On Saturday, February 24th, SOM Associate Director Rupa Garai and Structural Engineer Nicole Wang led an educational workshop titled “Engineering Bridges With Pasta” at the annual Tri-Valley Expanding Your Horizons conference. The conference aims to inspire girls in grades six through nine to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
In the workshop, Garai and Wang tasked the students with some of their first projects as young architects and engineers: to build bridges with pasta. Several types of pasta were provided, along with glue and basic tools. The girls constructed a variety of small-scale bridges, learning lessons in architecture, design, and structural engineering along the way.
The 2018 Tri-Valley Expanding Your Horizons conference was held at Diablo Valley College in San Ramon, California. Approximately 300 girls from schools around the Bay Area attended.