Regardless of whether or not you got to go somewhere warm during reading week, the first week of classes afterwards is always on the dreary side to say the least. This year, we’re in luck, as February 26th – March 6th marks the kick off week for National Engineering Month (NEM), a country-wide volunteer initiative to celebrate Engineering and its wonderful traditions. Started in 1992, the purpose of NEM is to raise awareness of the importance of engineering and to encourage kids to choose engineering or similar technical fields of study.
During this week, events are being held across the country for engineers, engineering students and the community as a whole. This year, your NEM directors have some neat tricks up their sleeves to get the celebrations started at Waterloo. We will be building a Rube Goldberg machine as a part of the Engineering Student Societies Council of Ontario’s (ESSCO) National Engineering Month celebration. Each member school will build an intricate machine that will send a message to another school, subsequently starting their machine. The final machine will be at the CN tower, and light up a scale CN tower model in purple lights with a sign that reads E4TW, meaning ‘Engineers for The World’.
Leading up to the day where these machines will be run, there will be a seminar for high school students on the 2nd of March where they will be able to build a component of Waterloo’s machine, as well as learn about choosing engineering as a career and what to expect from an engineering undergrad program. Your neighborhood NEM directors will be looking for volunteers the week after reading week to help out with this evening event – food will be provided! It will be a great chance to talk to some future Waterloo Engineering students!
On the evening of the 4th of March the machine will be unveiled in the E5 student team bay. The signal to start the machine will be received from another school via e-mail and the machine will then move throughout the student bay space. Local media has already been recruited to cover the event – it’s going to be a big engineering spirit party! We will also be using this event as the kick off event for other NEM-spirited events that are planned for the remainder of March. I highly encourage everyone to stop by – further details will be released as the date gets closer… and hell week goes away.
The bottom line of NEM is to increase engineering spirit and awareness, and I think Waterloo is the best place to make this happen. There’s always a flourish of it during frosh week, but a bit of a lull always tends to happen during the winter term. So break out your favorite purple shirt, or skin tone, hum a little bit of everyone’s favorite Lady Godiva hymn, and most importantly – keep an eye out for spirited NEM initiatives from your local NEM directors!
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