An economics professor will give you an interactive lesson in stock market strategy.

A campus Buddhist group will enlist your help in ending global poverty.

Science and engineering departments will dazzle you with robots, optical illusions, complex chemistry experiments, and even a formula race car built by students.

And, musicians and dancers of all stripes will create joyful sounds and sights – everything from hypnotic African drumming to a professionally trained treble voice choir to acoustic folk singers.

The first-ever Rutgers Day on April 25 will capture the complete spectrum of talent, creativity, and innovation that marks Rutgers as one of the nation’s premiere public research universities.

The day will also include two longtime events at Rutgers – the New Jersey Folk Festival, one of a handful of festivals in the nation managed by undergraduate students, and Ag Field Day, which provides a trip into New Jersey’s lush natural resources.

 All told, Rutgers Day includes about 400 programs, including lectures, exhibits, tours, and other activities on the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses.

It’s all free and open to all New Jersey residents, as well as members of the university community. The event begins at 10 a.m. Free parking and on-campus shuttles are available.

Throughout the day, attendees get a unique, up-close view of the diverse intellectual currents that fuel the Rutgers culture of higher education. The Department of Economics, for example, will give a lesson in the stock market, putting willing participants on the fast track and letting them decide whether to buy, sell, or trade stock.

“People can actually come in and sit down behind the computer, and we can implement different kinds of underlying structures, so they can have something to buy or sell,” said Professor Barry Sopher, chair of the economics department. “And after you’re done, you can see how well you did.”

The Department of Classics, meanwhile, will put its own stamp on the world of haute couture, staging a fashion show in which the student-models will strut down a scarlet runway wearing the togas and stolas of ancient Rome.

The show comes complete with its own sound track – funk, salsa, and soulful house music spun by T. Corey Brennan, chair of the Department of Classics, and an occasional deejay. Brennan said the department has enlisted the help of a professional designer to make the show an authentic re-creation of Roman style.

“This is meant to be fun, but everyone will come away with a sense of what Roman dress looked like,” Brennan said. “Although it was a very traditional society, the dress left some latitude for creativity and individuality.”

Just as the classics department delves into the Roman Empire through fashion, the university’s Laboratory of Vision Research will explore the workings of the modern mind through a series of uncanny 3-D illusions. Among the demonstrations that Professor Thomas Papathomas will present is the hollow mask illusion – an eerie, rotating visage he developed with Thomas Grace, an instrumentation engineer in the Department of Psychology. The mask defies the viewer’s expectation of hollowness by appearing to have faces on both sides as it turns.

“When it comes to visual perception, illusions give you a window to glimpse how the brain works,” said Papathomas, associate director of the laboratory and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “The main idea is that seeing is not a passive activity; it’s an active process in which the brain is interpreting the data that comes through our eyes.”

Besides giving students and faculty an opportunity to showcase their talents, Rutgers Day also offers New Jersey residents a chance to forge a stronger bond with the university.

“Rutgers Day is a chance for people who might not ordinarily visit our campuses to get an inside glimpse of their state university and experience its social, cultural, and intellectual vibrance firsthand,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick.

Accordingly, Rutgers Day will express the “Jersey Roots” side of the university’s identity in many ways.

One exhibition will tell the story of a student-run group, the Intersect Fund, which has contributed to the renaissance in New Brunswick by assisting struggling entrepreneurs. A tour by the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy will explore recent additions to the city’s skyline and discuss innovative transportation solutions. A lecture by travel writer Helen Pike will take attendees back to the glory days of Asbury Park.

Meanwhile, the other half of Rutgers’ identity – its global reach – will be displayed in a kaleidoscope of activities, including the breathtaking Afro-Brazilian mix of dance and martial arts known as Capoeira.

There will also be an effort to break the record for the world’s largest Zumba® class, the Latin-based dance exercise. A total of 101 people are needed to take the 30-minute class.

For those wanting a less physical lesson in world culture, the Department of Linguistics will present a lecture on rapping and rhyming in Japanese.

And the Nichiren Buddhist Association, a student club, will display an exhibit called Seeds of Change, focusing on solving world problems like poverty and environmental degradation.

“We want to give hope that world peace is possible,” said Heidi Hsu, a sophomore.