EWeek

EWeek 2008 ENews #6 – December 28, 2007

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. NAE Invites Grand Challenges for Engineering
2. Museum Exhibit: CYBERCHASE: the Chase Is On!
3. New Design Squad Resources Coming in January
4. 2008 EWEEK Engineer/Volunteer Kits now Available
5. Future City Students Confront Urban Disasters
6. Future City Alumni Making a Difference as Today's Volunteer Mentors

1. NAE Invites Grand Challenges for Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering invites engineers and others to join in a worldwide brainstorming session. The goal: To determine the Grand Challenges for Engineering during the next 100 years and, perhaps, beyond.

From urban centers to remote corners of Earth, the depths of the oceans to space, humanity has always sought to transcend barriers, overcome challenges, and create opportunities that improve life in our part of the universe. What are the greatest challenges engineering will deal with in the future? Click here to add your ideas and comments.

2. Museum Exhibit: CYBERCHASE: the Chase Is On!
Explore this 1,500-foot interactive, bilingual English-Spanish math-based exhibit. Visitors enter Cyberspace and explore problem-solving games and puzzles featuring math concepts, such as patterns, angles, probability, number sense, combinations, and geometry. A hands-on, educational exhibit through which families explore problem-solving in an exciting family-friendly environment.

Catch the exhibit now through January 21, 2008, at the New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY. For more information, visit www.nyscience.org. Next stop on the Cyber-tour is Edventure in Columbia, SC, February 2008 - May 2008.

3. New Design Squad Resources Coming in January
The new Season 2 Activity Guide offers five new hands-on Design Squad challenges. They are similar in style and spirit to the challenges in the Educator's and Event guides. This total of 17 Design Squad challenges offers anyone running after-school programs, workshops, or events engaging, effective ways get kids thinking like engineers.

The new guide will be available starting in late January. To order your copy, send an email to designsquad_feedback@wgbh.org with your full name, company, mailing address (please indicate if it's work or home), and phone number.

4. 2008 EWEEK Engineer/Volunteer Kits now Available
Educational and promotional materials are in stock for EWEEK 2008! Order the free volunteer and Girl Day kits through the online Product Catalog, by phone at 412-741-1393, or by mail. See the online catalog for a downloadable order form and print catalog.

5. Future City Students Confront Urban Disasters
Seventh- and eighth-graders in the annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition normally create cities with utopia in mind. This year, they're also confronting the world's worst urban disasters and there's no mistaking them for utopia.

From a small Kansas town destroyed last year by a tornado, to the war ravaged Gaza Strip, to Linfen, China, one of the most polluted cities on earth, Future City students across the country are dealing with real problems, determined to prevent them and build a better tomorrow. This year's Future City essay, sponsored by IEEE, asks students to describe how nanotechnology will monitor their city's structures and systems to keep its infrastructure healthy.

Forty competitions are scheduled across the country in January with regional winning teams traveling to Washington, D.C. for the Future City National Finals, February 18-20, during Engineers Week 2008. Click here for more information and a competition near you!

6. Future City Alumni Making a Difference as Today's Volunteer Mentors
As we approach the 40 regional Future City Competitions across the country in January, leading up to the Future City National Finals in Washington, D.C., February 18-20 during Engineers Week, we'll look back at a few former Future City participants to see what they're doing now.

This week's spotlight points to Eileen Quigley, a Future City team member at Tuckahoe, New York, Middle School from the 2001 New York City regional competition. She's currently a junior at Cornell University, majoring in civil engineering, and in a co-op program at Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, a structural engineering firm in Waltham, Massachusetts. She's also volunteering as an engineer mentor to an inner-city school in Dorchester, Mass., which will participate in the Massachusetts regional Future City Competition in Boston on Saturday, January 19. More Future City alumni snapshots will follow in upcoming issues of EWeek ENews.

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

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.