Jenny was so many wonderful things to so many people--dedicated friend, insightful attorney, devoted mom and other roles come to mind. What's easy to forget, though, is that Jenny was trained as a mechanical engineer and practiced the trade professionally for four years. It's with this background and education that Jenny sought a worthwhile program for Tyler, who likewise shows an interest in mechanical engineering.
After much research, she found Camp CAR at Ohio State and encouraged Tyler to apply for it. The "CAR" is an acronym for "Center for Automotive Research". The application for Tyler's year was quite simple--no essay was required, for example. For the summer of 2022, 24 students were selected from a pool of 99 applicants.
Here's what Tyler liked about Camp CAR:
+ The camp effectively exposed its students to a variety of testing apparatuses and gadgetry. For example, Camp CAR has ties with the Honda Automotive Laboratories of Ohio (HALO) and the camp bused its students to East Liberty for a visit. During the memorable field trip Tyler got to see their wind tunnel featuring a fan blade spanning roughly 20 feet, but with the end of the blade coming within mere millimeters of the fan housing to maximize wind pressure. During another part of the week, the students were treated to a drone exhibitions featuring configurations to minimize energy use and therefore maximize battery life and sustainability.
+ A school like Ohio State has access to a vast pool of engineering resources both within and outside of the university. So, the students enjoyed discussions with Ohio State engineering faculty and other professionals associated with the university. Most inspirationally for Tyler, James D Orr led a discussion on sketching and design. His work is pictured here. Orr, also known as "JD" and "Dr. Contrast", played a role in the design of the Corvette. It was a highlight of our trip when I picked up Tyler and he jumped into the car so excited to talk about Dr. Orr. We immediately went back to the hotel and watched his YouTube videos on how to sketch.
+ The camp was free and provided lunch and snacks for the students. When it came to eats, Tyler's a pretty tough critic and he reported to me that he was very happy with the food. That said, families and their campers will be on their own for hotel, car, dinner, etc.
+ It was a great exposure to Columbus and Ohio State. For Tyler's camp, the timing coincided with the Ohio State Fair (which, I might add, has free parking). Also, it's close enough to the Columbus Zoo that you can enjoy a solid 90 minutes there between the end of your day at Camp CAR and the zoo's closing time. Tyler really enjoyed the campus tour and he generally doesn't like campus tours. In fact, of the several public universities we visited, he liked Ohio State's campus the most and will be applying there as a result. The school wasn't even on his radar before Camp CAR.
+ Campers will be a part of the Camp CAR family forever. It's clear through correspondence and interaction that the Camp administrators want their kids to succeed--academically, professionally and in life. They put the students first and will advise them even if their journey takes them to schools other than Ohio State. They have connections across the country if not the globe. Once you join Camp CAR, you have joined a network.
Items for which Tyler had mixed feelings:
- The age range for the camp is 14-18 years, or rising sophomore through rising senior. Because Tyler was at the top edge of that age range, he found some of the content was review.
- The "R" in "CAR" stands for "Research". And, CAR is indeed a research-oriented organization. However, there won't be any research for students to do during the one-week camp. This actually makes sense: It isn't reasonable to expect that any novel results can be obtained in one week of research, especially going fresh into a program.
Being an engineer myself, I appreciated the Parents Tour of CAR given exclusively to family members of camp participants. The CAR projects are too many to name, but common themes I picked up included sustainability (battery research and development, demonstrating the viability of electric vehicles), software and autonomous driving (traffic control simulations, Driving Simulator Lab) and improvements to performance and user experience (engine development, noise minimization).
Amidst a sea of summer camps this one is a relative hidden gem. There shouldn't be only about a hundred applicants for this outstanding free opportunity. If your child is interested in STEM, especially transportation or mechanical engineering, you owe it to them to give this camp a close look. I loved it so much I mentioned it in Jenny's eulogy at her celebration of life last weekend as an example of her hard work in finding great opportunities for Dylan and Tyler. How many summer camps out there would be worthy of such a mention?
Wow! Sounds like a cool summer camp :)