Engineering & Fun!

Engineering can be fun

Automotive association’s program aims to convince kids to try technical studies

By Nathan Bomey Detroit Free Press Business Writer

   Crouched on the floor of a Detroit classroom, 9-year-old Laylah Baker waves her hands in the air, cheering on her carefully crafted paper sailboat as it glides across a sea made of square tiles.

   A blue scrunchie keeps her hair in place while she sits shoulder to shoulder with one of the most powerful engineers in the auto industry, Mary Barra, General Motors’ senior vice president for global product development.

   They each grasp a plastic fan and aim it toward the sailboats. The competition: Whose vessel sails the farthest and straightest?

   “C’mon, mama needs a new pair of shoes!” Laylah proclaims.

   Too bad for Laylah that Barra made what she would only describe as “a few engineering modifications” to her sailboat between Round 1 and Round 2.

   Barra’s sailboat prevails. But this was Round 2 of the competition, part of the Society of Automotive Engineers International’s “A World In Motion” program, which promotes science, technology, engineering and math to kids.

   In Round 1, students in Bates Academy third-grade teacher Dyan Wardwell’s class defeated the team of Barra, Doug Parks, another GM product development executive, and state Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor.

   “We learned,” Parks said. “After one test, we had it.”

   There was some funny business in Round 3, however. One sailboat toppled another one, and — let’s just say the winner of Round 3 may be in dispute.

   But the point of the competition wasn’t about the competition itself. It was to show students that engineering can be fun.

   “It gives them a wonderful connection with the real world,” Ward-well said.

   Barra added: “When they hear what an engineer does, it makes it more real.”

   Convincing kids to consider engineering is a serious challenge for the auto industry.

   About one-third of U.S. college students earn a degree in science or engineering, compared with 53% of students in China, according to the National Science Foundation.

   And the small crop of students who earn engineering degrees are getting job offers from many different employers, ranging from GM, Ford and Chrysler to Apple, Amazon and Pixar.

   Yes, even the Disney-owned animation studio is trying to lure GM’s sculptors and designers, Barra said.

   “Literally, there are people choosing, ‘Do I want to go work for General Motors and design vehicles, or do I want to go do movies?’ ” Barra said. “It’s that same talent.”

   For GM to ensure its competitiveness in the long run, it has a defined interest in encouraging students to consider the car business.

   “We’ve definitely seen more graduating engineers having broad industry choices for where they want to work — from IT to software to automotive,” she said.

   Contact Nathan Bomey: 313-223-4743 or nbomey@freepress.com  . Follow him on Twitter @NathanBomey.

Third-graders Malaika Robinson, 9, left, and Laylah Baker, 9, get ready to race against GM's Mary Barra, senior vice president of global product development, along with classmates Diamond Cannon, 8, and Emmanuel Ruffin, 8.

Tajuan Thompkins, 8, a third-grader at Bates Academy in Detroit, listens to his teacher Dyan Wardwell as he participates in “A World In Motion's” skimmer challenge, competing against top GM executives.

   PHOTOS BY MANDI

   WRIGHT/DFP