Dean Helps Boys and Girls Club Kids Learn About Computer Guts

On March 31, College of Engineering Dean Ilesanmi Adesida visited the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club in Champaign to help teach middle and high school teens about computers and how they work in a lesson intriguingly titled “Computer Guts.”

An expert in the nanofabrication of semiconductors and high-speed optoelectronic devices and integrated circuits, Adesida joined the Illinois faculty as a professor of electrical engineering in 1987 and was named dean of the College of Engineering in 2006. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

During the Dean’s visit, Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club members learned to take apart and reassemble a functioning computer and also got to fry an egg on its processor to see how much heat the electronics components generate. After the lesson, the Dean spoke to the kids about the importance of education and shared his personal story of how, even though his parents never went to school, he was able to go to college and become an engineering professor.

This “Computer Guts” lesson was developed by two graduate students in electrical and computer engineering, Nathan Jack and David Estrada, as part of a new “service learning” course in the Department of Physics that provides training in K–12 educational outreach to science and engineering graduate students. An integral part of the course is teaching the lessons developed to teens in hands-on sessions at the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club.

The lessons at Don Moyer focus on different topics each week. The teens have made key chains of their own DNA, built capacitors to study static electricity, and made bioreactors to learn about biofuels.

“This is a great opportunity for graduate students to learn effective ways of participating in the local community and leading outreach that stimulates kids’ interest and confidence in science and engineering,” said iRISE faculty member Bob Clegg, who is also a professor of physics and director of the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology at the University of Illinois.

The course is a part of the iRISE Project at the University of Illinois, which is a collaborative effort of faculty and graduate student organizers in the departments of physics, electrical and computer engineering, chemistry, biophysics, and curriculum and instruction.

The iRISE partnership aims to stimulate middle- and high-school students’ interest in pursuing technical careers by involving Illinois science and engineering graduate students in an innovative program that gives them the hands-on experience in K–12 teaching and lesson development needed to build and maintain successful University/K–12 educational partnerships. The course is directed by the K–12 outreach coordinator, Sharlene Denos, of The Center for the Physics of Living Cells at Illinois.

The iRISE teens recently toured NCSA and some of the College of Engineering’s specialized laboratories, such as an electrical engineering fabrication lab and the Aerodynamics Research Lab’s wind tunnels.

At the end of the program in May, participants and their parents will participate in a Science Carnival that showcases demonstrations highlighting the topics covered throughout the semester. The children will also receive awards for their completion of the program.

For more information, see the iRISE Project website. iRISE is funded by the University of Illinois’ Graduate College Focal Point Initiative and the Center for the Physics of Living Cells.
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Contact: Sharlene Denos,, 217/244-0672, or Bob Clegg, 217/244-8143.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.