ECE Family Fun Night draws over 500 attendees

Dan Newman • September 20, 2018

Attendees explored engineering teams, labs, and projects with demonstrations and games.

Lasers on Bell Tower Enlarge
Laser projections of children's outlines on the Lurie Bell Tower.
Child testing car Enlarge
"Test driving" the off-road Baja vehicle.

Culminating with a laser light show, Family Fun Night 2018 gathered students, alumni, faculty, and anyone interested in the Michigan ECE community to play, learn, and explore all that makes up electrical and computer engineering. Greeting visitors were demonstrations from student groups and research labs, games, activities, arts and crafts, giveaways, and dinner.

Families got to see the latest models from student teams such as STARX, which creates powered exoskeletons, MRover, which builds rovers for extraterrestial environments, and Michigan Baja Racing, which designs, builds, and races off-road vehicles.

Children learn about holograms. Enlarge
Learning about holograms.

Young engineers took on the challenge to create towers out of marshmallow and spaghetti, observed silicon wafers through microscopes, and transmitted audio using lasers. When needing a break from engineering, children played miniature golf, hopped in a bounce house, and had their faces painted.

Also on display were new exhibits in the EECS Atrium, which showcase the Michigan Micro Mote (M3), robotics, and brain probes developed by Michigan ECE researchers.

Looking at probe display. Enlarge
Checking out the new display on brain probes made by Michigan ECE.

The night ended with a laser light show on the Lurie Bell Tower, the most prominent building on North Campus. Before starting, children could pose and have their outlines turned into lasers and projected up on the Tower.

Photo Gallery
Building marshmallow and spaghetti towers.
Building marshmallow and spaghetti towers at ECE Family Fun Night.
Learning about radios.
Learning about radios at ECE Family Fun Night 2018.
Exploring robotic car.
Exploring the robotic car.
Child playing.
Preparing for undergraduate degree at U-M.
Building marshmallow and spaghetti tower.
Building marshmallow and spaghetti towers at ECE Family Fun Night.
Child playing with electronic game.
Playing with an electrical engineering game.
Child using microscope on silicon wafer
Discovering nanotechnology by inspecting silicon wafers.
Child outside Baja vehicle.
Kicking the tires on the Michigan Baja vehicle.
Child getting face painted.
Getting a favorite symbol with face paint.
Inspecting Michigan Micro Mote.
Checking out the smallest computer in the world, the Michigan Micro Mote.