Feb. 9, 2009 – Imagine a place where you could experience innovations and ideas first-hand from local inventors. On Saturday, Feb. 14, faculty and students at the University of Utah College of Engineering will exhibit and demonstrate their latest technological innovations in engineering and computer science.

Event-goers will have the opportunity to see such inventions as bicep circuits to control prosthetic limbs, a Bluetooth automobile key device that disables drivers’ cell phones, an artificial blood substitute to carry oxygen in the body, and many more.

Although the event is geared toward high school students and their parents, anyone is welcome to attend. News media are invited to cover the event, which will run from 9 a.m. to noon MST at the Warnock EngineeringBuilding, 72 S. Central Campus Drive. Pizza will be provided after the last demonstrations.

The event is free, but registration is recommended: http://www.eng.utah.edu/inventor. Participants may sign up for specific demonstrations on the day of the event.

“High school students often don’t realize that within a few years they can be inventors working on leading-edge technologies,” says event organizer Peter A. Jensen, clinical assistant professor in the University of Utah School of Computing. “Our goal for ‘Meet an Inventor Day’ is to have our faculty and students show the younger students what they can accomplish; that with a little vision, a career in invention is within their reach.”

This event is being conducted as part of a $2 million, five-year National Science Foundation grant aimed at encouraging high school and community college students to transition to university engineering courses. The University of Utah’s goal is to increase the number of engineering and computer science graduates by at least 180 per year. of

The grant also involves a service-learning program in which University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College students prepare hands-on engineering lessons and demonstrations for high school students.

The “Meet an Inventor Day” event is sponsored by student volunteers from Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society. For more information about the College of Engineering, visit http://www.coe.utah.edu.