Technologies sponors Engineering Week

Engineering Week is the annual pilgrimage of budding mathematicians, scientists and, yes, engineers, to a local college campus to test their academic mettle against the area’s top young minds. This past February, Southwest was home to three of the events.

Mathcounts Competition

This year marked the fourth consecutive year for the Southwest Technologies Department to host the Mathcounts Competition sponsored by the Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers. This year’s event brought 148 middle school students from 18 area schools to the Macon Cove Campus for team and individual mathematics competitions. The top three ranked schools were Memphis University School, White Station Middle School and Houston Middle School.

Engineers Week Student Contest

The Technologies department wrapped up Engineers Week by hosting the Memphis-Area Joint Engineers Council (MJEC) Student Contest for area middle (grades 6th – 9th) and high schools (grades 9th -12th). Students demonstrated their creativity and ingenuity through concept projects designed to improve life as we know it. Technologies Department Chair Willie Burley said the competition was an excellent opportunity for the students to enhance their public speaking skills as they presented their projects to the judges. “Southwest is honored to host this event each year,” he said. “Judges were from Southwest, CBU, University of Memphis, as well as local engineering and related companies. Student participation included 46 middle school projects and two high school projects. We saw some great projects!”

The top performing schools were:

High School

Munford High School: 2 teams tied for 1st place

Middle School

1st Place - Pleasant View School
2nd Place - Munford Middle School
3rd Place - Hutchison School
Honorable Mention – Munford Middle School
Honorable Mention – Hutchison School

Special thanks to the following Southwest faculty and staff for their invaluable contributions to the success of Engineers Week:
Willie Burley, Technologies Department Chair
Alan Otts, Instructor - Mechanical Engineering Technology
Chris Rogers, Specialist - Advanced Integrated Industrial Technology
Forrest Smith, Assistant Professor - Electronic Technology
Garry Spencer, Professor - Electrical Engineering Technology
Dewey Sykes, Associate Professor - Computer Engineering Technology / Cisco Academy
Janet Sykes, Associate Professor - Computer Engineering Technology
James Warwick, Specialist - Computer Engineering Technology
Dierdri Williams, Specialist - Electronic Technology
Frank Daniels - Assistant Professor of Mathematics