Kids sample engineering offerings at UAA summer academies

Engineering has intrigued 13-year-old Will Kretzschmar for most of his life. It's understandable, since his mother was a project engineer for Kraft Foods and McCormick & Co. [spices and flavorings] and his father worked for the Army Corps of Engineers before moving to HDR Inc.

When his mother, Mary Kretzschmar, found out about UAA's summer engineering academies, she thought they would be a good fit. That was in 2014. Will's back this week to launch his third year of taking part in the program-he's signed up for creative coding and on a waitlist for LEGO robotics.

"There's something to be said about being in a classroom and using your mind in the summer," Mary said. "I think it helps him on a broader level, with life skills like working together and cooperating with people you're working with. It's a great experience. Will pores over the BP camp offerings. He looks forward to it."

Taste of engineering

UAA has presented the BP-sponsored academies every summer since 2010, said Scott Hamel, director of the program. This year, they will run from June 6 until Aug. 5. Hamel says 460 spots were available and 444 spots have been filled, with 420 paid and registered.

The nine academies' offerings are tailored for kids of different ages: from Lego robotics for students in grades 5-6 to advanced structures for high school students.

UAA faculty devised the 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekday sessions, which have given students a sampling of programs in UAA's College of Engineering-including civil engineering, geomatics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science.

"Our primary goal is to expose kids to the engineering: what it is and what the opportunities are in Alaska," Hamel said. "We also aim to expose bright kids to UAA and the engineering programs."

The academies have, until this year, always taken place at UAA's Anchorage campus. But in July, some of the offerings-creative coding, structure destruction and Arduino robotics-will be held at UAA's Mat-Su campus.

"There are 15,000 students in the Mat-Su Borough School District, arguably with less access to exposure to engineering as a career and UAA as an institution," Hamel explained. "We endeavor to reach these students similar to the way we have done so in Anchorage."

A lottery determines which students may enroll in the academies. The cost to parents this year was $200 for advanced structures and Arduino robotics sessions, and $100 for the rest. Applicants may request fee waivers if they can't afford to pay, Hamel said.

"There are still spots available in the Mat-Su sessions and a couple of UAA sessions," Hamel said. "The others have waitlists-some of them are very long."

The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program also hosts a camp for middle-school children, but the two programs do not interact, Hamel said. "ANSEP is a long-term program," he said. "Our purpose is exposure. It's our job to take kids who haven't been exposed to science and engineering and say, 'Hey, here's engineering. It's fun!' That's our primary objective."

In addition to the sessions for kids, UAA will offer its FIRST LEGO League coach training for adults. FIRST is an acronym for an organization: For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology; FIRST LEGO League is an alliance between FIRST and the LEGO group. The free training will take place from 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m., June 18, at the Anchorage UAA campus. People may email uaa_sea@uaa.alaska.edu for more information.

'I'm excited to learn'

Will Kretzschmar says he enjoys the academies. He had gleaned experience in programming from online courses and learned some tips from friends, but the summer camps offered more of the immersion that he had wanted.

He learned in the structure destruction academy about bridges and their supports-what designs make bridges strong. Then, last year, he tried advanced robotics.

"They were really innovative and the instructors worked with you," he said. "It was a big challenge. The advanced coding for the robots was pretty hard. I was the builder and the programmer on the team, mainly programming. The others on my team were helpful; it was really fun working with them. Before, I didn't even know them but at the end of the camp, we were really good friends."

He hopes to emerge from its waitlist in time to try this summer's LEGO robotics academy.

"I've done metal robots and am a big fan of LEGO; I'm interested to see how different it is," he said. "Doing LEGO robots is going to be really awesome. I've used the software, how they program the robot, but that's about it. I haven't built the robot out of LEGO yet but I'm excited to learn."

Will says he loves science, math and technology.

"I like the things you can do with the technology, how you can make the world a better place, create things humans can use," he said. "It's really interesting to me how you can create things digitally and have a big career with it. I've taken hold of that, embraced it and now I'm learning so much more."

Written by Tracy Kalytiak, UAA Office of University Advancement.