#blackstemlikeme

National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) members co-host a workshop with The Black Student Union, talking about systemic injustices in education, health, social justice, and STEM at the Trotter Multicultural Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI on March 8, 2018.

A graduating student and fellow members of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity perform a step routine after the Spring 2018 Commencement at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, MI on April 28, 2018.

Cangaco Capoeira, a student performance group, performs at the cultureXchange: Celebrating diversity through shared experience on North Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI on November 8, 2017.

Jhawan Davis (Second from Right), IOE BSE Student, helps M-STEM participants in their math course in Mason Hall on Central Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI on July 31, 2017.

Davis is a alumnus of the pre-college program that helps incoming freshmen understand the flow and demands of their college environment while also building a community through courses, extracurricular activities, and workshops.

CEE Professor Jerry Lynch and his team of his researchers are working to put the power of engineering in the hands of those who live and learn in the city of Detroit. Lynch’s team have been working on a project called “Sensors in a Shoebox,” putting compact kits of sensors in the hands of Detroit high school students at Voyageur College Prep High School. The kits are packed in plastic cases slightly smaller than a shoebox and are built around a wireless sensor node that was originally developed by Lynch, “Narada,” to monitor the structural integrity of bridges. The sensors record data to see how people are using three-and-a-half miles of parkland and trails along the Detroit River. Lynch’s team hopes to not only help the city of Detroit with sensors like these, but empower the next generation to do so themselves.

June 2, 2017. Detroit, MI.

The STEM that Grows the Leaf

Michigan Engineering students spent a week in Chicago High Schools as part of the Alternative Spring Break program, running workshops that promote STEM education.

Margot Lee Shetterly (Right), author of Hidden Figures, comforts Alexis Pyles, 10, from Romulus, MI, after Pyles gets flustered while describing the challenges that her and her classmates face, after an appearance at the Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor, MI on January 24, 2017.

Pyles is in an accelerated program in her school and was inspired to write a book about her classmates after reading Shetterly's book. While Pyles and the rest of her classmates earn some of the top marks in their school, they face poverty, emotional and physical abuse, and a variety of other challenges outside of school. "We really have to work more than others to earn what we get in life," Pyles said. "It's not fair."

Myles hopes to be a Michigan Engineer in the future.