Thinking about a career in Engineering? Employ electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer programming in challenging hands-on projects. This is ideal for the future engineer.
One team project involves using Arduino to program a sailboat designed for speed or for maneuvering around buoys on a racecourse. Engineering clubs at MIT and Olin College design and compete using these types of sailboats. Students build the components and learn the ins and outs of soldering, wiring, and circuitry. They then bring the excitement outdoors, sailing their models on the same lake in Wellesley used by college engineering teams. Teams compete against the clock and other teams in sailboat regattas, observing and calibrating the performance of their creations from the shoreline. They conduct experimental research to improve the sailboat’s functioning.
Students also used a 3D Printer and CAD to design and create their own boat designed to complete and compete on various tasks in a pool. Other years, students have built a portable stereo speaker set with custom-designed packaging.
What are you waiting for? Apply now! This is a competitive admissions summer research program designed for teens.
Cost and Session Information
July 14 - August 1, 2025| Olin College, Needham, MA
Testimonials(10)
"It was a good all around program that included aspects of electrical and mechanical engineering as well as design and coding."
- Student Comment- August 2, 2019
"Our program was centered around building different things through engineering. We built a boat, sailed it, and also visited some engineering research institutions. Our teacher was amazing throughout the program, helping us as needed, and overall making sure we had a fun educational experience."
- Student Comment- August 2, 2019
"I liked the diversity in areas of interest that the class had. I picked up on 3D Design/CAD but lacked coding, which my partner made up for and vice versa. Mr. Bowers was a really fun guy who clearly knew what he was doing and had a lot of experience with programming which was really helpful. Overall, I am happy to have participated and I am now more excited and interested in pursuing skills that I was introduced to in this course."
- Student Comment- August 2, 2019
"I really enjoyed this program because of how we learned over the 3 weeks. Michael and Saahil were both very helpful with CAD and Arduino."
- Student Comment- July 27, 2018
"The program was very informative, knowledgeable and fun filled. The program offered several different things like CAD, 3D printing, introduction to Arduino and more. Everyone put in their ideas and came up with their final product. The teachers were also very helpful and put a lot of effort in on us which was very appreciative. We did a little bit of everything and was very intriguing."
- Student Comment- July 27, 2018
"Students had the opportunity to learn many things involving Arduino, electronics and CAD."
- Student Comment- July 27, 2018
'Our program was very much fun combined with learning. I was new to 3D printing and CAD and gained a lot from Mr. Tessier's teaching. The coding was a lot of fun and we got to tweak around a lot with it. The most appreciable aspect about the program was that it was flexible and we could choose how we wanted to spend our time and what we wanted.'
- Student Comment- July 21, 2017
?'In the program, we modified RC boats for stability, maneuverability and speed. We also used Arduino to program the boat to work autonomously. Mr. Tessier really cared about how we did and encouraged and helped us throughout the program. If something didn't work out, there was always a backup plan. I like how we could go in depth on any aspects of the boats we wanted to.'
- Student Comment- July 21, 2017
'I like that the teachers were very experienced in their fields and could also give us advice about engineering careers and college majors. I also like that the majority of the program was in groups because we could learn from each other.'
- Student Comment- August 5, 2016
'Overall this program was something that I needed. My computer programming class at school did not give me the full engineering experience, while BLI introduced both computer, mechanical and electrical engineering. The teachers were also very knowledgeable and knew a lot about colleges and what is important in those schools as they come from MIT and Tufts.'
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