National Engineers Week: February 17-23, 2002
Activities Roundup

Founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Engineers Week is celebrated annually by thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers, and leaders in government and business. The National Engineers Week consortium includes more than 100 engineering, scientific, and education societies, and major corporations dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of engineering. Co-chairs for 2002 are the American Society of Civil Engineers, celebrating its 150^th anniversary, and DuPont, celebrating its 200^th anniversary.

Increasingly, National Engineers Week has focused on sharing the importance of engineering with young people. The National Engineers Week Committee believes that the sooner young people consider engineering as a viable career option, the earlier they can begin to make educational choices -- such as taking sufficient math and science courses in middle and high school -- that will allow them to pursue engineering and technical studies in college.

As part of that effort, National Engineers Week 2002 activities feature two exciting youth initiatives. ZOOM into Engineering, aimed at 6- to 11-year-olds, is a new program designed in conjunction with the popular PBS television show "ZOOM" that explores many fascinating facets of science and engineering. A train-the-trainer seminar in Washington on October 15, 2001 mobilized more than 100 engineers now fanned out across the country to train others to teach the program at schools, libraries, technology museums, and other public venues. To assist engineers in the program, WGBH Boston and National Engineers Week have produced 7,000 ZOOM into Engineering toolkits, each containing an activity guide, CD-ROM, and video that offer intriguing glimpses into the world of engineering with simple and fun experiments, insights on teaching this age group, and tips on how to organize workshops and events. 

The other major youth program is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, now in its second year. In 2001, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day became the first career outreach day to showcase a single profession. Last year, the program reached hundreds of thousands of girls with more than 90 participating partner organizations. In 2002, the program has the support of more than 100 organizations who hope to mobilize at least 10,000 women engineers who, with their male colleagues aim to reach one million girls. Planned for February 21, 2002, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is led by National Engineers Week co-chairs DuPont and ASCE, along with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation, IBM's Women in Technology, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Compaq Computer Corporation, the National Society of Professional Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network, MentorNet, Girl Scouts USA, and the National Academy of Engineering's Celebration of Women in Engineering. 

And that's just the start. Other important National Engineers Week activities include:

• The National Engineers Week Future City Competition™, entering its 10th year, expands from 25 to 29 regions across America. The competition asks middle school students, working under the guidance of teachers and volunteer engineers, to build computer and three-dimensional scale models of cities of tomorrow. They must also defend their designs to a panel of engineer judges at the competition and research and write essays. Students begin in the fall and compete in regional competitions in January. Winners then go to national finals in Washington on February 19 and 20. Regional sites include Albany (New York), Buffalo, Northern California, Southern California, Chicago, Colorado, South Florida, Hampton Roads (Virginia), Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New York City, Northern Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Texas-Fort Worth/Dallas, Texas-Houston, Washington, D.C., and Washington State. For more information, visit www.futurecity.org.

• National Engineers Week supports the unique online "Sightseers Guide to Engineering" at www.engineeringsights.org, which debuted on February 18, 2001. The site, created by the National Society of Professional Engineers, celebrates all things engineering in all 50 states. It encourages the public to recognize the engineering achievements around them and understand their importance in everyday life, and welcomes additional entries.

• The National Academy of Engineering will present the $500,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the profession's highest honor for engineering achievement and innovation, at a black-tie dinner at Washington's Union Station on February 19. A new prize, the $500,000 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, will also be awarded. In 2001 the Draper Prize went to the founders of the Internet: Drs. Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, Lawrence Roberts, and Leonard Kleinrock. (The inaugural, $500,000 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, awarded biennially, went to Wilson Greatbatch and Earl Bakken, who engineered the first human heart pacemaker. For more information about the NAE and its prizes, visit www.nae.edu/awards.

• The Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE/USA), joining National Engineers Week as a sponsor in 2002, will announce the Asian American Engineer of the Year at an award banquet in Dallas on Saturday, February 23. This is the first national level award program to be sponsored by the Institute in conjunction with National Engineers Week.

• www.discoverengineering.org, a Web site developed, sponsored, and launched during National Engineers Week 1999 by that year's co-chair, Eastman Chemical Company, educates middle school students with information about what engineers do and how to become one. The site, praised by the Los Angeles Times and Newsday, among others, offers comprehensive information on the engineering of nine "cool things" -- including CD players, roller coasters, high performance sporting goods, and cars -- general background on careers in engineering, games, downloadables, and hundreds of links to corporations, engineering societies, and other resources.

• A Drive-Time Radio Tour, featuring a spokesperson from the American Society of Civil Engineers and highlighting ZOOM into Engineering, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, and the Future City Competition, will be broadcast in dozens of cities across the country during National Engineers Week.

• Discover "E," a nationwide program of 40,000 engineers helping more than five million elementary, junior and senior high school students discover practical applications of math, science and technology with hands-on activities through school and extracurricular programs.

• Engineering Goes Public where hundreds of libraries, science/technology centers, engineering project sites, and local malls -- in conjunction with the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, and the Junior Engineering Technical Society -- host Engineering Day to educate the public during National Engineers Week. 

• National Technological University sponsors the 13th annual "Discover Engineering!" telecast on Wednesday, February 20 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM Eastern, a live satellite broadcast to introduce engineering to fifth- through eighth-grade students. Discover Engineering! will be a fast-paced look at an engineer's typical day, the engineering behind certain toys, robotics, and engineering for the future. Upwards of 400,000 students have watched the program live in past years, and as many as eight million viewed it afterwards on tape. More information is at www.ntu.edu/de2002.

• For more information call (703) 684-2852.