Tufts Celebrates Engineers Week with Egg Drops, Light-up Beetles, and More

From building miniature solar cars with local families and participating in an egg drop challenge, to learning about AI and networking with alumni, students at Tufts got to experience the many facets and joys of an engineering education during Engineers Week.

National Engineers Week officially ran from Feb. 22 to 28, but at Tufts, the celebration stretched into March as snowy weather delayed some activities. The celebration was open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members.

Tufts Society of Latinx Engineers and Scientists (S.O.L.E.S.) put on the Imagineering event, which included an egg drop challenge. Students made a wide variety of inventive apparatuses to protect their eggs from cracking as they dropped to the ground from one of the terraces in the Tsungming Tu Complex atrium.

Rayna Santos-Wright, A26, president of the S.O.L.E.S., said the egg drop is one of the highly anticipated events at Engineers Week. She hopes the variety of fun activities helped build community among students.

"It sort of feels like Mardi Gras," Santos-Wright said. "Everyone has their own parade, and you want to show up to celebrate with them. It feels like a holiday for a lot of the engineering clubs, because it's a great demonstration for all our hard work throughout the year."

At the Tufts Society of Latinx Engineers and Scientists Imagineering event, students engaged in a competition to keep their egg safe while dropping them from the top floor of the TsungmingTu Complex atrium.

Campbell Braun, E27, vice president of the Society of Women Engineering at Tufts, ran an event where students could solder an electronic beetle. Soldering is a process that involves melting metal to create electric connections on a device using a hot iron. The "beetles" had a photo resistor that would light up its eyes whenever a person's finger hovered over the resistor-if the soldering was done right.

"Something as scary sounding as soldering can be pretty simple if you concentrate and you have good people around to kind of hype you up to do it," Braun said. "Engineering really isn't that scary, and you can learn any skill if you just put a little bit of time in it."

Involving the local community is also a hallmark of Engineers Week at Tufts. Families and kids were invited to join the STEAM-Team and Tufts Solar Vehicle Team collaboration at the Somerville Public Library, where they offered a workshop to build solar-powered mini-cars.

"It's a really great way for us to engage with the community," said Colette Laliberte, E26, co-president of solar vehicle team. "I think this activity could introduce kids to different avenues for engineering and the different kinds of projects that they might have the opportunity to explore."

Students soldered electronic beetles, a process that involves melting metal to create electric connections on a device using a hot iron.

Engineers Week activities also served as a way for students to show off the work they've been doing in the classroom, said Sehba Hasan, associate director of the Center for STEM Diversity, which hosted a STEM Project and Poster Fair.

"I wanted to make sure that this is a launching pad for the students to participate in national fairs, so they have the confidence they need to present what they have been working on, and to give them an opportunity to celebrate sharing ideas together and encourage other students to engage in STEM activities and projects," she said.

Braun said she was excited to see her fellow student's projects and skills throughout Engineers Week.

"Because we're always so busy in the lab or doing projects, we don't get to see what other people are doing," she said. "This is a fun way to see what all my friends are doing. It's an opportunity for people who aren't in engineering to try something new out."

Laliberte said she loves the opportunity to learn about other the diversity of other engineering students, clubs, and activities on campus.

"I'm always very passionate about seeing people in engineering who maybe don't look like what we traditionally think as an engineer," Laliberte said. "One great thing about EWeek is that giving people a chance to show what they're working on is also a great way to platform gender minorities and people of color who aren't always seen in these roles."

"A lot of these events have key insights from some really great minds around the school," Braun said. "The engineering culture at Tufts fosters a lot of creativity and I think being able to see what everyone's making and how everyone's putting their education to use is awesome to see."

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