Exhibit for young engineers debuts in May at Franklin Institute

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A new exhibit for young engineers is in the works at The Franklin Institute.

The Tech Studio situated on the third floor is slated to open on May 11.

Young engineers can design spinning tops, aircrafts, and even build self-driving vehicles.

Mickey Maley from The Franklin Institute says it's all part of the experience.

"We're going to be incorporating design challenges to find the engineer within," Maley said. "They're going to have different opportunities to test, retest, and iterate their design based upon three specific challenges."

3D printers will be in action nearby, with the latest technologies and techniques on display.

The Franklin Institute is collaborating with TE Connectivity, a global technology and manufacturing leader that has its US headquarters in Berwyn.

TE Connectivity Engineering Manager Alexandra Spitler explains this exhibit will create an authentic picture of challenges engineers face every day: testing, failing, redesigning.

Spitler tells us, "It's something that's interesting, captures their imagination, and makes them go through the engineering process, which is basically to think about what is the problem you're going to solve, what are the constraints you have on that."

Young engineers like these students from Yorkship Family School in Camden can give it a whirl and learn along the way.

Fourth grader Victoria Robinson described her challenges constructing a spinning top saying, "My struggle was trying to get the egg to stay in place. I had to use two rubber bands."

The idea here is to help build engineering skills today that are necessary for the workforce of tomorrow. It's also fun.

Abby Bysshe of The Franklin Institute added, "It's really getting kids thinking about those careers of the future. We don't know what the future jobs are going to be. So we really need kids coming out inspired to be creative, problem solvers for these careers in the future."

4th grader Tyrone Howell already has his eye on the future. He predicted, "I think we might actually go to a car that floats."

Maybe he will be the one to build it.