Engineers’ Week is in full swing, and organizers hope to engage students from all majors.
The series of events is designed to raise awareness for the analytically minded. This year it will include a music concert.
It’s a way nonengineering students can broaden their scope, said 22-year-old Katelyn Lubke, a UF biomedical engineering senior.
“It’s cool to show what we’re interested in and how we can relate it back to the majority of what the world is going through,” Lubke said. “I want people to understand we are social. We can talk.”
E-Week first started at UF in 1951 and has been held annually since. This year it will include 15 events that Samuel Nason, executive director of Engineers’ Week, said he hopes will bring out a more diverse crowd of students.
“We want to see nonengineers at events this year and bring up the awareness of what engineering has accomplished,” said the 19-year-old UF electrical engineering sophomore.
Organizers are hoping that students, no matter their major, will unite at E-Week’s biggest event — E-Fest.
Anderson, a 22-year-old UF electrical engineering senior, said E-Fest is a fun way to bring the engineering community and the nonengineering community together.
“In your niche of engineering you don’t get to get out much,” Anderson said. “With a festival like this, it’s not just going to be engineers. We’re marketing to anybody, everybody.”
The music festival will feature live music from six bands, free carnival food and activities such as rock climbing and carnival games from 5 to 11 p.m. on Saturday at the North Lawn by the Reitz Union.
The Audio Engineering Society is partnering up with Swamp Records and the Benton Engineering Council to host this event, which won the Best Society Social Event of 2013, said Jared Anderson, director of performances for E-Fest.
E-Fest was formerly known as Flavet Fest.
But the name was changed due to the new location, which was chosen to be more central to campus.
Anderson said the event received five times the amount of funding because of the location change.
Nason said E-Week is a celebration of what engineering has accomplished.
E-Fest is an invitation for everyone to come and celebrate.
“We really take pride in being able to affect everyone and how the whole world runs,” Nason said. “Anyone can celebrate that.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/21/2014 under the headline “Engineers’ Week to showcase social side of the industry"]
