Southeast makes a splash with regatta

Students enrolled in the Project Lead the Way initiative, operated by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College and available to college and high school students, participated recently in a competition and tests of boats assembled of cardboard, deck sealant and duct tape. The event was held Dec. 9 at the Clear Creek Baptist Bible College near Pineville. Some 15 Southeast students, 11 Middlesboro High School students and one student from Bell County High School took part in the event organized and directed by Professor Gary L. Steenbergen. He explained that students working in teams and utilizing the colleges state-of-the-art AutoCAD laboratory, built a boat that was a 1/6th scale of an authentic vessel. Students sculled from one end of the pool and back. He also noted that all passed their tests on distribution. Each of the participants are in the Project Lead the Way program, and they designed a boat using 3D Inventor software while working at the Middlesboro campus. Project Lead the Way is a component of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering. The project offers a pre-engineering curriculum to Southeast students as well as to area high school students. Additionally, Steenbergen noted that Southeast has developed a certificate program in the discipline.

(Photo by Chris Jones)