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Enrique Baez, an engineer from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, shows off a mo

In the rooms of Ackerman Union, groups of high school students design and assemble their own circuits. Others learn the basics of computer programming or nanotechnology.

UCLA engineering students at all levels – from undergraduates to post-doctorate researchers to alumni – stand by ready to answer questions.

In the middle of it all, Rick Ainsworth, director of UCLA’s Center for Excellence in Engineering & Diversity, watches as a national problem is tackled from the regional level.

“There’s a troubling decline in the numbers of scientists and engineers produced in the U.S.,” Ainsworth said. “The chief reason we’re falling behind is because of lack of investment in education.”

Over 250 high school students came to UCLA yesterday from eight high schools to participate in workshops and demonstrations geared toward science and engineering concepts and career possibilities, all part of a Young Engineers & Scientists event.

Ainsworth described a global trend in which many other countries have begun investing in math, science and engineering education as a means of economic revitalization.

The National Science Foundation reported in 2004 that the number of U.S. jobs requiring science and engineering skills is growing at nearly five percent annually, compared with a 1 percent growth rate for the rest of the U.S. labor market.

The current rate of students entering science and engineering fields is falling very short of the demand.

“It’s about intervention in the education system to galvanize students toward math and science,” Ainsworth said. “It’s not an easy thing to do. Most people avoid it.”

CEED works closely with the statewide Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program to promote the interest of students in science and math-based careers.

One of the presenters at the event was Enrique Baez, a representative from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, who sat at a table behind robotic arms and scale models of the Mars exploration rovers.

“I’m here as an example of what can be done,” Baez said, a former UCLA mechanical engineering student.

“My objective for the day is to get the idea in their head, spark some interest,” he said.

MESA students can also participate in the Science, Mathematics Achievement and Research Technology for Students summer program, which allows them to conduct research and take classes at UCLA and other regional institutions.

Jacque Perkins, a student from the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, participated in the program last summer and conducted DNA extraction experiments alongside UCLA graduate students.

Perkins used centrifuges and pipets to determine the genetic basis of seed dispersal patterns from leaf samples of a species of African tree. As a high school student, he was also exposed to the environment and etiquette of a university research lab.

“I didn’t realize how you have to be so precise in everything you do,” the high school senior said.

He has applied to Stanford, Berkeley and UCLA, and said he hopes to pursue a career in medicine.

The growing numbers of students attending high school in urban areas has not been tapped into for its full potential, Ainsworth said.

“The contribution of students from urban schools is far below their proportion,” he said. “They’re not on this campus, and they’re certainly not in the school of engineering.”

But statistics are already showing a shift away from that bleak outlook. Approximately 80 percent of students who participate in SMARTS go on to a four-year institution, Ainsworth said.

Lorenz Cisne, one of Perkins’ classmates, has participated in MESA programs since the fifth grade and has already been accepted to the University of Michigan’s pre-architecture program. ‘There’s so much in the world with engineering,” Cisne said.

She said she hopes the structures of scientific and engineering fields will improve her critical analysis skills.

“In math, two plus two will always equal four,” she said. “You’re pretty much always going to find an answer, you just have to work at it.”