Students are getting hands on experience at Central Michigan University, working with teachers and professors on an engineering research project.
It’s all a part of CMU’s pre-college summer scholars program where middle and high school students in the area get to work with staff and students to develop their engineering skills.
9&10’s Taylor Jones got a closer look at the project.
There are students in this program as young as 12 years old.
CMU professors say the program shows kids that engineering is cool.
“The best part is working with the students and seeing how their minds work,” says Professor Kumar Yelamarthi.
Professor Yelamarthi calls this research project smart vehicle.
“What the students are working on right now is taking cars and they are trying to see how the communication happens from a car to an intersection,” says Yelamarthi.
Twelve year old Mohamad is one of four other students in the program.
He showed me what the car does.
“This is like a little computer and it’s controlling everything here, so we’re using a sensor to detect if it gets close to a wall to turn left or right,” says Mohamad Abdelgawad, student in program.
Students like Mohamad and Jaden say this project helps them relate to the outside world.
“There is a lot of cars on the road and there’s even more accidents now, so with the artificial intelligence we can avoid some of those accidents,” says Jaden Gavenda, student in program.
Professor Yelamarthi says the kids have shown a lot of dedication throughout the summer.
“I’ll tell them a task, this is what you have to do, I presume they will do that in a day and they often surprise me within a few hours saying I’m done, what’s next?” Says Yelamarthi.
At just 12 and 16 years old, Mohamed and Jaden say this program has open their eyes to a future in engineering.
“Now I know and now I’m intrigued. When I grow up I want to pursue a career in engineering.
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