National Engineers Week headquarters continues to work with a variety of partners to tie their projects to Engineers Week. We also worked with the American Association of Engineering Societies to release an AAES-Harris Interactive survey on “Americans' Perspectives on Engineering.”

A fat paycheck is fine, but what really gets engineers going is a problem to solve. In a recent poll of IEEE/IEEE-USA members conducted in conjunction with IEEE Spectrum, only three percent said money was their most significant reward. But, three out of four cited inventing, building and designing new technology. A detailed report was carried in the February issue of Spectrum, in conjunction with Engineers Week.

Engineers Week Chairman Joe Lillie of IEEE-USA, was interviewed on more than a dozen radio stations across the U.S. and in major markets such as Detroit, Miami, Boston, Seattle, and Phoenix. An NPR affiliate in Albany, New York, taped an interview with Lillie and representatives of the Society of Women Engineers and MentorNet in connection with Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day for a feed to 125 affiliate stations.

The National Academy of Engineering presented the $500,000 2004 Charles Stark Draper Prize to the engineers credited with the world’s first practical networked personal computers: Alan C. Kay, Butler W. Lampson, Robert W. Taylor, and Charles P. Thacker. Frank S. Bares of the University of Colorado, Boulder, received the $500,000 2004 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education.

The Chinese Institute of Engineers – USA held its spectacular third annual Asian-American Engineer of the Year Awards ceremony during Engineers Week. Yuan-Cheng Fung, professor emeritus of bioengineering at the University of California – San Diego, fondly kown as the “father of biomechanics,” received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Steven Chu, 1997 Nobel Prize winner in physics and professor at Stanford University accepted the Distinguished Service Award.

President Bush praised engineers in a widely distributed message, stating “National Engineers Week highlights the contributions of America’s engineers to our technological progress, infrastructure, strength, and prosperity.”

Engineers and Engineers Week programs were recognized in hundreds of newspapers, radio and television stations, with a total print circulation over 47 million. Dozens of newspaper supplements appeared from Atlanta to Houston to Honolulu. The Future City Competition alone reached more than 21 million readers.