| EWeek 2008 ENews #20 – March 11, 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. Going Global for Women in Engineering
2. Judges Needed to Review Trash to Treasure
3. Bold Visions Available
4. In Local News 1. Going Global for Women in Engineering
Individuals and organizations working to develop the future engineering and technology professions find common ground worldwide beginning March 26 during the 2008 Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering. The site www.eweek.org serves as the portal for 24 continuous hours of Internet and telephone conversations and Webcasts. Engineering of the 2008 and 2012 Olympics in Beijing and London are on the program. Also from the United Kingdom a Member of Parliament discusses the future of girls and women in engineering and technology. Verizon Business kicks off the global event with a live Webcast and in-person audience in North America, including a panel discussion and live links to women in other parts of the world who emphasize that "You Can Do It." The event will encourage high school and college women to imagine their futures. back to top 2. Judges Needed to Review Trash to Treasure
A new season of DESIGN SQUAD, PBS' popular engineering and design competition show, premiers in April and includes the DESIGN SQUAD Trash to Treasure Competition. Volunteer judges are needed. The competition will challenge kids of all ages to take everyday discarded or recycled materials and re-engineer them into something functional. The grand prize winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize provided by the Intel Foundation and a trip to the development lab at Continuum, an international product design company, to build a prototype of their Trash to Treasure design. Kids will submit their Trash to Treasure ideas to the contest Web site and judges will use an online tool to review 5, 10, 15 or 20 submissions per week. We estimate it will take up to one hour to review 5 entries per week. The competition runs April 1 through June 30, 2008. To volunteer or for more information, contact natalie_hebshie@wgbh.org or (617) 300-3639. Volunteers will receive a free DESIGN SQUAD t-shirt. Click here for more contest details. back to top 3. Bold Visions Available
Bold Visions: Women in Science & Technology, a documentary that was released to Public Television stations February 1st (check your local listings*), aims to dispel the myths commonly associated with science and technology and with female professionals who work in those fields. The program profiles three pioneering 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—a message we must promote if America is going to keep its competitive edge by fostering home-grown talent. 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. helene@womenworking.com DVDs of the program and accompanying Discussion Guides are being distributed nationwide to be viewed by teenagers. Funding for this effort was made possible by Microsoft Alliance, Rockwell Automation, Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation, State Farm and Xerox Corporation. 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. Funding for the documentary airing on public television was provided by Cisco, ITT Corporation, Microsoft Research, Shell Oil Company, State Farm and Sun Microsystems. back to top 4. In Local News
- In honor of Engineers Week, the Austin, Texas, Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers hosted their 7th Annual Engineering event at the Austin Children's Museum on February 16th. This popular event introduces children to engineering with fun hands-on projects such as building skyscrapers out of newspaper, using spaghetti and marshmallows to make structures, and creating balloon-powered vehicles. The Greater Austin Contractors and Engineers Association co-hosted the event. Other local engineering firms have sponsored museum admissions for 200 to 400 children to attend each year over the last six years. The annual event is growing in popularity with over 60 engineering volunteers guiding the "budding engineers" in the hands-on activities. Thanks to event sponsors, the participating children also take home a goody bag filled with a t-shirt, construction toys, pencil with brain eraser, and more! Read more about the event at www.austinasce.org. - Nitsch Engineering will host its 7th annual Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day program on May 13th at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. Nitsch Engineering is working together with the New England Aquarium, The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, and the Boston Water & Sewer Commission to present a half-day program for 6th- through 12th-grade girls, focusing on water quality. Space is limited and reservations are required Go to www.nitscheng.com. - The University of Houston, Texas, Engineering Alumni Association hosted its annual Engineers Week reception & program on February 19 to celebrate how engineers make a difference and to support University of Houston engineering students who are future engineers. About 220 engineering students, alumni, faculty, staff and supporters enjoyed the reception & program where 43 UH engineering students and two student organizations received cash awards from sponsors including UH Petroleum Engineering Advisory Board, FMC Technologies, BP Alternative Energy, ExxonMobil Women Engineer UH Alumni, Shell Oil Company, Bechtel, Fluor Corporation, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., UH Engineering Alumni Association, Baker Hughes, Bayer Technology Services, INTEC Engineering, Kalsi Engineering, Inc., Marathon Oil Company, Reliant Energy, Society of Women Engineers-Houston, TCB, Inc., and Traffic Engineers, Inc.. In addition to award presentations, the program included an engineering-related game show, community outreach finale, and audience-participation game. Contact is Cynthia Oliver Coleman at pengrcoc@cs.com . - ACEC/CO produced 1.5 hours of programming to be broadcast on the City of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, local access Channel 8 for the month of February. The program featured Engineering a Century of Change, a documentary produced by ACEC/CO highlighting nationwide engineering feats of the past century, The Invisible World, a 30-minute program featuring bridge building as a classroom project, and a collection of short-form programs produced by the National Engineers Week Foundation. ACEC/CO provided the city with exhibits that featured Engineering Wheat Ridge - a look at the engineering behind area infrastructure development. The program is a prototype that will be offered to municipalities throughout the state in 2009 as a part of Engineers Week 2009 ACEC/CO public relations initiatives.
Contact is Adrienne Thiele at 303-971-0134. 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 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. back to top |