New Faces Of Engineering Honors A Young Generation In Touch With Their Careers

Some people have a feel for engineering, literally. The engineering profession’s annual recognition of remarkable newcomers to the field – New Faces of Engineering – this year finds some honorees in touch with their careers in more ways than one.

Each year, the National Engineers Week Foundation, a coalition of engineering societies, major corporations and government agencies, asks its members to nominate colleagues 30 years old and younger who have shown outstanding abilities and leadership. From those nominees, the foundation has selected the New Faces for Engineers Week 2008, scheduled for February 17-23, and co-chaired this year by IBM and the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA).

Engineers Week promotes the program to inspire young engineers and engineering students with the many possibilities the profession holds, a concept obviously underscored by the New Faces of 2008.

Among the 14 women and men honored is Colwyn Mark Sayers, P.E., 27, whose typical work clothes include diving helmet, fins and a wetsuit. As an engineer with the Cincinnati office of Stantec Consulting Services, Sayers can often be found deep in murky waters feeling his way around the base of bridge piers. With his experienced hands, he pushes and prods into foundations looking for cracks, missing concrete and other deteriorations that lie far below the water’s surface. It’s the kind of expertise that can mean the difference between safe infrastructure and potential disaster.

In Beijing, petroleum engineer Tony Thomas, 28, a senior reservoir engineer with Schlumberger, also spends his day attempting to read information that is impossible to see with the human eye. Seeking to understand and quantify precisely how much oil and natural gas reserves may lie miles beneath the earth’s surface, Thomas’s calculations can mean the difference in the recovery of billions of barrels in reserves.

Another New Face who has worked in far-removed locations is Javier F. Moncada, 27, a civil engineer at Berger/ABAM Engineers, Inc., in Portland, Oregon. After the disastrous 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he joined marine geologists and seismologists on an international research vessel to collect evidence from the ocean floor near the epicenter of the earthquake which caused it.

Sometimes the sense of career extends to the feel for a deal. Explaining the value of engineering quality to customers is the role of Raynelle Natasha Callender, 27, a systems engineer at Rolls-Royce North America, Inc., in Chantilly, Virginia. As regional sales executive, Callender markets and sells the company’s civil aero-engine aftermarket service to business aircraft customers. By utilizing the knowledge gained from her years at Rolls-Royce and her engineering background, she accounts for 25 percent of the company’s CorporateCare annual sales.

For Jessica Heier, 26, a doctoral student at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, making her mark means understanding the logistics of organizing responses to humanitarian crises. In 2007, for example, she collaborated on a project to improve the vaccine supply chain processes at the Pan American Health Organization with a focus on decentralized decision-making.

Molly F. McGuire, a mechanical designer at Taylor Engineering, LLC, in Alameda, California, is relying on nature to guide her engineering. McGuire, 30, employs the latest technologies in daylight distribution, natural ventilation, and other low-impact energy solutions to design and retrofit buildings. Among her recent projects is an under-floor air distribution system that will result in LEED Silver certification for a Stanford University library.

Other New Faces for 2008 include:

• Lieutenant Julie Boettcher, 26, U.S. Navy, who has streamlined and improved procedures for nuclear reactor safety on navy aircraft carriers.
• Thomas David Borrowman, 30, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who conducts critical sediment and dredging analyses in America’s ports and harbors.
• Annmarie Connor, 28, who assists in the design of orbiter and external tank systems for the Space Shuttle at United Space Alliance in Cape Canaveral.
• Dennis Lee, 29, directs a team at Raytheon Company responsible for developing real-time imaging systems for unmanned military surveillance aircraft.
• Angela Lang Matthews, 28, analyzes and implements water, wastewater and storm draining systems for communities throughout Texas as an engineer at Carter & Burgess, Inc., in Dallas.
• Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, 26, a mixed signal design engineer at Texas Instruments in Dallas, pioneers super high speed wireless data transfer and next generation disk drive technology.
• Benjamin L. Phillips, 27, a project engineer at FMSM/Stantec Consulting Services in Lexington, Kentucky, oversees soil-testing facilities inspecting the security of New Orleans levees.
• Lynn Takala, 25, a process engineer at Fluor in Greenville, South Carolina, is responsible for design phases from concept development to detailed engineering for world-class chemical facilities around the globe.

Information on all 55 New Faces nominations can be found at www.eweek.org

New Faces of Engineering 2008 (listed by nominating society)

American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC)
Benjamin L. Phillips, EIT

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
Lynn Takala

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Javier F. Moncada, EIT

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
Molly E. McGuire

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Annmarie Connor

Chinese Institute of Engineers – USA (CIE-USA)
Angela Lang Matthews, P.E.

IEEE / IEEE-USA
Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D.

Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE)
Jessica L. Heier

Engineers Week Coalition Diversity Council / NationalAssociation of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA)
Raynelle Natasha Callender

National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
Colwyn Mark Sayers, P.E.

Project Management Institute (PMI)
Dennis Lee

Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
Tony Thomas

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Thomas David Borrowman

U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program
LT Julie Boettcher

The Engineers Week coalition comprises more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the coalition is dedicated to sustaining and growing a dynamic engineering profession by ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce, increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students, and promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Among the oldest of America’s professional outreach efforts, the coalition also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineering contributions to society through year-round innovative programming and celebration. Co-chairs of Engineers Week 2008, February 17-23, are the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA) and IBM. Visit www.eweek.org.