Drexel Engineering Celebrates Engineers Week
Students show off their egg glide contraptions at the 2008 egg glide competition.
January 22, 2009 Each year,Drexel’s College of Engineering pays tribute to the work of engineersby celebrating their profession in a week-long series of events thatengages students, faculty, staff, alumni, industry partners, highschool students and teachers. To culminate the week’s exciting events,Drexel engineers will recognize the work of engineers nationwide andhonor the nominated Engineer of the Year, alumnus and astronaut,Christopher Ferguson at a dinner.
Drexel Engineering will host its 7th annual Engineers Week February 16-20, 2009. The week-long series of events are held in conjunction with National Engineers Week, a formal coalition of more than 100 engineering professional and technical societies and corporations and government agencies.
Packed with an array of daily events, this week-long celebration culminates in a dinner to honor Drexel’s Engineer of the Year, alumnus and astronaut, Christopher Ferguson. The Engineer of the Year award is presented annually to an engineer to recognize his or her cumulative outstanding accomplishments in the engineering field that have impacted the nation for the better. A Philadelphia native, Mr. Ferguson holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Drexel University and an MS in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School (‘91). Mr. Ferguson is a veteran of two space flights and he has logged over 28 days in space. He was the pilot of STS-115 Atlantis in 2006 and he was the commander of space shuttle Endeavour STS-126 in 2008.
Each day of Engineers Week offers a variety of exciting activities. These include the chance for students to participate in an annual egg drop contest where they design a device to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a great height; the 5th Annual Career Fair; an Honors Day Ceremony recognizing high achieving College of Engineering students for their accomplishments and a High School Day that exposes high school students to engineering in academia. This year’s Engineers Week will include a spirited pep rally to welcome Mr. Ferguson back to Drexel after his latest space mission to the International Space Mission. Following the pep rally, Mr. Ferguson will lecture on his latest space mission.