EWeek 2006 ENews #23 – March 10, 2006 National Engineers Week 2005 will be celebrated February 20-26. Feel free to forward this letter or contents to other interested parties. 1. Set Your Clocks for Global Marathon
The second "Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering" takes place from noon EST, March 23, until noon EST on March 24. A continuous cycle of Internet and telephone presentations and conversations originate from around the globe. Topics, presenters and schedules are posted and will be continuously updated. Click here for more information. For example, high school students, their teachers, parents, and counselors can learn "Questions parents and students should ask when choosing an engineering college." Former U.S. astronaut Sally Ride will discuss "Encouraging girls in engineering." Engineers and students can learn about connecting engineering degrees to law and medicine. College students can get a glimpse into the workplace with "What I know now that I wish I'd known in college." The marathon is an outgrowth of Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and is timed to coincide with Women's History Month. back to top 2. Engineers Week 2006
Click here for information about the outcome of Engineers Week 2006, including a feature on the National Engineers Week Future City Competition National Champions. back to top 3. Design Challenge Winners
Gulliver Preparatory School of Pinecrest, Florida, won the Javits-Wagner-O'Day/JETS National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC) during Engineers Week 2006. The winning invention was "Simple Electronic Ergonomic Box Opener." JETS partnered with NISH, a national nonprofit agency creating employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities by securing Federal contracts through the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Program. Click here for information on the design challenge. back to top 4. In Local News
The Boston Engineers Week Committee hosted the area's 49th Annual National Engineers Week Celebration. More than 300 professionals gathered for this annual luncheon to celebrate the achievements of the local engineering community and to support the future growth of the engineering profession. Edward A. Flynn, Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, spoke about the homeland security strategy for the Commonwealth. The New England Achievement Award was presented to Christopher M. Gordon, PE., COO of Harvard's Allston Initiative. The Engineers Week Committee also recognized school-age students who have excelled in the Future City, Model Bridge, and Mathcounts competitions, and presented the MassPEP/Engineers Week Scholarship. Other events included a panel on "Why Gender Diversity DOES Matter: Helping Your Firm Compete for Excellence." An Engineering Outreach Exposition held just prior to the luncheon featured booths from local and national organizations focused on promoting science and engineering education, including Engineers Without Borders, WGBH, the Engineering Education Service Center, MassPEP, the Museum of Science, the Science Club for Girls, and many others. The Bureau of Reclamation hosted the 39th annual Colorado High School Bridge Building Contest at the Denver Federal Center. The contest, open to all public and private Colorado schools, is intended to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering. Students watched as a calibrated machine tested their bridges' efficiency rate to -- and beyond -- capacity. Tours of Reclamation's Research Laboratory, including scaled-down models of actual projects with running water, were available. At the conclusion of the contest, Reclamation demonstrated its 5-million pound press. Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier in the United States, and the nation's second largest producer of hydroelectric power. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Contact psoeth@do.usbr.gov. Engineers from Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) in California celebrated, from joining an Engineering Career Fair at the University of California-Berkeley to hosting high school students at offices in San Francisco. The San Francisco office hosted a group of students from Wallenberg High School in order to expose them to fields of engineering and a corporate environment. Employees were encouraged to wind down by joining the third Annual Penny Boat Competition. This month engineers are visiting Mercy High School in San Francisco, and Peninsula Elementary School in San Mateo and working with local Girl Scouts. Contact is Randy Altshuler at Altshuler@pbworld.com The Santa Clara, California, City Library hosted "Learn about a Career in Science or Engineering!" with a panel of women engineers and scientists from Agilent. Engineer contact is gail_jacobs@agilent.com. Four hundred IBM employees based in Rochester, Minnesota, visited 12,000 elementary, middle and high school students in Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin, guiding them through engineering activities. One project involved building a small robotic car from a Lego® kit and using a computer to program the car. This exercise gave the young people a feel for what computer programming and engineering is all about. One student who prefers hands-on learning commented, "It's fun and it was challenging at the same time." Physics teacher John Samuell of John Marshall High School has been inviting IBM engineers to his physics classroom during EWeek since 1991. "The reason I do it is kind of a career information thing. A lot of these students' parents are engineers, working at IBM or Mayo (Clinic), but when you ask them what their parents do, they don't know. Most kids don't want to be engineers because of the math. So, this is to show them a little bit about what engineers do. They work in teams to solve problems. I think it's a fantastic program," Samuell said. back to top ----------------------------------------- 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. back to top |