Members of UW's Society of Petroleum Engineers in the new WPX Drilling Simulator Teaching Lab.
“I fell in love with the people, the campus and the atmosphere,” Khannikova says. “I feel at home when I am in Laramie.”
There are more than 250 recognized student organizations at UW, and CEAS is home to more than two dozen professional societies and engineering organizations. “I encourage every first-year student I see to participate in them,” Bagley says, adding that they offer great networking and professional development.
Kimble participated in several student societies, as well as studying urban resilience in disaster-prone areas abroad at the University of Iceland. “UW offers so many different and fantastic opportunities for the students—I dare say there is something for everyone,” she says.
Engineers Without Borders is yet another of those opportunities. “It’s completely student run,” Barrett says. “The ongoing projects include building a school in Kenya and a water supply for a town in Guatemala.”
Another facet of the Tier-1 Engineering Initiative is a focus on K–14 partnerships, which fosters a pipeline for future engineers. “I think it’s really clear that you’ve got to get kids interested in science, math and engineering when they’re younger, especially if you’re trying to improve the diversity of your student body,” Bagley says.
“A lot of the K–14 initiatives we’re working on involve visiting younger grades to show them what engineers and computer scientists do, and how fun it is,” Barrett says. Students in the engineering societies help with these projects, including demonstrations in their hometown schools.
Bagley says female role models such as Lamia Goual, associate professor for the School of Energy Resources, will also help attract more women to the field.
As new students enter CEAS, they can expect a solid foundation. “Because of the experience I had in class, I was able to start working immediately,” Kimble says.
“My experience at UW was excellent,” says Thomas Botts, who graduated with his degree in civil engineering in ’77 and serves as co-chair of the Wyoming Governor’s Energy, Engineering, STEM Integration Task Force. The retired executive vice president of global manufacturing for Royal Dutch Shell, Botts currently serves as a board director for EnPro Industries Inc. and Wood Group. “As I think back, that’s really one of the reasons I’m involved with the task force and the Tier-1 dream is because the foundation that I got from UW and the engineering program helped set me on a course for a pretty successful career. I got to go around the world and do things I never dreamed I would do.”
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