Posted: November 21, 2016, 11:42am
Every year, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering hosts “STEM Spotlight” events that showcase each of the departments within our school. Organized by the K-12 VAST Outreach program, which stands for Viterbi-Adopt-a-School, Adopt-a-Teacher, and the outreach coordinator Katie Mills, Spotlights usually consist of demonstrations from our professors, PhD researchers, and related student organizations. This fall, we hosted one focused on the Department of Biomedical Engineering! Around 300 middle school and high school students from the Compton Unified School District visited us and our interactive stations.
Throughout the event, which lasted from 9am-3pm, I ran the 3D Printing Creation station. Because a lot of biomedical engineers use this additive manufacturing method to conduct rapid prototyping and run quick feasibility tests, I thought it would be a great, fun way to engage students in new technology and stimulate their interest in engineering. I was able to distribute little 3D-printed gadgets and models of brains, hearts and skulls that were generously donated from MakerBot, Dynamism, and FormLabs (all giants in the 3D-printing industry). Other stations that the students visited focused on areas of research like biomechanics, robotics, prosthetics, brain injury, medical device development, and more.
It was incredible planning this event with all of the Viterbi student leaders and the PhD students. If you want to get involved with future Spotlights, be sure to contact the VAST Outreach program. The spring one will be focused on the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, so if you’re an ISE major, I highly recommend volunteering to help out! We’re all responsible for sharing the broader impacts of our research at USC and engaging with our community, so this is a great way to achieve that goal. If you would like to read more about this event, check out the articles here and here.
Published on July 28th, 2017
Last updated on August 10th, 2017