Professional engineers wore two hats - engineer and educator, Dec. 2, as they spent their morning as educators, teaching the career-related disciplines they practice on a day-to-day basis. The eleven engineers joined the Neptune High School students for Neptune's first-ever engineering forum; a day dedicated to giving students a bird's-eye view of careers in various engineering fields.
As part of an ongoing effort to promote engineering among high school students, Neptune High School and the N.J. Coast IEEE coordinated the forum which incorporated classroom-like sessions and a closing assembly, where students gave feedback about their experiences and learned about related scholarship opportunities.
In one of the educational sessions, Cindy Poon, branch chief of the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center's Tactical Networks branch, taught a group of students about internet protocol addressing and sub-netting.
One of Poon's students, Abigail Sanford, shared her experience with her classmates during the closing session.
"We learned about IP addresses and at first, I don't think anyone knew what was going on and then it was actually really simple and I got it," Sanford said.
In addition to teaching the students a new discipline, Principal Rich Allen also hoped the event would expose students to the real-world experience of working as a professional engineer.
"The forum was educational in nature and gave the students a sense of what engineers do in their field of expertise," Allen said. "The connection between real-world problem solving and class work is forged by this relationship. They can now see the 'so what' of their day-to-day class work and their future careers."
William Tartis, a junior and member of Neptune's Navy ROTC said the forum did just that.
"I believe that today is important because it showed you what you want to do in life and how you can achieve it in certain ways," Tartis said.
Before concluding the day, the students gathered in Neptune's auditorium where Erica Bertoli, CERDEC Outreach program manager gave a presentation about science, technology, engineering and math and the various opportunities in the U.S. Army for students.
Although some of the participating Neptune students previously toured CERDEC's labs in October, for Tartis, the presentation was his first insight into engineering in the military.
"I knew very little, but today definitely opened the gates," Tartis said. "I thought it was great, it taught me a lot."
To continue furthering interest and awareness about science and engineering among Neptune students, Allen is planning to hold another forum in April and also hopes to incorporate engineering clubs and additional related programs into the school's curriculum.
"The students were very impressed and left very satisfied with the experience," Allen said. "The students are excited about the next Engineering Forum."
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