Sydney Ryan may have had a slight advantage over her fellow campers.

The 12-year-old has a knack for engineering and builds race car tracks for her brothers and boats at home using found materials.

So, it’s no surprise that when tasked with the challenge to bring an egg safely to the ground from three storeys up, Ryan had a plan.

“We are trying to make a bird’s nest and have a base with a spongey-kind of foam material, a layer of paper and then a web of tight string that goes on either side of the egg,” Ryan said, who will be going into Grade 8 in the fall.

“We are then going for a double parachute with a plastic and paper bag that will soften the fall and make it go slower.”

Sydney Ryan carefully works on her parachute during the Lancers Engineering Camp on Wednesday.

Ryan was among 60 children between the ages of eight and 12 at the inaugural University of Windsor Lancers Engineering summer camp on Wednesday.

Her session in the afternoon was made up to 30 campers who were divided into groups and provided with a variety of materials to safely transport their egg in one piece to the ground below.

Engineering outreach coordinator Mike Konstantino said introducing engineering concepts at an early age helps to foster their interest.

“Everyone is having a lot of fun, and they are really enjoying the hands-on activities which help them to learn those concepts,” Konstanino said.

“It’s best to introduce it to them at the youngest age possible, so it gives them a good foundation and enables them to learn more.”

The camp runs from July 10 to 14 and is divided into the age groups of eight to nine and 10 to 12.

The campers participate in different activities which will help them learn engineering concepts like aerodynamics, forces and motion, fluid dynamics, material strength and the design process.

An egg is dropped from the third floor of the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation on Wednesday during the Lancer Engineering Camp.

As for Ryan’s group’s egg, it drifted delicately from the third floor of the Ed Lumley Centre For Engineering Innovation undamaged. Many of the other eggs weren't as lucky.

“I love the process of engineering,” Ryan said.

“Coming up with an idea, designing, improving the design and then seeing the final result.

“I 100 per cent want to be an engineer.”

Campers display their apparatus that will safely transport their egg to the ground during the UWindsor Lancer Engineering Camp on Wednesday.

Campers peer over the edge of the railing to see if their egg has landed safely to the ground.

A camper takes aim at a foam cup with an air cannon during the UWindsor Lancer Engineering camp on Wednesday.

The UWindsor’s Entrepreneurship, Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre) is now accepting applications for its EPIC Fall Founders Program, which provides money to students or recent grads looking to start a business in Windsor-Essex.

The program offers up to $6,000 for young entrepreneurs to work full-time on developing their start-up for 12 weeks starting September 11.

The application deadline is August 21. Find additional details, including eligibility criteria and the online application, on the EPICentre website.

A visit to campus Tuesday provided the provincial minister of the status of women with an update on the steps the University of Windsor is taking to deal with sexual assault.

Indira Naidoo-Harris met with officials engaged in projects to prevent and respond to sexual violence, and said afterward she gained a better understanding of the available supports and services.

“My concern is about the safety of students on campus,” she said. “It has been great to get a sense of what the university is doing so students can concentrate on what they’re here for — their studies.”

Dusty Johnstone of the UWindsor sexual misconduct response and prevention office, psychology professor Charlene Senn, and Ryan Flannagan, associate vice-president, student experience, described the University’s policies and related projects like the Bystander Initiative and the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) program.

“We focused on the supports that we offer to survivors, how we liaise with the community, and what resources we feel are needed to bolster support,” said Dr. Johnstone. “I believe that we have much to be proud of.”

Fifth-year forward Blake Blondeel will return as captain of the Lancer men’s hockey team, head coach Kevin Hamlin has announced. Veterans Justice Dundas, Kyle Haas, and Kyle Hope will serve as assistant captains.

“We are pleased to name these four as our team captains for next season,” said Hamlin. “They are experienced and well-respected student-athletes and they will provide valuable leadership for our big group of incoming freshmen this year.”

Yet another Kyle — former player Kyle Makaric — will succeed Ryan Donally as assistant coach.

Find more information, including training camp and pre-season competition schedules, at goLancers.ca.

UWindsor instructor André Narbonne and alumna Collette Broeders (BFA 2009) are among the presenters at this week’s edition of the Stone and Sky summer literary, music and art series.

The event will start at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 15, at the quarry on Pelee Island.

The reading series, curated by English professor Karl Jirgens, will this week turn to Dr. Narbonne, a poet and author whose 2016 short story collection, Twelve Miles to Midnight, was short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. He also serves as fiction editor of the Windsor Review.

Broeders, a founder of the one ten park studio, is a performative artist who finds inspiration in the natural world.

Saturday’s agenda also includes a farmers’ market and jazz workshops. Learn more on the event website.

A June 22 workshop on forensic sciences captured the attention and the imaginations of attendees at Life After Fifty West Windsor, a centre that offers programming for community members over 50 years old.

Professor Pardeep Jasra presented on different types of fraud detection techniques, crime scene management and expertise in avoiding contamination of forensic evidence.

The hands-on workshops, led by student volunteers Alex Kajtar, Haley Maure, and Sarah Copp, included detection of bank cheques rewritten using disappearing inks, lifting fingerprints from various substrates, detection of alterations and other questioned documents.

Shashi Jasra, chair of the forensic sciences program, said the senior group participated enthusiastically and showed great interest in joining UWindsor’s online introductory forensic courses.

“The participants were really inquisitive and asked many relevant questions,” she said. “A few of them said they would be more than happy to be a part of future research projects happening in forensics, so it was a successful event all around.”

Dr. Jasra says the seniors will visit the campus in the near future, to get more in-depth knowledge about the fascinating field of forensics.

The Campus Bookstore can help its clientele stay in shape, thanks to a new watch-pedometer bearing the UWindsor logo.

With a comfortable silicone wristband, the item automatically tracks its wearer’s steps, distance, calories burned, and time active, requiring no app, smartphone, or software.

“Whether you want to know what time it is or how far you have walked, just tap the display to move between function modes,” says marketing co-ordinator Martin Deck.

The pedometer is available in blue, black, or red, all imprinted with the UWindsor shield on the band. It retails for $19.95 and can be purchased in-store or through the online catalogue.

Facility Services announced this week that it has concluded the remediation of hot water systems on campus.

Its staff will continue to work on preventative maintenance strategies and procedures to ensure monitoring of these systems moving forward. Find more information on the communication page.