Media Advisory: Carnegie Mellon Professor Jonathan Cagan Launches New STEM Program To Promote Engineering Careers

Contact: Chriss Swaney / 412-268-5776 / swaney@andrew.cmu.edu
     
Event: Only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in mathematics and are interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. But Carnegie Mellon University's Jonathan Cagan is working to change those dismal numbers. In collaboration with the Western Pa. STEMM Academy run by Fox Chapel School District, CMU will introduce more than 30 Pittsburgh area high school juniors and seniors to the rigors and opportunities of a career in engineering. 

Students will tour nanorobotics labs where flying robots mirror nature from bats to humming birds. They also will get to interact with walking robots designed for use in rehabilitation technology and visit a neuro-imaging lab where researchers are exploring the architecture of human thought and understanding the brain functioning in autism.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to see engineering and science at work as the students tour labs and see how our daily lives are impacted by these important disciplines," said Cagan, the George Tallman and Florence Barrett Ladd Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at CMU's College of Engineering. "We are pursuing the challenge to promote increased STEM educational awareness."

The Obama administration has called on the nation to develop, recruit and retain 100,000 excellent STEM teachers over the next decade. The White House also has asked colleges and universities to graduate an additional 1 million students in STEM majors.

For additional information about the program, see http://www.edline.net/pages/FCAHS/Groups/STEMM

When: 9 a.m. - noon, Tuesday, July 30.

Where: Nanorobotics Lab, Hamerschlag Hall D308, Carnegie Mellon University, off Frew Street and Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213.

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