EWeek

EWeek 2009 ENews #8 – February 19, 2009

Engineers Week 2009 will be celebrated February 15 – 21. Co-chairs are Intel Corporation and the National Society of Professional Engineers. Feel free to forward this letter or contents to other interested parties.

Contents:
1. President Recognizes Engineers
2. Introduce a Girl to Engineering
3. Novo Mondum Top City of the Future
4. Celebrating New Faces of Engineering
5. NAE Presents Highest Engineering Awards of 2009
6. In Local News

1. President Recognizes Engineers
In one of the first recognition messages issued by the new Administration, President Obama praised engineers for contributions to our quality of life and called on the profession to help meet challenges by reaching out to young students. "This is America's great opportunity: cultivating the untapped talent and ingenuity of our Nation's young people. We must support science and technology in the classroom and in the lab. We must ensure that young people from the entire spectrum of American society have the opportunity to learn and to succeed." For full text click here

2. Introduce a Girl to Engineering
While young women are a majority on college campuses they are still woefully under-represented in engineering and technology schools and careers. You can help create change. 'Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day', February 19, raises awareness among young women about a fulfilling, creative and potentially world-changing career. It also raises awareness of the need for volunteers to reach out. You can find tools and resources and reports of local Girl Day events at www.eweek.org. Now and throughout the year we encourage you – and the girls you reach - to post their blogs, videos and images at www.youtube.com/eweekgirlday.

3. Novo Mondum Top City of the Future
A city of the future – Novo Mondum – engineered by students from Bexley Middle School in Bexley, Ohio, has won the grand prize at the 2009 National Engineers Week Future City Competition™. The students - Abby Sharp, 14, Wyatt Peery, 13 and Tom Krajnak, 14 - teamed up with their teacher Peg Englehardt and volunteer mentor, Mark Sherman, an engineer with Franklin County Engineers to win the top prize, sponsored by Bentley Systems, Inc., of a trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

Second place, a $5,000 scholarship sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers, went to the school's technology program at St. Thomas More School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their Future City, which they titled Esperyance.

St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School in South Miami, Florida, took third place honors for their Future City Vai Verde and received a $2,000 scholarship for that school's technology program, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA.

For complete details on the Competition Finals, click here.

4. Celebrating New Faces of Engineering
In a great kick-off for Engineers Week, USA TODAY included a full-page spread in the NEWS section on Monday, February 16, featuring the New Faces of Engineering for 2009. To meet these and other outstanding young engineers, click here.

5. NAE Presents Highest Engineering Awards of 2009
The engineering profession's highest honors for 2009, presented by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), recognize three achievements that helped the expansion of computing power; led to the widespread production of antibiotics; and developed unique entrepreneurial-themed curricula for engineers. The awards were presented in formal ceremonies the evening of February 17.

Robert Dennard received the prestigious Charles Stark Draper Prize -- a $500,000 annual award that honors engineers whose accomplishments have significantly benefited society -- "for his invention and contributions to the development of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), used universally in computers and other data processing and communication systems." Elmer L. Gaden received the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize -- a $500,000 biennial award that recognizes a bioengineering achievement which significantly improves the human condition -- "for pioneering the engineering and commercialization of biological systems for large-scale manufacturing of antibiotics and other drugs." Thomas H. Byers and Tina L. Seelig shared the Bernard M. Gordon Prize -- a $500,000 award issued annually that recognizes innovation in engineering and technology education -- "for pioneering, continually developing, and tirelessly disseminating technology entrepreneurship education resources for engineering students and educators around the world." Read more here.

6. In Local News
On February 21 at 11 a.m., "Exploring Engineering: A Women Explorers' Workshop" at Taco Bell Discovery Science Center, will include a public lecture in the Discovery Theater, 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana, California, followed by a hands-on workshop and luncheon for girls age 10 to 13. Guest speaker: Jackie Jaron, Aerospace Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman. The Society of Women Engineers' Orange County chapter will also be in attendance. Bring your questions for these women engineers! This program is free with paid admission to Discovery Science Center. For more information and to register, visit: http://www.discoverycube.org/programs.aspx?q=89

Various events are happening during E-Week at the University of California, San Diego: Check Website for more info: tesc.ucsd.edu/eweek. Events include E-Games (like the Olympics, but for engineers);- Enspire, a middle school outreach event; Research Expo; DECaF: Disciplines of Engineering Career Fair; and Impulse: Engineer's Ball.

Boston held its official events on February 12 & 13. On February 12, students from Young Achievers' 8th grade travelled from their school by Forest Hills in Boston to the Hyatt Regency Boston for an afternoon of hands-on design challenges. On February 13, the day started with Outreach Expo, at which educational and non-profit community service organizations related to engineering display their work to the engineering community. Represented were WGBH, EngineerYourLife.org, MSPE's MathCounts program, the Future City Program, the Boston Society of Civil ENgineers' Model Bridge and many more.

On February 17th Ron Evans of IBM gave classroom presentations at New Miami Elementary School in Hamilton, Ohio. 6th grade classes competed in a design challenge using notebook paper to support a stack of books. The preschool class activity included building with wooden blocks and basic principals to keep your house from being blown down by the Big Bad Wolf.

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

The National Engineers Week Foundation coalition comprises more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. The coalition is dedicated to sustaining and growing a dynamic engineering profession by ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce, increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students, and promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Among the oldest of America's professional outreach efforts, the coalition also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineering contributions to society through year-round innovative programming and celebration.

Previous issues of the EWEEK ENEWS available here .