Prospective civil engineering students and parents watch
intently as professor Harold Kasper shows them a
concrete cylinder used to test structural strengths.
By Wendy Su
Daily Bruin Contributor
About 700 prospective engineering students and their families
gathered Sunday at the School of Engineering for an open house.
The open house is a part of an eight-year plan to expand
programs in engineering and computer and information sciences in
the University of California system to 24,000 students by
2005-06.
The Engineering and Computer and Information Sciences Initiative
was enacted because California will increasingly rely on educated
workers due to its role as a technological state, according to the
UC Regents’ Budget for Current Operations for 2000-01.
The Department of Commerce predicts in 2005 there will be more
information technology jobs available than there will be
workers.
An annual growth of about 1,000 full-time equivalent students in
engineering and computer and information sciences is expected.
To help carry out this growth, the School of Engineering took
the opportunity to recruit some of the state’s top high
school seniors by inviting them to meet alumni, tour labs, see the
dorms, and watch demonstrations.
Some of the sights included a gigantic scanning electron
microscope, a floating concrete canoe and a machine that creates a
3-D object from any digitally created image. Various
representatives were present to talk about their respective
programs.
Presentations and tours continued throughout the afternoon for
aerospace engineering, computer science, and engineering, chemical,
civil engineering, materials engineering and mechanical
engineering.
Student leaders Selene Lee, president of the Engineering
Society, and Natalie McLurg and Michelle Yi, presidents of the
Society of Women Engineers, also gave presentations on survival
tips at UCLA.
Yi put emphasis on attracting women to engineering programs.
“Women are still underrepresented in our classes,”
Yi said. “Every year the number has increased but there is a
lack. (This initiative) will give more opportunities.”
By the end of the day, some were still undecided about UCLA.
A recruit, Gerard Convento of Notre Dame High School, applied to
the University of Southern California, UC Berkeley, Loyola
Marymount and UCLA.
“I’m not leaning toward any of the four schools
yet,” he said. “I’ll (decide) once I figure out
which ones I get into.”