IRES Students Host STEM Day Activity | Raghavan Research Group

The 2018 IRES team, with help from volunteers, hosted activities for UCF STEM Day. This year they had two groups of students; one from middle school and one from high school. Each group rotated through different stations where they learned about topics on heat transfer, spectroscopy, and gas turbine engines.

At the heat transfer station, the students learned about different heat transfer mechanisms through the use of thermochromic materials. A volunteer did a demonstration with thermochromic sheets made from thermochromic liquid crystals to show its color variation in response to temperature change.

Juan Hernandez demonstrating the concepts of heat transfer with the use of thermochromic material.

At the next station, the students learned about non-destructive methods of testing through a spectroscopy demonstration. An IRES participant prepared spectrometers for the students to use to see the different color spectrum when exposed to various sources of light.

Students looking through spectrometers while IRES participant Chance Barrett explains basics of spectroscopy.

The final station consisted of posters showing a deconstructed gas turbine engine and “engines of the future”. One of the goals of this IRES STEM activity was to promote international collaboration through a language learning exchange. The IRES participants thought the students some technical and non-technical words pertaining to gas turbine engines in German. In addition, they discussed the functions of engines and the importance of using thermal barrier coatings to allow higher turbine inlet temperature, which enhances the thermal efficiency.

2017 IRES alum Lin Rossmann and 2018 IRES participant Jalime Vargas explaining gas turbine engines to the students.

At the end of the activity, the IRES participants asked the students questions on what they had learned and gave out prizes for correct answers. Overall, the students really enjoyed the activity!

Middle school students being asked questions at the end of STEM activity.

Special thanks goes out to all of our volunteers and the IRES students for coming together and making this activity possible.

We had:
Lin Rossmann, Debraliz Isaac, Estefania Bohorquez, Quentin Fouliard, Sanjida Jahan, Stephania Ochoa, Zach Stein, Susanne Henninger, and Ryan Hoover from the Raghavan Research Group.

Luisana Calderon (2018 IRES participant) and Juan Hernandez from the Center for Advanced Turbine and Energy Research (CATER) lab.

Michelle Otero and Jalime Vargas (2018 IRES participants) from the Propulsion and Energy Research Lab (PERL).

Chance Barrett (2018 IRES participant) from the Tetard Research Group, and Daniela Ojeda from the Mechanics of Materials Research Group.