IEEE Hampton Roads and CHROME

The Hampton Roads Section, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering (CHROME), announce a new collaborative program to bring together practicing engineers and students in the 4th through 12th grades, encouraging minority and female students especially to explore their interests and skills in electrical and electronics engineering disciplines. In this new collaborative program, coordinated by the IEEE section Education Committee and CHROME leaders, volunteer engineers will entertain and enrich students attending CHROME club meetings at schools throughout the Hampton Roads area. Volunteer presentations will include personal introductions to the practice of electrical and electronics engineering, but focus largely on age-appropriate hands-on student experience building practical electronics circuits using commercially available electronic learning kits.
The effort has evolved following the success of one volunteer engineer's efforts visiting various CHROME clubs with popular off the shelf learning kits purchased and made available through grants from local industry and universities. Additional fund raising is planned to purchase more kits with the intention of expanding the program. It is hoped that the program can be a model program for other professional engineering societies to bring together their practicing engineers and CHROME students to help stimulate interest in a variety of technical careers among minority and female students in the Hampton Roads area.
For further information or to volunteer, contact Education Committee Chair Dawn Ostenberg@ieee.org at IEEE Hampton Roads. For more information about CHROME go to www.chrome.org.