Media Advisory: High school students build and fly unmanned aerial vehicles on Thursday

BUFFALO, N.Y. – There are no s’mores or tents at engineering camp, but there are student-built, unmanned aerial vehicles and they will be on display Thursday.

About 60 students from public and private high schools from across Western New York are attending the National Grid/UB Engineering Leadership Camp.

They’ve taken field trips to National Grid’s operations center and the Museum of disABILITY History in Eggertsville. They’ve spent time in UB’s engineering labs. And on Thursday, they’ll show off their final project: small unmanned aerial vehicles designed to deliver goods to people in need.

Members of the news media are invited to watch the demonstration.

When: 11:30 a.m. to noon, Thursday, Aug 7.

Where: Jarvis A Parking Lot, just outside of Davis Hall (building No. 37) on UB’s North Campus.

Who: The students; Dennis Elsenbeck, regional director for National Grid; Liesl Folks, dean of UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; National Grid operations instructors; and UB faculty and staff.

More about the camp: The National Grid/UB Engineering Leadership Camp is a four-day engineering workshop for students entering their sophomore or junior year in high school. It is designed to stimulate student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and to encourage their curiosity in the world around them.

The camp exposes students to engineering disciplines and encourages them to enroll in an engineering curriculum. Students participate in classroom academics around applying STEM principles, attend field trips across the region to highlight technologies and area businesses, and stay on campus, which provides them with an introduction to the college experience.

National Grid’s support of the camp is part of its Engineering our Future initiative, through which the company has made a $3 million investment for launching programs and supporting corporate partnerships focusing on exciting students about STEM subjects.