On Friday, November 6th, DRSS students went on an exciting engineering field trip to two Dayton landmarks: The Dayton Engineers Club and the Sinclair Community College Unmanned Aerial Systems Laboratory.
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| Students tour the Engineers Club of Dayton |
When students arrived they were treated to a tour of the club, where they had a chance to see all of the historic rooms like the Shaw Library, the Wright Room, the Wedgwood Room, and the Hall of Fame, which was the primary reason for their visit. They also learned about many of the famous Dayton inventors like Charles Kettering, Edward Deeds, and, of course, the Wright Brothers. Students also learned about some of the lesser-known Dayton inventions, like Margaret Andrew's dishwasher rack, Arthur Frei's ice-cube tray, and Ermal Fraze's pop-top tab for cans.
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| The students got an introduction to the Engineers Club before heading on a tour of the historic building |
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| The tour started off in the Hall of Fame |
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| Tom Mastbaum shows the students around |
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| Students learn about the Dayton inventions that put the city on the map! |
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| Students check out the pop-top pull tab, a Dayton invention |
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| Checking out the library |
After their tour, students attended a lecture in the auditorium to hear about the three 2015 inductees to the Hall of Fame. Two were posthumous inductions - Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) and John W. Lincoln (for his work in aircraft structural technology). Students heard from relatives of both. Edwin Grosvenor, great-grandson of Bell, told the students a story about how Bell's path to the creation of the telephone included a talking skull that Bell created! The third inductee, Professor Bradford W. Parkinson of Stanford University, (the father of the GPS system) was there in person to give a lecture to the students. Professor Parkinson's advice to students was to "learn scarce skills," because you never know when they will apply to a project you are working on.
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| Students heard from Professor Bradford Parkinson, father of GPS technology |
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| Students also heard from the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, Edward Grosvenor |
Special thanks to Engineers Club members Tom Mastbaum and Brian Sullivan for coordinating the trip and the tours, and to the Engineers Club for generously covering transportation costs for the trip.
After their visit to the Engineers Club, students hopped back on the buses and traveled to the brand new Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Laboratory at Sinclair Community College, where they were given tours of the labs by Assistant Professor Benjamin Sears and UAS Program Coordinator Ryan Palm. Students then had a tour of the training and certification center, including a stop in the flight simulation lab, where they took turns trying to fly simulated quad copters and planes. Special thanks to Dr. Andrew Shepherd for inviting the students and coordinating their visit to the labs.
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| Ryan Palm shows the kids around the labs |
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| Ben Sears shows students one of the quad copters printed with the help of Tangible Solutions, a company students went to for job shadow day! |
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| Students spent some time in the flight simulations labs too! |
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| The lab has quite the assortment of planes and helicopters inside the building! |
Thank you to everyone who made these trips possible. The students had a great visit to both Dayton gems!
