George Mason University's Engineers Week celebrated the problems engineers can solve, from building steel bridges to creating water filtration systems with sand.
The event at the Volgenau School of Engineering was part of National Engineers Week.
The six-member George Mason steel bridge building team worked on creating a 35-foot long bridge, in preparation for the steel bridge-building competition at the American Society of Civil Engineers regional conference in April.
The students follow a 50-page rulebook as they design the bridge. The bridge must hold a 2,500-pound load and has about 90 pieces when complete. They were "tweaking" it at Mason's machine shop and drilling holes in the steel on Wednesday.
Once the bridge is built, then the practice of putting it together begins.
"They practice building it over and over again so they can get it down to 15 minutes," says Liza Durant, acting chair of Civil, Environmental & Infrastructure Engineering. "It's an exciting competition to watch."
Students also learned other aspects of engineering, thanks to Oscar Barton, Mason's mechanical engineering program director. He brought in representatives from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to discuss standards and intellectual property, respectively.
Associations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which recently started a student chapter at Mason, are essential for students, Barton says. Kate Hyam, senior project engineer with ASME, gave students insight into how the mechanical engineering curriculum will help them in their careers.
"One element too often left to chance is the need for students to align themselves with the professional society associated with their discipline," Barton says. "This alignment must be the start of a commitment to advance their profession and the start of commitment to service excellence."
Students also learned about intellectual property issues and alternative career paths. Thuy Nguyen from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office discussed with students how important it is to secure a patent to protect their creative design and innovations.
"Many engineers are faced with career decisions that do not follow the anticipated path after graduation," Barton says. "She also presented alternatives to becoming a practicing engineer by becoming a patent agent, patent examiner or patent attorney. All of the positions are in high demand due to the competitive engineering product market."
A version of this story by Michele McDonald appeared on Mason's News Desk on Feb. 27, 2015