Students praised Central Connecticut State University’s annual Engineer Week as they received first-hand experience in their mechanical study.

This year, CCSU’s Engineering Department combined college students with high school students from the Discovery, Explore, Experience, and Practice program. DEEP is a year-long program with five events where students may engage with CCSU instructors and students via academic hands-on activities and events.

There were three critical speakers for this week. John Noon is a senior electrical engineer of Otis Elevator Company, John Dunham is a construction administrator at the Connecticut Department of Transportation, and Anthony Audette is a CCSU alumnus and a mechanical engineer.

For this week, students learned new methods of processing in electrical engineering, exclusive insight into the project of a construction company in civil engineering, and how to start from a corporate job to being your own boss in mechanical and manufacturing engineering.

Audette said being a student allows you to be ignorant, ask questions, and be helped by others, making it the only time you can experience this opportunity.

“As soon as you graduate college, you’re no longer a student,” Audette said. “People expect something more of you, whether your second to last day or your first day graduating. There are two very different things.”

Taking advantage of being a student allows for more risks and new opportunities.

“People expect a lot from you because if you tell them you’re a student, they’ll be like, ‘ok, he’s learning, I can be more patient with him,’ but if you tell them ‘I’m an engineer,’ and you don’t know what you’re doing there’s gonna be a lot to be said for that,” Audette said.

Leticia Castro, electrical computer engineer and a junior at CCSU, said Audette left an impression that she will hold on as a woman in STEM.

“Cause he’s just a big kid. I asked him, ‘As ambitious as you are, when do you decide what’s enough?’ He answered, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever reach that,’” Castro said.

Castro said she was inspired by Audette’s journey from working in the aerospace business to eventually becoming an entrepreneur in designing high-end motorcycles, doing what he loves while still being able to provide for his family.

Shashir Kollu, from Newington High School, was debating studying at the University of Connecticut or CCSU, and this was a chance to explore the resources offered.

“I got to learn a bit more about CCSU and the campus … I came because I had a few friends already doing this, and I decided that it’s an engineering thing,” Kollu said. “Since I’m already going around that major, I might as well do it.”

To wrap up the week, students worked in groups to build a mechanism to protect an egg and make it possible for a tennis ball to travel back and forth without falling to the ground.

Yung Moo Son said the significance of these activities was for students to learn how to model systems efficiently and effectively in the real world. Moo Son said he was impressed with the students’ methods for protecting an egg and how closely the methods were to real-world construction.

“Construction engineering is regarding protecting the people inside,” Moo Son said. “To keep people safe from an earthquake, we have to put springs into the structure, a special damper system. I was surprised they could provide that kind of system to the structures.”

Students from New Britain High School and Newington High School, Tairan Habib, Michelle Prucnal, and David Sarnacki won both challenges, leaving college students humorously second-guessing their expertise but inspired nonetheless.

When the winners were announced, the room was filled with applause, and the students were given a certificate and an engineer book for their accomplishment.

“We didn’t start with any designs,” Habib said. “We started to do something and were able to put everything together.”

Michelle Prucnal said difficulties came with their communication.

“There was a problem with communication in the beginning, but once we got to it, it got better over time,” Prucnal said.

Kim Towler, a social work major, said she participated in Engineer Week to observe Connecticut engineers’ efforts to improve the lives of the ‘handicapable.’

“I’m here today to see what our engineers are doing for the disabled or the ‘handicapable,’ that’s how I like to say it,” Towler said. “I’d like to see our engineers here in the state of Connecticut working to improve situations for the people in the state of Connecticut.”

Towler said she’d like for more American citizens to support state universities.

“I’d like to see more American citizens in state universities because they [Americans] are paying for the universities to exist.”