Features: April 1, 2002

Hands-On Rensselaer!

More than 300 high school juniors and seniors and their parents descended upon Rensselaer's campus on Saturday, March 23, for Design Your Future Day, an annual rite of passage for local young women interested in science, engineering, and high tech. The day provides a first-hand experience in the laboratory and mentoring from female students.

The 10th and 11th graders hailed from 32 Capital Region schools and 11 schools in Rochester. Activities were designed to inspire inquiry among the young women, says Barbara Ruel, program director.

"The most important aspect of the day is for them to have fun and to realize these are fields in which they can really succeed," Ruel said.

Demonstrations and discussions included "Betcha Can't Guess," which used computer simulation and modeling to explain the behavior of complex molecular interactions; "Our Bodies, Our Cells: Life on the Bio-Frontier," a discussion of some of the burning questions related to biotechnology and biomedical research such as "would you want to be cloned?" and "would you sell your eggs or a kidney?"; and "are you a control freak?" which explored how embedded systems and microprocessors are being used to improve everything from home appliances to traffic signals.

Tracy Mack '98, project engineer for General Motors, was the keynote speaker.

Jeanne Jenkins, director of enrollment planning, said the fall 2002 applicant pool at Rensselaer has yielded the largest number of applicants (29) ever from the Design Your Future Day program.