Announcing Engineers Week – You’re Invited to Celebrate
If you are a student – visit http://www.discoverengineering.org/ or form a Future Cities Team!
If you are an engineer – volunteer. Visit http://www.eweek.org for a list of places you are needed!
For parents – review the Grand Challenges of Engineering with your child and discover what ignites their passions.
Just for girls – Engineer Your Life
Eweek is a week-long celebration of the study of Engineering, its successes and the overcoming the challenges facing our future. Clemson University hosted a webcast today of the kick-off to Engineers Week. Dr. Doris Helms, Provost and Chief Academic Officer hosted a panel that included Jeff Wilcox, Vice President of Engineering, Lockheed Martin, and Dale Jans, P.E., NCEES Immediate Past President.
Jeff Wilcox mentioned this is Lockheed Martins centennial anniversary. They employ over half a million engineers around the world. He spoke pointedly about the turning point facing engineering at this moment identifying three challenges we must overcome. The first is that we don’t have enough young people entering and staying in engineering, the few that enter are not diverse enough to provide the diversity of perspective needed to create innovation and that the US currently educates only 4% of global engineers. The second great challenge is a diversity of engineering fields (healthcare, advanced manufacturing, cyber security) are changing exponentially and our educational facilities are not keeping pace. The gap is growing between what is being taught and what is needed in industry. The third great challenge is global competiveness in areas such as export control and intellectual property control. STEM literacy and the ability to understand Engineering concepts is needed not simply by the scientists themselves, but also policy makers and voters.
What is at stake is the chance for America to produce another century of growth and prosperity.
The webcast ended with a horn line blowing a fan fare in celebration of E Week. How will you celebrate?
