High school students considering the possibility of studying engineering will be welcomed to a very different environment this coming Wednesday evening at the Engineering Information Forum.

“It’s really a cool setting for the evening,” Shelley Scurr, first-year engineering secretary in the Faculty of Engineering, said of the University of Windsor-Chrysler Automotive Research and Development Centre. “It’s a place where as future coop students or engineers they may actually work.”

Designed for high school students as well as their parents, the event will allow prospective engineers to talk with students, staff and faculty; learn about the university’s new Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation; decide which of the faculty’s five engineering programs might be right for them; and learn about scholarships and cooperative work opportunities.

Interest and enrollment in the faculty has been steadily increasing over the last few years because students still see the value of pursuing a career in engineering, Scurr said. Holding an open house will provide them with a better sense of the almost limitless opportunities that await them, she added.

“Our students go all over the world after they graduate,” said Scurr, who helped plan the event.

The open house will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 9 from 6-8:30 pm at the ARDC, located at 3939 Rhodes Drive. Refreshments will be provided and students can enter a draw to win a $500 tuition certificate.