Involving High School Students In A University Level Mechanical Engineering Design Competition

This paper documents the involvement of students from a 99% African American metro-Atlanta area high school in a sophomore-level mechatronics course at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The course contains elements of computer science, electro-mechanical sensors and actuators, and mechanical design. The wide range of skills needed to build a competitive machine in the end-of-course competition attracts interest from a wide range of students. By involving high school students in this competition, and exposing them to the university setting, we hope to attract more minority students into science or engineering, and specifically into mechanical engineering.