Waynesville High School student Anna Hilburgh completed four weeks of courses at the 2019 MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI). Hilburgh was among 240 students from high schools around the nation who were selected to participate in the program.
BWSI is a summer engineering program for talented rising high school seniors. From July 8 to Aug. 4, students worked on hands-on projects, took online courses, and attended lectures presented by leading scientific researchers. The program is hosted by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Beaver Works Center, a research center in Cambridge jointly chartered by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the MIT School of Engineering, and the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
BWSI is designed to be a transformational learning experience. Students are placed into one of 10 courses that involve project-based learning in an intensive team environment. The diversity of the courses is intended to appeal to a wide variety of talented students.
On August 4, BWSI held its final competition and closing ceremony at MIT. Teams raced their self-driving model cars through an ice rink-sized course modelled after a Grand Prix racetrack. In nearby buildings, drones flew through elevated hoops, followed tracks marked on the floor, and produced images using radars, while some students presented their projects in a symposium-style venue.
“It’s amazing to see these students who are ready to participate and who really become engaged in these projects” said Andrew Fishberg, the Outreach Coordinator for Beaver Works. “I’m inspired by the solutions to real problems the student teams show off on the final day. These students received a transformational experience that’s life changing for many of them.”
