Valpo Accelerates Engineering Summer Camp
The 2023 camp for current 10th – 11th graders will be held on June 18 – 24, 2023.
About
The Valpo Accelerates Engineering Summer Camp is a one week summer camp experience for high school students to learn about engineering! During the camp, you will work with engineering faculty to learn about different engineering disciplines and tackle an engineering project.
There are two types of campers who can attend. Day campers and overnight campers. Day campers will will participate in the day activities from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm. Camp dates for day campers are Monday through Friday, June 19 – 23, 2023. The overnight experience is an opportunity for campers to socialize with the camp counselors who are undergraduate engineers and get the full camp experience. Camp dates for overnight campers are Sunday through Saturday, June 18– 24, 2023. The cost for the camp is
- Overnight Campers: $1,000
- Day Campers: $600
Who teaches the program?
Valpo prides itself in the opportunities for undergraduate students to work closely with their professors. We extend this ideology to our summer camp where campers will learn directly from engineering professors!
There will also be a group of camp counselors composed of undergraduate engineering students from Valpo who will assist during the day and run the social activities!
What types of projects are offered?
The core of the camp is split into three components: Engineering Exploration, Week-Long Engineering Project, and Social Activities.
The Engineering Exploration activities provide students to explore a wide array of engineering topics including 3D printing, robotics, water filtration, prosthetics, and more!
The Week-Long Engineering projects are large scale engineering projects where the campers will work in groups to tackle a challenging engineering problem. It will provide an opportunity for the campers to learn about a specific area of interest in engineering as they build their engineering device! The 2023 projects include:
- Sustainable Engineering: Learn about electrical circuits and programming as you build a device to efficiently capture the sun’s energy through sustainable engineering!
- Prosthetics and Haptics: Learn about biomechanics and biosensors and how we can design and build prosthetic and haptic devices!
- Robotics:Learn about the mechanisms of robotics as you explore the areas of dynamics, electronics, and programming to build your own robots!
- Ballistics: Learn about the principles of motion as we explore projectile motion and apply these principles to rockets, trebuchets, and other projectile motion!
What can you expect day-to-day?
Though this is not the exact schedule for each day, this is roughly what you could expect as a camper. There are plenty of opportunities to explore interesting topics in engineering, work on your week-long engineering project, and socialize with your fellow campers and counselors!
| Timeline | Activity |
|---|---|
| 8:00 am | Day campers arrive. |
| 8:30 am | Engineering Exploration Activities. 1 hour exploratory activities led by faculty for campers to learn about different areas of engineering! |
| 11:30 am | Lunch |
| 12:30 pm | Project work time. This time is dedicated to completing your week-long project. It will be split into time for lessons to learn the necessary skills to accomplish your project and work time. |
| 5:30 pm | Day campers depart. Dinner and after hours activities for our overnight campers with the counselors! |
Application
Eligibility
- The camp is open to current 10th and 11th graders
- Campers are encouraged to have completed physics or chemistry by the summer
How to apply
The application for the 2023 camp is currently closed. Be sure to check back in early 2024 for next year’s camp!
Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding the camp, feel free to reach out to Dr. Jesse Sestito by email at engineering.camp@valpo.edu.