EWeek ENews E-newsletter

National Engineers Week

EWeek 2008 ENews #9 – January 24, 2008

Engineers Week 2008 will be celebrated February 17 – 23, and is co-chaired by the Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE)–USA and IBM Corporation. Feel free to forward this letter or contents to other interested parties.

Contents:
1. Bold Visions
2. United Kingdom Promotes Engineering Outreach
3. Local Events

1. Bold Visions
To coincide with National Engineers Week and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (February 21), American Public Television has announced the airing of Bold Visions: Women in Science & Technology, which aims to dispel the myths commonly associated with science and technology and with female professionals who work in those fields. The program premieres on public television, February 1. Check your local listings.

The program profiles three fabulous women: Anne Carpenter, a research scientist for Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, who is searching for genetic causes of diseases; Joan Higginbotham, a former NASA astronaut who applies her engineering expertise in space; and Duy-Loan Le, a senior fellow at Texas Instruments, who is as agile leading a team of colleagues as she is kicking a soccer ball with her sons. Their work is exciting and collaborative, and it's making a positive difference in the quality of our lives.

Bold Visions also features Hispanic high school girls who, together with other students, have built a wind turbine to generate electricity for lights at a community center. They were recently featured in People en Espanol. Emmy Award-winning executive producer Helene Lerner hosts.

DVD's of the program and accompanying Discussion Guides are being distributed nationwide to be viewed by teenagers. Among the groups receiving them are Girls Inc., The Infinity Project, National Girls Collaborative Project, Sally Ride Science, National Coalition of Girls' Schools, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Project Lead the Way classrooms, International Society for Technology in Education, International Technology Education Association, and the National School Boards Association.

2. United Kingdom Promotes Engineering Outreach
According to the Financial Times of London this month, in a story by Peter March, The Bishop of Southwark will give a lecture to the Royal Academy of Engineering and call for engineering groups to use the challenges of climate change to lure youngsters into studying technological subjects. The impetus is concern that Britain could be left behind by emerging economies such as China and India when it comes to attracting more youngsters into engineering. Sir John Rose, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, has warned that the company is being forced to recruit from outside the UK, due to a lack of skilled engineers.

3. Local Events
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will work with the Wiesbaden Middle School for Department of Defense Dependents (DoDDs) again. All events are open to participation by the entire school per the school administration requirements. USACE is sponsoring Shadow Day on February 1 for employees' children and is also open to the Wiesbaden DoDDS schools all age groups. USACE will present some of its engineering project work throughout Europe, Turkey, and Africa in addition to a CADD demonstration for each age group. USACE is also working with the school to provide presentations that match their curriculum not only in February but throughout the school year. Contact kathleen.c.ergenekon@usace.army.mil

In Texas ... The Society of Petroleum Engineers Permian Basin Young Professionals Board in Midland will host "Girl Day" on February 21 at the local college. Contact cbrown@knowledge-reservoir.com. ... ASHRAE in Tyler is part of a joint engineering society banquet at a local college where MATHCOUNTS kids will be honored. Contact kristin.schaefer@trane.com or see http://www.ashrae-etex.org/ ... The El Paso Independent School District plans to host a set of conferences, competitions and exhibits along with their partners in education to expose and promote engineering and technology fields from Feb. 24- Feb. 29. They are targeting 120 + high school girls.... Clear Creek Independent School District in Friendswood is working on strategies to introduce more young ladies into its Project Lead the Way program. This includes, but is not limited to, students attending a guest speaker series presented on campus. Contact is Sven Schultz at sschultz@ccisd.net or see http://www.ccisd.net/schools/schoolwebs/3/SLCschools/engineering/ .

In Illinois ... the College of Lake County in Grayslake looks forward to another exciting program to introduce engineering and sciences to the young girls in the county. They will have various hands-on activities that explore engineering, along with speakers of either students, faculty or women engineers. Contact Associate Dean Jose Velarde at 847-533-2602, or jvelarde@clcillinois.edu. See http://www.clcillinois.edu ... At Siemens in West Chicago, Girl Scout troops and daughters of Siemens employees will visit a Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. factory on February 22. The 5th- through 9th-grade girls will tour the factory and will complete five fun experiments which relate to five different engineering fields. They will also have the opportunity to talk to the woman engineers who will staff this event. Contact jayne.beck@siemens.com or see http://www2.sea.siemens.com/.

-----------------------------------------

To submit content or comments, or to be added to our email distribution list, please e-mail eweek@nspe.org. All suggestions will be considered.

Founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, Engineers Week (February 18-24, 2007) is celebrated annually by thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers, and leaders in government and business. In 1988, the National Engineers Week consortium expanded its scope and now includes more than 100 engineering, scientific, and education societies and major corporations dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of the engineering profession and to promoting pre-college interest in math, science, and engineering as a career option.

Previous issues of the EWEEK ENEWS available here.

National Engineers Week Foundation
1420 King Street Alexandria, VA 22314
tel. 703.684.2852 email: eweek@nspe.org