The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University was well-represented at the annual Physics and Engineering Festival, hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M on April 6.
The event boasted over 200 interactive demonstrations and lectures, and over 7,000 visitors attended. Dr. Dileep Kalathil, assistant professor, and David Gent, former student, represented the electrical and computer engineering department during the festival, and their presentations resonated with the community, drawing interest to the field of electrical engineering.
Cultivating the engineering minds of the future, Kalathil presented his research in artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning to an audience of middle and high school students. His talk, which spurred interaction and post-presentation interest, covered the current state of artificial intelligence research, what possibilities it holds, how it can be applied and where it is going in the future.
“We are developing artificial intelligence in order to create systems to gain a better understanding of human intelligence,” Kalathil said. “Like I told the students, we are living in a very, very exciting era.”
Gent showcased several demonstrations including a Morse code telegraph, which seemed to draw the largest crowd of onlookers as he decoded visitors’ names by ear. Another popular display was the wireless spark gap transmitter replica built by Gent and similar to the transmitter that saved passengers on the RMS Titanic in 1912.
“I explained how these two basic devices turned electric signals on and off to represent information,” Gent said. “This is a concept electrical engineers developed into countless applications and products in our current digital age.”
Both Kalathil and Gent said that there was no shortage of interest in their demonstrations, with both parents and children excited and engaged by what they saw. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering actively participates in the Physics and Engineering Festival and uses this opportunity to highlight and share the exciting work being conducted.