Media Advisory: Aspiring Engineers to Discover UB's North Campus Is the "Final Frontier"

Seventy of Western New York's best and brightest high school students will flex their mental muscles as they compete in the Star Trek-themed BEAMTREK on the University at Buffalo's North (Amherst) Campus tomorrow (Saturday, May 23, 2009) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Winners will be dubbed "Buffalo's Best Engineering Team of the Future."

(Best time for media: 10:30 a.m. to noon)

Great visuals! Great feature story with Star Trek theme!

Students are part of UB's BEAM (Buffalo-area Engineering Awareness for Minorities) program, which encourages kids from underrepresented groups to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

*Psst! Important note to media: students are provided only with clues about where to go and what to do, so please keep the following details SECRET!

Students will race against the clock and each other to perform the following "simple" tasks:

-- Construct a starship landing structure and platform capable of resisting a catastrophic seismic event when tested on a mini-shake table. 140 Ketter Hall. Students will be admitted only after they utter the Trekkie phrase that's the secret password!

-- Take a robot for a stroll using -- what else? -- trigonometry! On the lawn between Bonner and Bell Halls.

-- Figure out how to get a toy car to run on environmentally friendly fuels. 206 Furnas Hall.

Press arrangements: John DellaContrada in the UB Office of University Communications, 645-5000 ext. 1409, or Robert Thom of Fisher-Price onsite at 435-9818. And please keep it all to yourselves. Thanks!