Session 2

Engineering Olympics

Design, Build and Compete Like an Engineer

Step into the role of an engineer and take on a fast-paced series of real-world design challenges—where ideas don’t stay on paper. Working in teams, students design, build and test everything from bridges and water rockets to race cars, turbines and creative problem-solving events inspired by how engineers tackle big problems.

Each day blends quick, high-impact mini-lessons with open lab time for prototyping, collecting data, refining designs and jumping back in stronger. As the week unfolds, the challenges keep changing—new builds, new constraints, new chances to innovate—pushing teams to think smarter, iterate faster and collaborate like an engineering crew. The week culminates in the Engineering Olympiad showcase, where designs go head-to-head in a spirited competition for top honors.

Curriculum

In this program, students learn how engineers use science and math to solve real-world problems. They practice the full engineering design process—from brainstorming and building to testing, troubleshooting and improving—while strengthening teamwork and communication. Along the way, students collect and analyze experimental data, discover different branches of engineering and connect what they build in the lab to the systems and structures that shape everyday life. By the end of the session, attendees gain a clearer sense of how engineering fits into the world around them and what studying engineering in college can feel like.

Engineering students in the lab
Planned Topics

Engineering Olympiad topics include the engineering design process, forces and motion, structural engineering, aerodynamics and environmental engineering. Students explore energy and power through hands-on builds like wind turbines and race cars, seeing how small design changes create big performance shifts. They also tackle challenges tied to modern infrastructure—designing bridges and water filtration systems to understand how connected societies stay strong, safe and healthy through smart engineering.

 

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Luke Lee
Faculty Lead
Luke Lee

Professor of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering and Computer Science

PhD, Structural Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 2005
MS, Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
BS, Civil Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 1997

Professor Lee believes that anyone can learn anything with a positive attitude and effort. In the classroom he tries to make engineering/science concepts a little easier to comprehend by breaking it down step-by-step and creating an active and engaging learning environment. Professor Lee has a very large online following, posting engineering tutorials on his YouTube channel to support the students he works with and beyond.

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