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EWeek 2006 ENews #18 – February 16, 2006
National Engineers Week 2005 will be celebrated February 20-26. Feel free to forward this letter or contents to other interested parties. Contents:1. This Week Online 1. This Week Online Competition materials and judging criteria will be available online at the competition start. The contest is open to applicants 18 years of age or older who are enrolled in a university program and are residents of the United States or enrolled in a U.S. or Canadian-based school. Competitors have one week to program an artificial life-form that must survive and thrive in a virtual world. The software model upon which the competition is based will work on a variety of platforms, enabling students to compete regardless of their computer type. Entrants do not need to have knowledge of a specific programming language to participate. Students will develop their programs in a simple, specially-designed programming language, offering entrants with even introductory programming knowledge the opportunity to participate. 2. New Faces of Engineering Announced Each year, the Engineers Week Foundation asks its members to nominate young colleagues who have shown outstanding abilities and leadership in their chosen discipline. From that list, a select few are chosen as the year's New Faces, a group that reflects the excitement and vigor of the profession. Information on all New Faces nominees is available at www.eweek.org and was published in the February 15 issue of USA TODAY. Timothy Swieter was nominated by the National Society of Professional Engineers. He's an electrical engineer whose idea of work is a day at the amusement park. Swieter has made his mark by designing and implementing the control systems that make the latest generation of thrill rides so seemingly dangerous, yet so precisely safe. With his company, Birket Engineering, Swieter has been part of the team responsible for the mechanisms behind such crowd-pleasers as "Revenge of the Mummy, The Ride" at Universal Studios Orlando, a 2,200-foot coaster that includes 180-degree banks and 50-degree drops. The steel twister includes a sudden stop into an eerie, darkened "tomb" where riders are asked to exit, but instead of their snug lapbars being released, the ceiling bursts into flame before riders are sent plunging to the ride's completion. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers nominated Roger Chang. For Chang, engineering is all about the arts. A mechanical engineer at Arup, Chang has played a key role in developing the interior and exterior designs of gallery spaces that require tight environmental control. His synthesis of such techniques as computational fluid dynamics and two-dimensional heat transfer analysis has led to façade and mechanical designs that protect the delicate nature of fine art for institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, Atlanta's High Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Shane R. Sevo, a creative designer with Wade Trim Associates nominated by the American Council of Engineering companies, has borrowed a page from Hollywood special effects - including the latest in 3D animation, digital video, and digital compositing applications - to inject stunning visuals into civil engineering business environments. With powerful presentation graphics ranging from computer generated illustrations to realtime interactive 3D environments, Sevo has transformed once-mundane plans to build a pump station, for example, into a moving storyboard that lets the viewer glide up, over, behind and around the proposed installation, long before ground is even broken. 3. It's Never Too Late "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" pointers as well as activities are available at www.eweek.org. Information and counsel for "Cyberchase: Math in Science & Engineering" is available online and by telephone. To hear a recorded teleconference briefing: Dial 1-866-854-2507, Replay code: 338835. The recording is available until February 22. Visit Cyberchase at www.eweek.org for downloads and to request a free toolkit. 4. In Local News Esso Standard Oil Co., in Puerto Rico, will host two public schools for Engineering Day in Cataño Terminal on February 27. One of the schools will be recognized for being the only school on mid-level in Puerto Rico, and one of 50 chosen from 2,500 that participate, to win a NASA Explorer School proposal. Contact is Eliam Lopez, eliam.lopez@exxonmobil.com. In support of Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, IEEE's Women in Engineering - Winnnipeg (Canada), in partnership with the Manitoba Robot Game, is proud to present a Robot Building Workshop for youth. The workshop is February 25 and leads to the 11th Annual Manitoba Robot Games to be held March 18th & 19th. Robots are tailored by age group: MINI SUMO for ages 10-16, cost $35; ROBO CRITTER for ages 6-12, cost $25. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Contact is Jennifer Jessop at jenjessop@ieee.org The Engineering Department of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey will sponsor an all day event called "Introduce a Girl to Engineering" on February 23. Girls from employees' friends and family between the ages of 12 - 17 will join in activities and be inspired by female staff engineers and architects' personal accounts of how they became interested in their chosen professions. Get information from Carolyn Clancy-Detmering. cclancy@panynj.gov. Women engineers from Florida's AWWA Region X and Myakka Chapter, Florida Engineering Society, Longboat Key, will visit a local high school for presentations during math and science classes. They will also display local scholarship forms and brochures from the University of Florida and University of South Florida colleges of engineering. Contact Anne Ross, aross@longboatkey.org. ----------------------------------------- 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. |
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National Engineers Week Foundation
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