E-Week 2017: "Mythbusters” star, campus events highlight week

E-Week 2017
E-Week 2017

Grant Imahara, a former star of “Mythbusters” and an animatronic engineer who worked on three “Star Wars” films, will speak to UNL students on Feb. 23, one of many big events scheduled for the annual Engineers Week (E-Week), February 19-25 on City/East and Scott campuses.

E-Week, an annual University of Nebraska tradition since 1913, runs in conjunction with National Engineers Week.

Before becoming famous for his work on “Mythbusters,” Imahara was an animatronics engineer and model maker for George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, specializing in electronics and radio control. He has credits on numerous movies, including “Star Wars” episodes I through III, “Galaxy Quest,” “Terminator 3” and two “Matrix” movies.

Imahara is currently on the Netflix series “White Rabbit Project” with fellow former “Mythbusters” build team members Tory Belleci and Kari Byron. The show looks at historical events by using six methods of a topic, such as superpower technology, famous heists, World War II weaponry and jailbreaks.

The annual UNL Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Career Fair will also be held on Thursday, February 23 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Representatives from many industries and organizations will be available to discuss job and internship opportunities. Go online to http://careers.unl.edu/fairs for more information on the Career Fair.

At UNL, College of Engineering students plan and coordinate all events for E-Week on both the Lincoln and Omaha campuses. While events change on an annual basis, these student-centered events generally include competitions, student banquets, recreational sports and light-hearted social events that bring the collegiate engineering community together. Among those events this year will be a 5-kilometer run on Lincoln’s East Campus on February 25. Sign up here: https://marketplace.unl.edu/sofs/engineers-week-2017/eweek5k.html

Other Lincoln events include a Night with Industry, a showing of the Oscar-nominated movie “Hidden Figures,” a duct-tape design competition, laser tag, dodgeball and numerous other competitions and opportunities for students to partake in free food.

Events in Omaha will include Game Night, a Battlebots competition, Engineer’s Night Out, an Engineering Pageant, a scavenger hunt and the annual Industry Networking Mixer, along with plenty of other competitions and free food.

Follow E-Week events online by using the hashtag #NebEWeek.

Students wishing to attend events in Lincoln or Omaha can take the N-E Ride shuttle between the campuses. The shuttles run Monday-Friday, with the first buses leaving Othmer (Lincoln) and PKI (Omaha) at 8 a.m. and the last buses leaving each location at 6 p.m. Check the N-E Ride schedule online – http://engineering.unl.edu/n-e-ride/.

More details at: http://engineering.unl.edu/e-week/