Engineering a better future

Each summer, the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University hosts multiple summer programs for rising 3rd to 12th grade students. From day camps to week-long stays, these programs introduce students to engineering through hands-on, creative investigations and design activities, and problem-solving.

While challenged to solve real-world problems, students experience fun and creative ways to engage in a variety of science, technology, math and engineering activities. During the weeklong camps, students have been able to design and test everything from egg nests, rockets and s’mores’ packaging in elementary camps; disaster zone egg drops, marble wall runs and game controllers in middle school; and vending machine designs, determining why an aircraft carrier sank, and how to simulate and set traffic patterns in our high school day camps.

The College hosted more than 1,700 students in 2016 alone, with campers coming from across the nation and from international locations each year to participate in activities hosted by leading faculty members and high achieving undergraduate and graduate students.

Residential camp workshops for 11th and 12th graders are led by faculty members and graduate students from many of the College’s Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Computer Science; Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering; Biological and Agricultural Engineering; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering; Paper Science and Engineering; Industrial & Systems Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Biomedical Engineering. While high school day camps for rising 9th and 10th graders are staffed by faculty members, staff and alumni from the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (polarization); Biomedical Engineering (hand prosthetics); Computer Science (algorithms and flowcharts); Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (traffic/roadway design); Materials Science and Engineering (failure analysis investigation); and Electrical and Computer Engineering (DC motor boats).

As demand increases for STEM summer programs, the summer camps receive roughly twice as many applications as there are spots for the day camps and three times as many applications for residential camps. Applications open each year in January.

Learn more at www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/summerprograms.