National Engineers Week 2005 will be celebrated February 20-26. Feel free to forward this letter or contents to other interested parties.

Contents:

1. You Can Connect
2. Engineers Without Borders – USA
3. A, B, C's of Engineers Week Products Online
4. In Local News

1. You Can Connect
The series of Webinars for "Connecting Educators to Engineering" continues. "Preparing Education and Engineering Students to Work Together" takes place January 31 at 11:00 AM EST. The session is led by Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston. On February 3, Douglas Gorham, Director of Educational Outreach for the IEEE, leads "Connecting Engineers with the Pre-University Community." This session starts at 10:30 AM, EST. All workshops are free.

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2. Engineers Without Borders – USA Hosts International Meeting
Engineers Without Borders – USA hosts its International Conference on February 16-18 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The conference title is "Building, Teaching, Learning – One Community at a Time." The Engineers Week coalition began promoting Engineers Without Borders – USA for Engineers Week 2005. The hallmark of EWB – remedy an engineering need and leave the community able to fend for itself – has made it a welcomed presence for people around the world.

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3. A, B, C's of Engineers Week Products Online
The "Ask an Engineer" DVD, bright buttons and cool caps are available in the Engineers Week 2006 Product Catalog. Supplies available while they last so don't wait to order. Visit the Product Catalog on www.eweek.org.

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4. In Local News
Can a few students save Tulane engineering? Burdened with $250 million in property damage and more than $90 million in operational losses from Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University in New Orleans was faced with incredibly difficult choices about how to lead the university into solvency. On December 8th, 2005, Scott Cowan, the President of Tulane University, announced the board's decision to eliminate the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. The two remaining departments in the School of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, will be merged into a new School of Science and Engineering. Within 12 hours of this announcement, a few Tulane Engineering students founded "Save Tulane Engineering," an organization dedicated to reinstating the lost departments.

The Mid-Hudson (New York)  National Engineers Week banquet takes place February 21. One of the keynote speakers is Colonel Stephen Ressler, Ph.D., P.E. Col. Ressler, vice dean for education at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, was part of a civil engineering team that designed, built, and tested a full-scale working replica of an ancient Roman battering ram for a Discovery Channel documentary. Col. Ressler will describe how the team designed the ram and then overcame challenges to build and test it under austere conditions in Morocco.

The Baltimore, Maryland, Museum of Industry (BMI) will host the 2006 Maryland Engineering Challenges, beginning January 28, 2006. The Maryland Engineering Challenges are a series of free competitions for groups of young people in Grades 1-12 from public and private schools, clubs, and individual families. Groups work for months at home or school to create their own project, which is then demonstrated at the event. Each group submits a written report two weeks in advance of the challenge and an oral presentation on the day of the event. Challenges in 2006 include Safe Racer, Theme Park, and Paper Plane Challenges for elementary school students; Maglev, Hovercraft, Straw Bridge, Future City, and Recycling Challenges for middle school students; and, Robot, Mars Rover, Cargo Plane, Cargo Ship, Wood Bridge, and Manufacturing Challenges for high school students. The Engineering Challenges are sponsored by the Baltimore Museum of Industry, the Technology Education Association of Maryland, the Engineering Society of Baltimore, and the TIME Center at the Community College of Baltimore County. For more information visit their website www.thebmi.org.

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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 19-25, 2006) 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.

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