ISU’s annual Tech Expo showcases ‘what the future is going to be like’
Published at
POCATELLO – Students from across eastern and southern Idaho got the chance to learn about the many career paths offered by the Idaho State University College of Technology last week.
On Thursday, the field of the ICCU Dome was transformed into the show floor for the college’s 25th annual ‘Tech Expo.’ Around 2,600 students from 50 different high schools attended the event, visiting with representatives of the departments within the college as well as related industries.
“(We) take over the ICCU dome floor, and the whole point of it is to be a really hands-on, interactive experience where we’re connecting our training programs and different programs at (the) College of Technology and … our industry partners (to high school students),” said Corinne Koelsch, director of Marketing & Recruitment for the College of Technology.
As such, the attending high schoolers got the chance to interact with displays at the tables of the college’s programs, visually representing what each respective program does.
“This allows our students especially to show off their own projects and talk about it to high school students,” Koelsch said.
Some of the students who were showcasing their own projects were the students tabling for the Robotics and Communications Systems Engineering Technology program. People who wandered by likely saw students using a remote-control to wheel around a number of robots in front of the table.
Alexis Villagran, a six-semester student in the robotics program, told EastIdahoNews.com that all the robots they had on display were built by students.
“(They’re all) projects from the various semesters, (and) we build them all in-house. We learn how to do absolutely everything here,” Villagran said.
Villagran said the robotics program only takes three years to complete, and prepares students for the demands of being a robotics technician.
“We learn how to control them, how to build them, how to design them, troubleshoot them when they break, just about everything,” Villagran said.
A program that showcased multiple hands-on displays was the Energy Systems Nuclear Operations Technology program.
“We train nuclear technicians and reactor operators for a variety of industry partners, including Idaho National Lab and Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. And we’ve also had students who’ve gone to commercial nuclear power plants across the country, who’ve graduated from the program,” said Program Coodinator Mackenzie Gorham.
The program had a few glove boxes on display, which allow people to safely handle radiological contaminants through the use of nuclear personal protective equipment.
“(We) think about working with radiation as a really, really dangerous thing, and it can be, … (but) there’s ways to protect yourself,” Gorham said.
The program also had a clear box containing dozens of set mouse traps on display.
“The mouse traps represent uranium, and the ping pong balls represent neutrons, and if you drop a neutron in, it sets off the chain reaction, which is very much how fission works. You have a small particle that starts the chain reaction,” Gorham said.
The Diesel/On-Site Power Generation Technology program also had a visually interesting exhibit on display, which was a cut out display of an inline 6 diesel engine. The students in this program learn how to repair these, as well as other types of diesel equipment.
“We repair, construct, diagnose, all that. Doctors of the diesel, that’s what we are,” said Hayden Folk, a student in the program.
After they graduate, diesel technician students could find themselves working for Titan Machinery, which had a table conveniently located right next to the diesel program’s table.
Osni Ortiz, a field service technician, said that Titan Machinery tables at the Tech Expo to let kids know what the company offers.
“We want to get kids familiarized with industries that are local, such as … construction and agriculture. So we’re trying to … (give students) knowledge of what we do and what we don’t do, putting that out there for them for when they graduate,” Ortiz said.
For Gorham, she views the Tech Expo as a good chance for high school students to get a better idea of what they want their careers to be someday, rather than waiting until they get to college.
“It’s really hard to see people who spend a lot of time in college not sure what they want to do and switching between degrees as they explore that. … Events like this present all the (programs) … that they don’t know are options,” Gorham said.
And Villagran sees the Tech Expo as a chance to get high schoolers thinking about the development of technology, and what part they could play in it.
“It really lets us show all these future students what we do and what the future is going to be like,” Villagran said