AET Hosts Technology Student Association Regional Competitions
The annual Technology Student Association (TSA) regional competition hosted by the Department of Applied Engineering & Technology (AE&T) within the College of Business & Technology (CB&T) is in the books as a resounding success. Even the wintery weather conditions in the region did not stop the approximately 225 students from participating in the middle- and high-school’s technology competitions held on February 27, 2015. Eleven schools from seven counties in the EKU service region and beyond attended the event.
High school students participated in 23 events ranging from Video Game Design, Desktop Publishing, Promotional Graphics, Technical Design, Technology Problem Solving, Dragster, CAD 2D/3D Architecture, and Transportation Modeling; and middle school students participated in 18 events including Tech T-shirt Design, Problem Solving, and Flight Challenge. These included individual and team events for the students.
Among the most popular events this year were a Technology Bowl in which students participated in a Jeopardy-style game about Technology; a Dragster Design where students constructed and raced scaled cars powered by gas cartridges on a racetrack; and Technology Problem Solving in which students developed a working solution for a given scenario.
TSA students begin preparing for various individual and team competitions at the start of the school year. Several events such as website design and on-demand video required online submissions ahead of time. The winners of the EKU regional competitions go on to participate in the state and national TSA competitions.
Thanks to new AE&T faculty members Mike Walach, Charlie Zhang, and David Freet who judged the middle- and high-school TSA events for the first time; and to all AE&T departmental faculty, staff, and student assistants who were actively involved in various stages of the event organization, such as event planning, arranging for venues across campus, parking arrangements, facilitating/judging events, refreshments, and picking up after the events. This year a new online student registration system for streamlining the process was successfully trialed.
Feedback from teachers and students regarding the TSA EKU regional competitions has been overwhelmingly positive. We hope to see these schools and many more join us for TSA EKU 2016.
For more information regarding the TSA regional competitions please contact either the AE&T department or department chair Dr. Tim Ross. More information about the EKU regional TSA competitions is available at: http://www.eku-aet.org/tsa/. For event rules/TSA school chapters contact Ms. Staci Davis.
Photographs taken during the 2015 TSA-EKU regional competitions are included (courtesy Bryan Roark).
Published on February 27, 2015