What is Apex?
Apex is an annual, full day event for high school students interested in engineering. This event has been running for over 20 years, and is an important PSEF tradition. During Apex, students participate in engineering challenges, hear from accredited industry speakers, and participate in a student panel to learn more about what life as an engineering student is like.
Apex’s Activity Fair will take place November 9th, 2024.
To learn more, visit our website or email psefengineeringapex@gmail.com
Theme:
Environmental Sustainability:
This event will bring up to 180 high school students to Purdue to learn about engineering through several hands-on activities. We will be sharing the Purdue engineering experience to the students through several activities, including challenges like mini designs and an impromptu challenge (where students work together to create physical deliverables for given tasks), a guest speaker at the beginning of the day, and a tour of several engineering facilities during the middle of the day. Students will compete in groups throughout the day to earn points to become the APEX winner, where they will receive a commemorative plaque. This year, the event has a biomedical focus, allowing students to explore various disciplines of engineering and how they may contribute to advances in healthcare. Students can expect to learn about the biomedical industry through speakers and participate in fun hands-on activities to explore prosthetics, healthcare innovations, and more.
Guest speakers:
Dr. Elsje Pienaar:
Pienaar Bio
Dr. Elsje Pienaar currently serves as the director of Undergraduate Programs in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and is an associate professor. She earned her bachelors from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and continued on to University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she earned her Master’s and PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her current research focuses on pharmacology and drug delivery, and is the principal investigator in her Computational Systems Pharmacology Lab.
