Running Commentary: July 2013

Through the association I have with a professional organization, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree in West Virginia as an Engineering Merit Badge counselor. It was a fantastic experience with remarkably bright boys, and I feel privileged to have shared the experience with a fine group of completely overqualified engineers I had previously never met and whose experiences and expertise are vastly different than mine. There were over 30,000 boys from all over the country and an additional 4,000+ staff and leaders, all setting up camp for two weeks in an otherwise uninhabited mine-turned-wilderness in the middle of West Virginia. Temperatures and humidity while I was there both averaged in the mid-80's, and the sun was relentless. But the facilities were great and fun was had by all. I should give a special shout-out to all those that worked on the logistics of the Engineering Tent and those who took organizational roles, mainly Mark Maris, Chris Jones, and Phil Stahl, as well as those who helped provide the optics demos, Ezra Milby and Rick Plympton (Optimax).

My primary role was to fulfill the "Meet an engineer" requirement. The boys would come to me, and I would explain what it's like to be an optical/biomedical engineer. I would explain why I chose the path that I did, and how I prepared myself academically to get where I currently am. Many of these boys are at a point in their lives where they're starting to seriously think about these types of decisions, so it feels wonderful to get to be a "data point" for them as they consider their options. Many of these kids are very smart - I met a 12-year-old who was already writing his own iPod apps, another boy who competed in robotics competitions, and countless boys who knew answers to scientific questions that I thought were going to be challenging for them. It was both very fun and satisfying to share my experiences and this time with these boys and to help them understand what it is the field of engineering has to offer.

Sunset in the West Virginia mountains is pretty awesome

"Camp Echo" The staff quarters

My luxury accommodations (top bunk)

Camp Echo at night

Engineering Merit Badge Tent(s)

We had a penny crusher that would smash the Jamboree logo onto a penny

Each scout that completed both courses we offered would have their name engraved on one of these commemorative tags for them to keep

My side of the tent - What is a professional engineer? How does the engineer's code relate to the Scout Oath and Law? Meet an engineer and learn about their job and tools. We had mechanical, industrial, chemical, optical, electrical, and all sorts of engineers on hand for the scouts to meet if they wanted.

Conversion of energy - bike pedaling to electricity to illuminating light bulbs

Ball bearings

Informative video

Kinematics and simple machines (and making bombs with water and Alka-Seltzer)

Walkway with merit badge tents and scouts as far as you can see both directions

Demo with 5 parallel lasers and large lenses the kids would use to see the effect of lenses on light rays

Opened-up projector for the kids to explore and figure out

Laser radio demo - mp3 music modulates the intensity of a laser beam, detector converts it back to a current and sound

Lots of water-filling stations placed around the site.

Handicapped awareness tent. They had some great and creative activities to get the kids engaged.

Aside from being beautiful, you can see the WiFi transmitters positioned every 10 meters or so along the walkway. AT&T was a major sponsor and had cell towers in the middle of every camp and over 100 WiFi hotspots set up. Connectivity was better there than at home!

Everything there is custom, even the benches. Since the benches were metal, I think their main purpose was to burn the scouting logo onto peoples' backs...