UK Section Join Rickmansworth ParkRun

In May, the ASME UK Section teamed up with ParkRun to meet and interact with the local Rickmansworth community. In celebration of ASME’s Community Impact Month, the volunteer section joined the organization that hosts weekly, free 5K runs in parks throughout the world and locally at the Rickmansworth Aquadrome.

Jun Xia, chair of the ASME UK section, often joins his local ParkRun group. Being an organization that is community-minded and holds events managed entirely by volunteers, working with ParkRun seemed like a good fit for ASME and mechanical engineering. With support and encouragement from both Evelyn Taylor, director, Section Operations, and Sidi N'Dioubnan coordinator, Section Engagement, Xia pursued working with ParkRun. 

Saturday, May 11, began early with the runners enjoying great weather. Section leadership team members, Erkan and Selda Oterkus, travelled from Glasgow to help Xia and the team. Also joining in on the fun were three local runners including, two Brunel University students: Enshen Lv, a postdoctoral student working on combustion engines, and Quentin Martinez, a student working on his Ph.D. and who has worked with Xia with machine learning. 

Wearing matching shirts and manning a small informational booth, ASME shared Mechanical Engineering magazines, soda, and water with the ParkRun participants. Talking with close to 100 runners proved to be a great experience, including meeting a local police officer, a young mother and son, and many aspiring engineers. Overall, sharing news about mechanical engineering and ASME was a great success.