Fischell Institute Hosts 3rd Annual Take Your Child to Work Day

The Fischell Institute hosted 24 children for its annual Take Your Child to Work Day program on Thursday, April 23, 2026, in the fifth-floor conference room of A. James Clark Hall.

The program, designed by Fischell Institute Communications and Program Specialist Ambi Narula, aims to spark curiosity and inspire the next generation of engineers.

“I have fond memories of visiting my dad’s office for Take Your Child to Work Day,” said Narula. “I wanted to offer that same sense of excitement and curiosity to children from across our University of Maryland community.”

This year, participants ages four to 15 took part in six hands-on engineering activities led by Fischell Institute community members.

The first activity was a cavity indicator demonstration by the medical device startup UCleaner. Attendees learned how cavities form, discussed foods that support dental health and ended the session by brushing their teeth.

The second activity, led by Joel Bannerman, Fischell Institute and MPower Entrepreneurship Fellow and master’s student in bioengineering, challenged students to design and build towers using masking tape, construction paper, plastic straws, and balloons. Working in teams, participants competed to create the tallest and most stable structure in a 20-minute time limit.

Next, faculty from the Department of Entomology showed off several insects, giving attendees the opportunity to interact with and learn about them up close.

After a brief break, Priscilla Lai, postdoctoral associate in Fischell Fellow Reza Ghodssi’s lab, led an activity exploring surface tension — the force that holds a liquid’s surface together. In the first part of the activity, participants gently placed paperclips on top of water, displaying how surface tension allows the paperclip to float. Next, children added a few drops of food coloring to milk in a petri dish, noting how the surface tension of the milk keeps the dye from spreading. Then, they added a drop of dish soap, breaking the surface tension and causing the dye to mix with the milk.

Shadin Doski, a second-year bioengineering Ph.D student in Affiliate Fellow Gregg Duncan’s lab, led a DNA extraction activity, in which students mashed fruit, filtered the mixture, then added ethanol to precipitate visible strands of DNA.

The program concluded with a demonstration from the Maryland Robotics Center, featuring a Unitree robotic dog and another robotic dog, named “Spot,” with AI features that enable it to act as a first responder in disaster scenarios.

The Fischell Institute began its Take Your Child to Work Day program in 2023, hosting seven kids of Fischell Institute community members. Since then, it has expanded to include children from faculty and staff across the university.