Students watch a demonstration during Adventures in Engineering Day. Juniors will gather for the free event on Feb. 4, headquartered at Calhoun Community College in Huntsville. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Aerospace agencies and defense contractors are sponsoring the 14th annual “Adventures in Engineering Day” on Feb. 4.

Deadline to apply is Jan. 14. The event is open to high-school juniors in public, private or home schools in North Alabama and southern Tennessee. Students should ask their school counselor for registration help.

Calhoun Community College in Huntsville will host the free event. Registration will open at 6:30 a.m. with the program following at 7:45 a.m. After off-campus visits, student participants will return to Calhoun around 2:15 p.m.

“‘Adventures in Engineering’ is intended to demonstrate the kinds of cutting-edge efforts that are going on right here in the Tennessee Valley,” David Diaddario said. He is Vice President of the Advanced Solutions Group at Radiance Technologies.

The event will feature speakers, demonstrations and hands-on activities from various industry professionals. “Some locations may demonstrate outdoors. We encourage students and chaperones to wear appropriate attire,” Diaddario said.

Event sponsors are the Air, Space and Missile Defense Association, National Defense Industrial Association, Northrup Grumman and Calhoun.

The event “is very applicable to students across our area. The Army, Department of Defense and NASA organizations across Redstone Arsenal make all of these efforts possible, ranging from space exploration to science, intelligence, aviation systems and missile defense, to name a few,” Diaddario said.

In addition, Adventures in Engineering will promote science and engineering disciplines as students decide on college degrees and career focuses. The students can observe what engineers really do during an average workday.

Other participating organizations are the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center, Missile Defense Agency, Missile and Space Intelligence Center and AeroPhysics Research Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

All participants must be U.S. citizens.

For more information, call Diaddario at 256-325-7859 or email to ddiaddario@radiancetech.com.