Get ready for E2 Camp 2011
Rachel Austin, now a junior biomedical engineering major, attended the first camp, the first year that E2 Camp was initiated at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. But things have changed since the launch of this innovative orientation for freshman engineering students.
“We had a lot of downtime,” she says. “I went back as a mentor last summer and it is very different. There are so many activities and everything is very well coordinated.”
Downtime this year will be hard to find. In addition to some familiar E2 Camp traditions—the low ropes, the rock wall and ASU 101—there are new activities planned for 2011.
In the new boat building competition, teams of students will be given a variety of common materials such as plastic bottles, milk jugs, craft sticks, tape and more, then it’s time to strategize.With only one hour to actually build the boat, planning and teamwork will be essential. Teams will be recognized for the fastest boat across the pool, creativity in the use of materials, as well as some non-traditional criteria like how many plastic army men stayed on the boat.
In a new gauntlet competition, members of a team will have to complete a task at one station before going on to the next. More team members will join at each subsequent station until the entire team completes the last task. Tasks are designed to build critical thinking skills and reinforce team building. For example, in the toxic transport challenge, teams will be given a can of “toxic” popcorn which they must move to another container without touching or dropping any of the contents.
“Students are given challenges where they might be responsible individually for a small piece, but they recognize that they need the team to accomplish the task,” says Becca Kleinberg, coordinator, first year programs.
Laila El-Ashmawy, Civil Engineering, Spring 2011 and Justin Cooper, Civil Engineering, Dec 2011 show off their Sun Devil spirit and their Order of the Engineer “pinky rings.” Similar to the Hippocratic oath, the Order of the Engineer’s Obligation serves as a ceremonial reminder that the primary purpose of engineering is to serve the public and that all engineers share a common bond. The lifelong pledge is offered to all graduating seniors and alumni of ABET-accredited programs as well as Professional Engineers licensed in the United States.
New this year is a student-led session on Fulton Engineering traditions. E2 Camp is the first of many Fulton—and engineering—traditions students will participate in at ASU. One of the newly adopted traditions, the Order of the Engineer, is rooted in one student’s E2 Camp experience.
Mr. Chris Kmetty, class of ’97, spoke at camp, about his love of engineering and his “pinky ring” daring the students to ask him why he wore it. Joy Marsalla, class of ’11, took him up on his dare. “It’s important to take the [Order of the Engineer] oath because the public trusts that the planes we design will fly safely and the dams we build will hold the water back,” he said, explaining the important role that engineers play in society.
Marsalla took that belief to heart and called him. “I didn’t expect her to call me, but here we are two years later,” Kmetty says of Marsalla’s determination. The duo worked together with Paul Johnson, dean and professor of Fulton Engineering, to bring the ceremony to Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Over 200 engineers have taken the oath since the first ceremony in April 2010.
