This camp is designed for rising juniors and seniors in high school to explore the four main disciplines of engineering offered at the Lyle School of Engineering: electrical, mechanical, civil and environmental engineering, as well as computer science. There are two sessions of this camp, one session for 20 females and one session for 20 males. Camp is five days and four nights in residence halls on SMU’s main campus. The first two days are spent “skill building." Skill building allows students to learn basic theories and fundamentals of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer programming. After all students have completed the rotation, they are split into three to four groups to work on a design challenge, where they design and build a prototype that seeks to solve a real-world problem using their newly acquired knowledge. On the final day, students present their projects to an audience of parents, friends, and Lyle faculty and staff.

Participants spend the majority of their time in the Deason Innovation Gym, the Lyle School’s makers’ space that is a combination of a design studio, a machine shop, and a garage. The 1,200 square feet of space houses 3D printers, a laser cuter, vinyl cuter, power tools, and white boards. The Deason Innovation Gym is dedicated to turning ideas into reality and hosts extracurricular projects, in addition to the Immersion Design Experience (IDE), which the 11th and 12th grade SMU Lyle Engineering Summer Camp is designed after. Students will take an SMU campus tour, as well as a tour of the Lyle School of Engineering labs.