KINGSVILLE (Nov. 19, 2025) — More than 1000 South Texas middle and high school students, chaperones and counselors from 50 schools were able to experience what the field of engineering has to offer during the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering Open House on Tuesday morning at the JK Northway Expo Center.
Students were welcomed by TAMUK faculty and staff from the College of Engineering and departments across campus as they hosted booths with games, information and interactive experiences.
“What the students can expect is real exposure to engineering through hands-on activities where they can play and even destroy some things,” said Dr. Heidi A. Taboada, professor and dean of the college of engineering. “As you know, those are some things we like to do as engineers. What we are demonstrating today is that engineering in the classroom can offer some challenging topics, but it can also be fun.”
While the college has hosted multiple events in the past year, Tuesday’s outreach event recorded one of the biggest attendances to date, with closer to 1,500 students attending by day’s end.
“Last year we were receiving close to 700 to 750 kids,” Taboada said. “This year, we are receiving more than 1,000. In terms of number of schools, we received 34 and this time we received more than 50, so preparation for this magnitude and level of operation took several months by my faculty who are directing the freshmen classes. They have been preparing for this since the semester started.”
Taboada believed Tuesday’s turnout was also important as it is a precursor to Engineers Week (E-Week), which is scheduled for the third week of February.
The Open House began with remarks from Taboada, TAMUK President Dr. Robert Vela and Kingsville Mayor Sam Fugate before students were free to browse booths featuring robotic cars, puzzles, games and drones.
A new addition was a variety of escape rooms, which combined engineering skills and teamwork to solve.
The idea for the escape rooms was also meant to help capture the attention of the younger generations and adopt new ways to teach and learn. The rooms themselves were developed by freshman engineers with the guidance of TAMUK Adjunct professor with the department of Industrial Management and Technology Ivan Luna, assistant professor and Instructional Technology Program Coordinator Dr. Jeffery Chernosky and lecturer in the Department of Mathematics Daniel Arias.
“We’re using a methodology called the flipping the classroom technique and using a project-based model,” Luna said. “The students are learning on their own with our guidance as well as working on hands-on projects. We challenge the students to be able to develop different puzzles, so all the designs in the rooms are designed by our students. Our engineers are learning what you usually learn at the end of your senior year. That’s to do critical thinking, working in teams and being able to design, construct and do scheduling. With the vision of Dean Taboada, we’re starting in the first year right now.”
