CSE celebrates Take Your Child to Work Day with tech-inspired fun

This Thursday, April 24, the halls of the Beyster Building looked a little different—and more youthful—than normal. Kids of all ages descended on their parents’ workplace in honor of Take Your Child to Work Day, an annual celebration full of fun, educational activities at CSE.

Scattered around Beyster were more than 10 activity stations, where kids played games, tested the latest technology, and built crafts. This year’s stations included:

• A visit to Prof. Joyce Chai’s SLED Lab, featuring Tiago, a robot that responds to voice commands.
• An electronic music station, where kids learned how to use a theremin, an instrument that plays without physical contact using position-sensing antennae.
• A trip to the DCO, where kids learned the ins and outs of how a computer works and toured the server room.
• A maker station, where kids made paper robots and binary code bracelets.
• A tour of the ENIAC, where kids learned about one of the world’s first computers.
• A visit to Prof. Stella Yu’s Vision Robotics Lab, featuring a demonstration of a robot dog.

Other highlights of the day included outdoor activities such as bubbles and sidewalk chalk and a yummy pizza lunch. Kids also received goodie bags with snacks, stickers, and a choice of toy, including a build-your-own solar robot, magnetic tiles, and a robot plush.

This year’s Take Your Child to Work Day events were organized by Diane Crang and Kim Clark, with assistance from Jamie Goldsmith and Steve Crang, as well as several graduate student and staff volunteers.