Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 2 No. 4 Winter 2017 | Page 4

From the Dept Head
Azim Eskandarian
Outreach is an integral part of who
we are, what we do
Happy Holidays to all of our Mechanical
Engineering alumni, friends, faculty, and
students around the world.
The holidays are a busy time for everyone,
but as we approach the end of the year, our
students and faculty are preparing for exams,
finalizing projects, setting their dissertations,
and in some cases, graduating. To those who
fall into the latter category, I wish to add the
congratulations of the entire department on
your hard work, perseverance, and commit-
ment to earning your degree.
In this issue of Momentum you'll notice
several instances of faculty and student
outreach.
As we go about our busy days, it's easy to
overlook outreach as an important part of
what we do, but engagement is important
and shouldn't be overlooked. When we reach
outside our campus we invite the imagina-
tions of children to consider new possibilities
for their futures - possibilities that include
engineering and all STEM fields.
By taking part in outreach activities we
also are able to reach a more diverse audi-
ence of young students - who may one day
MOMENTUM
WINTER'17

consider joining us as students, and maybe
even faculty. For these reasons and others,
the Mechanical Engineering Department is
proud to once again be Silver Sponsors of the
Virginia Tech Science Festival that was held in
November.
For four years the science festival has
hosted thousands of children to the Blacks-
burg campus. Our involvement has helped
the festival bring in students from Hampton
Roads and other communities throughout
Virginia. For some of these students, Virginia
Tech may be the first time they've seen some
of the opportunities available in STEM fields.
I hope during your holiday time you find
a few minutes to read through this issue
and look at what your ME Hokies are up to.
Whether it's outreach, or building drones
in Malawi (Pg. 8); working to help veterans
improve their quality of life (Pg. 10); or
researching the next big very small thing in
3-D printing (Pg. 14); rest assured mechanical
engineers are involved.
It's been a great year and we look forward
to continue reaching out and making a differ-
ence in the lives of our students, our faculty
and staff, and our potential students-to-be.
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