• July 12, 2019

    Engineering Open House that UAF held last February

    UAF’s College of Engineering and Mines (CEM) hosts an engineering week open house every year in conjunction with national engineering week. The event is an opportunity for the Fairbanks community to discover, engage and enjoy all things engineering.

    This year’s open house, held on Saturday, February 23, was attended by approximately 500 people and all activities were located in the Engineering Learning and Innovation Facility. CSET’s “Safe Stopping Distance” activity focused on determining the friction coefficient for different surfaces to calculate the safe stopping distance.

    Measurements were taken on ice, gravel and dry pavement and used to calculate the friction coefficient of each surface. The friction coefficients were then input into the stopping distance formula to calculate the distance required to stop at 45 mph on each surface. Many attendees were startled by the distances required to stop. 

    CESTiCC’s “Making Concrete” activity taught young engineers and the families about the materials that go into building roadways and maintaining traction in the winter. The hands-on component of the activity was making play dough, introducing them to following a recipe, measuring ingredients and mixing the materials together to make something new. 

    In the photo above, Tristan Sayre, a senior in civil engineering at UAF, demonstrates measuring the pull force to move a wooden block with tire treads across a gravel surface. The pull force is a required measurement for calculating the friction coefficient of a surface. 

    Diane Wallace assists her daughters, Hadrian (left) and Deidre (right) Eickermann, make concrete during the Engineering Open House. Matt Encelewski, undergraduate student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UAF, assists another concrete maker.