Heat and humidity didn’t stop Cal State Long Beach students and faculty from showing up for Engineering Welcome Day and hearing about student organizations’ latest projects. Sponsored by the Associated Engineering Student Body (AESB), the Sept. 10 event drew nearly 200 people and featured nearly two dozen tables.
“There’s a lot of people here,” said AESB Treasurer Luis Gonzalez. “Welcome Day helps new freshmen coming in hear what the organizations are about. But it’s also useful for all the engineering students to get together.”
At the Embedded Applications Tech Society (EATS) table, members were attracting an audience with a Pong game set up using an Arduino and screwdrivers for paddles. ACM members had information on development opportunities with Github, Android, Linux, and iOs—and were also looking for participants for the upcoming hackathon, BeachHack. And the Long Beach Maker Society was drawing a crowd with a table full of 3D-printed items.
The CSULB Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) table had a slightly larger attraction, however—the Baja vehicle that club members design, build and race. Chapter Secretary Kayvon Bakhshandeh said Welcome Day is critical in attracting new students to work on the vehicle. “There’s a lot of interest at first because people want to show up and drive cars. But when they realize they have to put work into it, they can change their minds,” he said.
Guests included students from Long Beach Unified School District’s Sato Academy of Mathematics and Science. For more information about CSULB’s engineering student organizations, visit http://aesb.org/.