An Opportunity for High School Students:
ISU’s Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) Program was initiated in summer 2015.
The YES program is a pre-college education program that sponsors and supports 11th and 12th grade students by pairing them with Iowa State University faculty mentors as they cultivate ideas that can be developed into projects for submission to state science and technology fairs. The YES Program objectives are to provide high school students with:
- Opportunities to participate in on-going research
- Exposure to both academic and career opportunities in engineering
- Ideas that can be developed into projects for submission to state Science and Technology Fairs
With the opportunity to participate in on-going research, students are exposed to countless academic and career opportunities in engineering. During the school year, students leave school early to work on the research project for a minimum of nine hours a week for one semester, supervised by a faculty mentor and/or graduate student. At the project’s end, the student prepares a poster outlining his/her research to be presented at a reception at the end of the semester. During the summer, the program is 6 weeks, 40 hours per week.
Accelerated Bridge Construction:
The ABC-UTC participated in the YES Program, and the high school student was involved in a laboratory study aimed at developing adjacent box beam connection details that are resilient and long-lasting. This work consisted of conducting material characterization tests and controlled small-scale, early-age testing of potential solutions.
Above photo at conclusion of ISU’s Summer 2015 YES program. High school student is shown with Professor Brent Phares and Ph.D. student.
For more information:
See the YES website or contact:
Stacy Renfro, NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC)
Iowa State University
1140N Biorenewables Research Laboratory
Ames, IA 50011-3270
Phone: 515-294-8582, Fax: 515-294-1269
srenfro@iastate.edu