Engineering students at work

Take a look at Engineering students at work

Budding engineers are hard at work at the University of Vermont this week.

High school students from across the state are on campus for a series of workshops.

In total, 113 kids are testing their skills at a variety of engineering projects. Some are learning to build and generate energy from wind turbines, while others are mixing recycled carpet and concrete to create affordable and durable building materials.

This year, 34 of the participants are young women, a number organizers say is continuing to go up.

“We’re definitely learning a lot and we get the hands-on kind of experience. It’s really cool because you get to see the stuff you do on paper and you get to bring it to life,” said April Foley, a program participant.

“What’s exciting to me is that we are taking more diverse people into the field of engineering which basically generates more ideas to provide more solutions,” said Lindsay Wells, a program instructor.

The effort is a partnership between the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont and the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.