The Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering held an engineering carnival on Friday, Sept. 10, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It was an open event for all students, in an effort to celebrate the college’s 25-year anniversary.

The university’s engineering program became one of the most well known in New Jersey after its creation in 1995, and has since been celebrated annually thanks to one notable engineer: Henry M. Rowan.

Henry M. Rowan, an engineer and philanthropist, donated $100 million dollars to the ,then, Glassboro State College. The name Rowan University was later adopted in his honor. Rowan University offers several degrees within the program including biomedical, chemical, mechanical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer engineering. 

The engineering carnival had a variety of stations that provided free gifts and food, including Italian ice, popcorn, cotton candy, funnel cakes and Oreo cakes. Students were even able to make vanilla ice cream from liquid nitrogen during the event. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) was the club conducting this experiment.

There were a variety of ways for students to get involved during the event, either riding mechanical bulls, playing for prizes, speaking to professors or grabbing free T-shirts.

“It’s like the start-of-the-semester welcome back to our students, and we have done it for a number of years now. It’s like a picnic. We get to see what is going on with engineering programs — what clubs there are, what they can participate in. So, it’s a good opportunity for the students — and there’s free food and free gifts,” said Professor Kauser Jahan, Ph.D. civil and environmental engineering professor and department head. 

“We are a very unique program. We have unique courses called engineering clinics; they take place every semester here, and it teaches them presentation and teamwork skills,” Kauser said.

The carnival also gave interested students insight to the university’s engineering clinics. These clinics can broaden student’s professional knowledge by allowing them to work with colleagues and mentors in preparation for their post-graduation careers. 

“Well, it’s a very interesting job… and an intriguing major,” said Ayo Overton, a freshman engineering student. “I mainly joined because I was a part of it in high school… if you enjoyed playing Legos, you would probably enjoy being an engineer… just know that it is okay to make mistakes, and you will learn from them — even though it definitely always feels bad when you make them. But it’s going to happen. Just learn to move on from it.”

Francesca Soluk, also an engineering student, encouraged students to be vulnerable and embrace the trial-and-error method when it comes to learning.

“Just try and ask questions,” Soluk said, “because I know I’ve been in one of those situations where I want to ask, but I don’t. And then someone asks anyway… I’ll ask the silly question of like — did I do this right? It’s always better [to be] safe than sorry.”

The Engineering Carnival is one of many events that the college holds throughout the year, allowing students to actively get involved in an assortment of workshops, engineering clinics and other activities that cater to their engineering interests.

For more information about Rowan’s Engineering program, please click here.

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