IEEE Day this year fell on Oct 2, and for all our members all over the world, it’s a day to celebrate being part of the largest professional organization in the world, the global community of Engineers.

For Houston section, it means we show our members how IEEE can take them to a higher level – literally! We partnered up with iFly – a well-known indoor skydiving facility with branches worldwide and let our members take part in their “STEM field trip” program.

Our event was so successful it was “sold out” way before the registration deadline.

For the lucky ones, we were given the rare opportunity to experience free fall – or what some might like to call “jumping out of a perfectly good airplane” without any of the risk, cost, time, and other negative factors involved. And they even get to have someone take a video and photos of them doing it in the process!

But it was not just all fun and games, after all, this was a “STEM” event. We were given a briefing beforehand on the various physics behind the whole operation – including the building, mechanics, aerodynamics, and body postures to hold when inside the wind tunnel.

They also gave us a demonstration on having objects of various shapes and sizes in the wind tunnel, and gradually increased the wind speed – to see which objects floated up first. Until you’ve seen it in person, you’d never imagine what a strange sight to behold.

We were also pleased to see our events attracted a significant group of guests and potential members. We were happy they could join us and celebrate the IEEE Day event with us.

This was one of the examples that in IEEE Houston Section, it does not necessarily have to be dry and technical all the time. As engineers and professionals, we do find ways to kick back and have some fun (while being technical) too!

We hope this event showcased our section in the lighter side of things.

Judging from the happy faces and smiles at the end of the event, I would say that everyone left happy – having a good time, meeting new friends, and for the guests – having experienced a quick glimpse of what being an IEEE member is all about.

We thank our volunteers, members, guests and iFly who came together to make this event a fun and successful one! For those who did not join us, we hope to see you in our upcoming IEEE events, and of course, IEEE Day 2019!

Article by Evan Goh

IEEE Houston Section: sites.ieee.org/Houston
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