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On March 11, 2011 two hundred and thirty high school students from Orange County, CA attended the 2011 Winter Design Review. The Winter Design Review featured senior engineering student projects from all majors of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Professor Michael McCarthy, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCI, opened the day educating students about the UCI engineering programs and admissions. High school students then acted as industry experts providing their critique and evaluation to the UCI engineering students’ projects. 

The day concluded with students learning about rapid prototyping and the RapidTech Center at UCI. Ed Tackett, Director of the RapidTech Center, posed a question to the students, “How can you make a dog leash better?” Students worked in groups to devise a new dog leash. A wireless leash that has an iPhone App. and a magnetic leash that snaps on and off the collar were just some of the creative ideas the students came up with. Students left with a better understanding of the design process, and the tools they can use to create designs in all engineering disciplines. They learned that critiquing a design is just as important as creating one, because hearing different points of views, allows them to solve the design problems.

 

Thanks to UCI and RapidTech for partnering with Central Orange County Career Technical Education Partnership (CTEp) to host this wonderful day!