High school students from all over the state visited Iowa State to participate in activities supported by ISU clubs and to learn about opportunities in technology offered by the university.

About 70 students participated in the CyTech Challenge, an event sponsored by the Management Information Systems Club, the Computer Science Club and the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers. It was held Friday.

The CyTech Challenge began three years ago as a way to highlight ISU technology.

“The program targets younger students so they can develop an understanding of technology at an early age,” said Abigail Rudolph, vice president of the MIS Club.

Students participated in a number of activities, including an e-commerce activity, a Visual Basic programming activity and building Lego cars with computer chips.

“[The Lego cars game] was the students’ favorite activity,” said Rudolph, senior in management information systems and marketing. “It was a small competition, and the student whose car went the furthest won.”

For the e-commerce activity, students discussed the concept of “Web stickiness” — how well people remember what they see on the Internet — and critiqued different Web pages.

“I loved seeing the kids learn more about technology and discovering that this was something they could do,” said Julie Nieland, president of the MIS Club and senior in management information systems.

Students also participated in a corporate event, or mini career fair, Rudolph said.

The purpose of the event was to help students develop an understanding about the different corporations.

High school students were also able to ask questions of a panel of ISU students from each of the three clubs.

The question-and-answer session examined the different colleges at ISU.

“The students were really filled with questions,” Rudolph said. “They wanted to know what college was all about. They’re pretty clueless right now.”

The event was sponsored by 21 corporate partners, including General Mills and IBM Global Services.