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Houston Energy Day Festival Sparks Interest in STEM
By
Melanie Ziems
In addition to Energy Day, UH Engineering participates in many outreach activities throughout the year, like subsea engineering's "Passport to UH" event seen here.
In addition to Energy Day, UH Engineering participates in many outreach activities throughout the year, like subsea engineering's "Passport to UH" event seen here.

When it comes to getting today’s youth involved in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), hands-on experience is key.

With this in mind, the Houston Energy Day Festival aims to give young Houstonians up-close-and-personal experiences with different STEM fields in the hopes that it will inspire an interest — and maybe even a future career path.

The Houston Chronicle attended this year’s Energy Day Festival, which was held on Oct. 18 at Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston, producing the column “Developing the workforce we need requires big changes.” Several representatives from the University of Houston community also attended and maintained festival booths, including UH Energy (headed by Ramanan Krishnamoorti) and researchers from the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH).

According to Chris Tomlinson’s Chronicle column, the event attracted 25,000 people. One 11-year-old girl who visited the UH superconductivity booth told Tomlinson that the booth inspired her to pursue a career in mechanical engineering.

“Even with the American energy renaissance in full bloom, there aren't enough millennials taking the right kinds of engineering courses,” Tomlinson wrote. “That's another reason why the energy companies that built the Houston skyline were out in force Saturday, showing off the gee-whiz nature of exploring for and producing energy, whether it's crude, natural gas, wind or solar.”

Read Tomlinson’s full column in the Chronicle here.

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