A new event this year celebrated engineers in Springfield.
Dr. Theresa Odun-Ayo, director of the Cooperative Engineering Program between Missouri S&T and Missouri State University, worked with Toth and Associates to create the Springfield Engineers Day event, which was held at the Old Glass Place.
Odun-Ayo said the day was a chance to celebrate engineering in the community.
She’s an electrical engineer who belongs to the Institute for Electrical Engineering.
“The motto for that organization is advancing, you know, technology for humanity,” she said. “Everywhere you look, whatever you touch, you touch engineering. It’s in our everyday lives.”
Springfield Engineering Day offered a chance for students to network with engineering companies in the region and to showcase projects they’ve done. And it offered a chance for companies to meet those who might one day come to work for them.
Awards were given to companies, both large and small, that hire students.
“The hiring of our students has fueled a lot of economic growth and company growth here in our community,” Odun-Ayo, said, “and we want to honor and award those to the companies who are supporting us in that way.”
Awards were also given to individuals, including students studying engineering and alumni who have gone through the Cooperative Engineering Program, are now working in the community and are pouring back into the program, according to Odun-Ayo.
She said the Cooperative Engineering Program allows students to work for local companies through co-ops and internships, which can lead to employment after graduation.
Odun-Ayo said she hoped Thursday’s event would “further reinforce the importance of, one, our program and then, two, just how much growth the companies are experiencing from having engineering education in the community.
And, by highlighting engineering in Springfield, she’s hopeful more people will consider engineering as a career.