Dennis Hong, an associate professor with the Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, will headline an Engineers Week industry banquet in Lynchburg, Va., on February 18.
The event is part of National Engineers Week , which raises public awareness of engineers’ positive contributions to quality of life. Related events promote the importance of a technical education and a high level of math, science and technology literacy. Outreach efforts focus on motivating youth to pursue engineering careers in order to provide a diverse and vigorous engineering workforce.
At the dinner, Hong and his students will bring and demonstrate several of the robots they have designed and built as part of the Virginia Tech mechanical engineering department’s Robotics and Mechanics Laboratory . The robotic demonstration will be followed by an “entertaining talk on the ideas and principles behind the development of these exciting robots and how they are inspired by nature and beyond,” Hong said. The presentation is titled, “Inspired by Nature and Beyond: A Glimpse at the Future of Robotics.”
Hong is director of RoMeLa and recently was named as one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10 for 2009. He also is a serious gourmet chef and a magician, performing annual charity magic shows and lectures on the science of magic.
The banquet will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Holiday Inn Select, 601 Main St., Lynchburg, Va. For registry and other information contact Gabe Trent at Wiley|Wilson at gtrent@wileywilson.com or (434) 947-1901. Seating is limited.