Engineering Night at BBCC
File photo Engineering Night 2016 drew interest from high school and college students alike. Engineering Night 2017 is Thursday.
File photo Joe Law (left) of the University of Idaho talks about the work the university is doing with NASA with (from left) Jesus Lopez and Blake Driesen, both of Ephrata, and Ivan Dubineti of Moses Lake at last year’s Engineering Night at Big Bend Community College. This year’s event is Thursday.
MOSES LAKE — College and high school students who want to learn about opportunities in the engineering field are being invited to Big Bend Community College's "Engineering Night," from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday. All activities will be in the STEM Center in the 1200 building.
Engineering Night focuses on opportunities available in the college’s service area, said Director of Communications Matt Killebrew. The program features speakers from business, agriculture and planning who live and work in Grant County and central Washington.
Colleges with engineering programs will have representatives to provide information and talk about the training available. The colleges are there for the entire evening.
Nathan Nofiziger, an engineer with Western Pacific Engineering and Survey, Moses Lake, is the 4 p.m. speaker. He’s followed at 4:30 p.m. by David Dormier, senior engineer with Erlandsen & Associates, Brewster, Chelan and East Wenatchee.
Sergue Iprynstev will be the 5 p.m. speaker. Iprynstev is an electrical engineer at the REC Silicon facility in Moses Lake. Grant County PUD employees are scheduled for 5:30 p.m.; David Vedder is an electrical engineer and Gerry McFaul is a hydro engineer.
A panel discussion is scheduled at 6 p.m. It features Iprynstev, Vedder, Mateo Farmer, a staff engineer at the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, PUD and James Sauceda of BBCC. Sauceda is a mechanical engineer and director of facilities and capital projects at BBCC. A question-and-answer session follows.
Colleges sending representatives to Information Night include Washington State University-Tri Cities, Central Washington University, BBCC and Eastern Washington University. Grant County PUD will have information on training and employment opportunities, and qualifications needed for PUD employment.
Big Bend officials said in an earlier interview that Engineering Night has two goals, the first being to acquaint students with the educational opportunities available in engineering fields, both at BBCC and through the college’s transfer programs. The second is to show students some of the opportunities for an engineering career in Grant County and central Washington. Students don’t always know where the jobs will be in their chosen field, and don’t always know what's available in Grant County, college officials said.
At the 2016 Engineering Night, students quizzed the speakers about the best way to get into the engineering field, in Grant County or elsewhere. They asked about local jobs and the job market, the advantages of internships and continuing education.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.