The NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology will hold its fifth annual Region V Conference from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the CEET auditorium.

The safety conference includes presentations from Sept. 11 survivor Charles Carroll Jr. addressing emergency preparedness, along with NIU graduate student Cliff Meidl, who survived an electrocution and then went on to become an olympic kayaker.

Students are invited to attend any or all of the sessions free of charge. Others will be asked to donate $20 to go towards conference costs.

NIU technology professor Earl Hansen created the annual conference five years ago, and is coordinating this year’s event as well.

“If you look at the people who are coming, it’s a great lineup of speakers who can provide students with excellent career advice,” Hansen said.

The event is hosted by the student chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).

Student attendance for the safety conference has steadily increased every year.

“The first year we had around 50 students, and last year we had 125,” Hansen said.

One of the goals of the conference is to get students to expect the unexpected, Hansen said.

“This conference is not only for engineering students, but for everyone who needs to learn why you need to be prepared for anything,” he said.

The need for preparedness in safety jobs is a growing concern among employers, Hansen said. “Most of the safety and engineering companies at last week’s job fair said that a lot of the kids applying for safety jobs had no idea the kind of safety training they would need to have to work those kinds of jobs.”

The event will bring safety, technology and engineering students from other universities across the Midwest to learn about careers in safety-related fields.

“We’re putting kids visiting from other schools up in hotels around here,” Hansen said. “This conference is great for the engineering program. The NIU program is better known outside campus than on.”