of value. Finally, if you are interested in the future of energy supply in the world, you should register for this class. Prerequisites for this course include physics and introductory calculus.

Method of Delivery:
This course is a three credit hour course that will meet on Tuesday and Thursday at noon for 1.25 hours. The course will be offered via the web so flexible scheduling is available.

Enrollment is at a six-year high in the University of Maine College of Engineering, both in engineering and engineering technology programs. But it’s not just the number of students on campus that is growing these days. Professional engineers throughout the state are now taking graduate level engineering classes online from UMaine Engineering through the Maine Advanced Technology & Engineering Center (MATEC).

MATEC is collaboration between the University of Maine and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC), in cooperation with the University of Southern Maine. It serves as a higher education and R&D magnet to attract new industries and support current businesses in the mid coast region of Maine and focuses on growth areas for the region, such as advanced energy technology, precision manufacturing, and composites, including wind blades for energy turbines, and airplane composites.

“Maine has great long-term opportunities to capitalize on our core attributes, including an outstanding workforce and abundant natural resources,” says UMaine President Robert Kennedy. “Working with our partners at MATEC to address urgent state needs, we will build on the strong foundation of a flagship research university, supported by the state’s targeted investments in R&D over the past dozen years.”

“We are doing this to help engineers throughout Maine, but in particular, midcoast and Southern Maine, where 60 percent of Maine’s engineers live and work,” says Dana Humphrey, dean of UMaine’s College of Engineering. “A well-educated workforce with access to research, development and commercialization expertise is essential to maintaining Maine’s current high-tech industries and growing new ones. This need will become ever greater in the years ahead.”

MATEC will be the centerpiece of the new SMCC Midcoast Campus, which will occupy four buildings at the Brunswick Naval Station (BNAS), which will close in 2011. The property has been deeded to SMCC, which will own and operate the center. UMaine’s portion of MATEC will be primarily funded by tuition revenue. A June bond referendum will ask Maine voters to fund important renovations to the BNAS to meet educational needs.

“More graduates with engineering degrees translates to a well-educated, stronger workforce for Maine,” says Jim Ortiz, President of SMCC. “Our most critical economic resource is the education and skills of the Maine workforce. Higher education leads to better jobs and higher wages, generating more state revenue.”

MATEC began offering graduate level UMaine classes last semester, using distance technology, with courses in civil, mechanical, and information engineering fields to meet the needs of Bath Iron Works and other companies. The first course was in astronautics. This semester, courses offered include Formal Foundations of Information Systems and Structural Dynamics.

“There aren’t really any opportunities in this area for graduate level education in engineering. Online courses allow me to work and take classes that are applicable to the job – right from my computer,” says Scott Robinson, Structural Engineer- BIW. “In the future, I’d like to pursue a masters in mechanical engineering through online courses like this.”

Keep checking back for more information on new online classes!

UMaine wins composites award

Maine Engineers Week 2010! Download and Print out Form to Register.