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November 21, 2008
July 2008
Every Week is Eweek By Kathryn Gray, P.E., F.NSPE In 1951, when NSPE founded Engineers Week, the Society could never have envisioned the vast array of successful projects and the enthusiastic collaboration that EWeek would eventually encompass. As NSPE gears up to cochair the 2009 National Engineers Week, the program is making its mark through extensive partnerships and projects, including the Future City Competition; the Global Marathon For, By, and About Women in Engineering; Introduce a Girl to Engineering; New Faces of Engineering; Discover "E"; Zoom into Engineering; and Design Squad. Just as the engineering profession has expanded and diversified over the past 57 years, Engineers Week also has matured and changed. The Future City Competition embraces video games integrating the city-building simulation game SimCity and now boasts 30,000 student participants from more than 1,000 schools. The excitement of engineering is shared with even more young people through partnerships with PBS, including CyberChase, Zoom into Engineering, and the hit show Design Squad. And the Web has been integral to spreading the engineering message via sites such as the Sightseer's Guide to Engineering (www.engineeringsites.org) and the latest exciting program for middle school children, Discover Engineering (www.discoverengineering.org). As 2009 approaches, NSPE will continue this momentum and focus on showing the engineering community's collective strength through Engineers Week. EWeek organizers will be challenging all engineers to contribute to a goal of one million hours of outreach in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and to log their volunteer outreach hours on a newly designed EWeek Web site (www.eweek.org). Admittedly, this will not be an easy goal to reach; but what meaningful goal ever is? I know many engineers are making school visits, helping Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts earn engineering badges, volunteering in MATHCOUNTS and Future City and Bridge Building competitions, hosting outreach events, serving as mentors, taking their sons and daughters to work, and participating in career fairs. We think the world should know it! NSPE and Intel Corp., the 2009 Engineers Week cochairs, will host a joint kickoff at the 2008 NSPE Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, July 24–27. In Portland, Engineers Week partners will conduct a training session on education outreach and host a Design Squad outreach event for local children, and children of conference attendees, with a possible guest appearance by Design Squad TV host Nate, a Portland native and Massachusetts Institute of Technology mechanical engineering graduate. Throughout the year, NSPE will highlight Engineers Week activities in PE magazine and electronic newsletters. Engineers will also receive reminders to participate in the many outreach efforts occurring across the nation and to log their volunteer hours. I hope you will join us in encouraging future generations to learn more about our noble profession.
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