Student Life

At SCE, the college experience extends beyond the classroom. More than 20 teams and organizations dedicated to computing and engineering help students find their niches, and lifelong friendships are forged during late-night brainstorming sessions.
All year you can find students relaxing in the Flarsheim lounges and working in the 24/7 computer labs. Picnics and other events are held at SCE throughout the year. Each February, an SCE tradition gets under way to celebrate National Engineers Week (E-Week) with games, competitions and other festivities.
Teams
Student teams work throughout the year to build robots and human-powered vehicles or to solve algorithmic programming problems. The diverse teams at SCE give students a chance to test their academic knowledge with real-world projects.
The Baja Racing Team functions like a professional engineering group, completing designs, ordering parts from vendors, working within a budget and building machinery to meet strict safety standards. The goal of the project is to replicate introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Students are judged on time management, teamwork, ethics and budgeting.
Throughout the six-month project, students spend an average of 20 hours a week designing, constructing and testing the vehicle, culminating in the Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Competitions. The competitions include static events (written reports and oral presentations regarding engineering design and project costs) and dynamic events (racing factors, such as acceleration, towing, traction, maneuverability and endurance).
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Antonis Stylianou
Starting with a pile of rebar and some bags of concrete, the Big Beam Team is engaged in a real-world competition designed to test their knowledge before they enter the workforce by participating in the Engineering Student Design Competition, sponsored by the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). The contest is designed to help Civil Engineering students gain the knowledge to design and build concrete girders for bridges.
The students must design and build a 15-foot long concrete beam capable of supporting a minimum load over its span. After the beam is built and cured, the team completes a load test and writes a final report for submission. Their beam design is judged based on accuracy, cost of construction, overall weight, largest measured deflection before failure, most accurate prediction of applied load, cracking load and deflection at maximum load. They are also judged on the quality of their report and the practicality, innovation and conformance to code.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ganesh Thiagarajan
The UMKC Concrete Canoe team designs, constructs, and races a canoe made of lightweight concrete for ASCE’s competition each spring. This group is mainly comprised of civil engineers, but all majors are invited to compete. Non-engineers can assist but cannot compete in the formal competition. The regional competition is held every April, and the national competition is held in June. Design and analysis of the canoe takes place during the fall semester, and the canoe is cast early in the spring semester to allow adequate time for curing.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. John Kevern
Members of the Robotics Team compete against other university teams for prizes at the national Robotics Competitions. For many years the team competed at the IEEE Region 5 Business Meeting and Student Conference but in 2019, began competing at the National Robotics Competition in Marion, Ohio.
Faculty Advisor: Gina Campbell
Organizations
SCE offers specialized engineering and computing organizations that give students a peek at career possibilities. Organizations offer activities, friendships, competitions and personal growth. Student societies put classroom theory into motion with hands-on action.
Many organizations collaborate with local professionals, giving students a chance to network during business tours, collaborative projects, guest speeches and annual conventions.
Start finding your voice by taking a leadership role with a student organization.
Association for Computing Machinery
Mission
ACM is an educational and scientific society uniting the world’s computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
UMKC-ACM is the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s chapter of the ACM since 2006. We strive to embody the ideals of ACM and offer support and assistance to students enrolled in the computer science disciplines. To that end, we discuss all things technological (new and old), attend programming competitions, and discuss general nerdery.
Faculty Advisor: Brian Hare
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for aerospace engineering. AIAA is built-up of professionals from various disciplines involved in STEM fields that make-up the aerospace industry, such as aerospace, electrical, mechanical, and computer science backgrounds. AIAA provides a platform to connect professionals in academia, commercial, and research groups, allowing collaboration and opportunities to be created and developed.
UMKC’s AIAA student branch focuses on providing members with outreach to aerospace industry leaders, DBF (Design Build Fly) competitions, research publications for conferences, and various scholarship opportunities from AIAA.
Advisors: Travis Fields and Mujahid Abdulrahim
American Society of Civil Engineers
Mission
ASCE’s mission is to provide essential value to its members and their careers, to its partners and to the public. ASCE seeks to provide value by developing leadership skills in its members and supporting civil engineer leaders, facilitating advancement of the technology utilized by the profession, encouraging and providing tools for lifelong learning within the profession, advocating infrastructure and environmental stewardship, and promoting professionalism and the civil engineering profession.
The UMKC chapter of ASCE is very involved with the local Kansas City chapter by participating in several community service projects, attending the Annual Civil Engineering Conference, and the Mid-Continent Conference.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. John Kevern
Engineers Without Borders
EWB-UMKC is a multidisciplinary student lead philanthropic organization consisting of professionals and students from a variety of professions and fields of study working in tandem to help design and implement life changing services to less fortunate populations around the world. Through its projects and programs, EWB-UMKC provides professional and educational opportunities that encourages a global perspective.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Antonis Stylianou
National Society of Black Engineers
Mission
NSBE’s mission is “to increase the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.”
UMKC NSBE members attend Fall Regional Conferences (FRC) and National Exhibitions. These events help individuals enhance their professional skills and heighten their drive to excel academically.
The Pre-Collegiate Initiative (PCI)–seeks to expose area minority high school students to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
Advisor: Selena Albert
Interesting Facts
The symbol of NSBE has been given great thought and consideration. The torch symbolizes members’ everlasting, burning desire to achieve success in a competitive society and positively affect the quality of life for all people. The lightning bolt represents the striking impact that will be felt by the society and industry due to the contributions and accomplishments made by the dedicated members of the National Society of Black Engineers. NSBE has over 31,000 members. NSBE has 99 active NSBE Jr. pre-college, 250 student and 68 alumni/technical professional chapters. Headquartered in Alexandria, Va., NSBE offers academic excellence programs, scholarships, leadership training, professional development and access to career opportunities for thousands of members annually. With over 2000 elected leadership positions, 18 regional conferences and an annual convention, NSBE provides opportunities for success that remain unmatched by any other organization.
School of Computing and Engineering Student Council
Mission
The purpose of this organization is to represent, support, and provide an orderly method for government that represents all students duly enrolled in the School of Computing and Engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Activities
The council promotes engagement and unity for the SCE students by hosting events to bring the student body together. Student Council also partners with student affairs to put on E-Week each year.
Society of Automotive Engineers
Mission
To provide students with real-world engineering experience. The whole experience of the buggy relates to what students will face in their engineering careers: Design, manufacture, problem solving, and time management, working with a team, budgets, and networking skills (just to name a few).
Activities
The Baja Buggy Team competes annually at national and international competitions sponsored by SAE. Team members design, build and race a new car each year.
Faculty Advisor: Antonis Stylianou
Society of American Military Engineers
Mission
The purpose of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Student Chapter is to promote the mission and values of SAME through the networking of college students and industry professionals and government professionals.
These goals will be conducted through active participation of Student Chapter members:
- Lead efforts to foster trust and understanding through communications and collaboration among military, public, private, academic, and professional organizations.
- Leverage SAME’s culture of service to develop sustainable growth of students for professional professions.
- Develop opportunities and resources to train, educate, and promote professional growth of students.
- Contribute to government and private sectors at student appropriate levels to minimize the impacts of and enhance effective response to natural or man-made threats.
- Establishing partnerships with other Student Organizations in collaboration of outreach and professional student growth.
Faculty Advisor: Travis Fields
Society of Women Engineers
For more than six decades, SWE has given women engineers a unique place and voice within the engineering industry. Our organization is centered around a passion for our members’ success and continues to evolve with the challenges and opportunities reflected in today’s exciting engineering and technology specialties.
For collegiates: SWE provides collegiate members the opportunity to inspire future generations and have fun. SWE also provides collegiate members valuable access to a unique set of resources that sets the stage for a successful career.
Faculty Advisors: Megan Hart, Ph.D. & Sarvenaz Sobhansarbandi, Ph.D.
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
The organization is dedicated to live by our four values- Familia, Service, Education, and Resilience.
The purpose of this student chapter is to increase the number of Hispanic students pursuing a degree in the STEM fields at UMKC; promote the advancement of Hispanic engineers and scientists in employment and education; develop and participate in programs with industry and the university, which benefit students seeking technical degrees; improve the retention of Hispanic students enrolled in engineering and science; provide a forum for the exchange of information pertinent for Hispanic engineering and science students enrolled at UMKC.
Honor Societies
Honor societies have a longstanding tradition of recognizing exceptional intellect and talent. At SCE, these prestigious organizations are open to upperclassmen by invitation only, with each honor society determining its selection criteria for academic excellence.
While membership in an honor society is a great resume enhancer, there are many other benefits. Honor societies can enhance the educational experience through mentoring and networking programs, community service projects and leadership training. Many also provide access to scholarship opportunities.