Engineering Careers Online

ExxonMobil has awarded a $300,000 grant to the Atlanta-based SECME – a non-profit alliance of universities, school districts, industrial and governmental organizations – to help promote education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for young minority students.

“ExxonMobil believes it is critical to America’s future competitiveness to encourage U.S. students, in particular young women and under-represented minority groups, to pursue careers in science, technology, education and math,” said Truman Bell, senior program officer for education and diversity at ExxonMobil. “SECME has an established record of success in helping promote education and careers within the STEM fields.” [read full article at Yahoo! Finance]

Wearing a Godsmack rock ‘n’ roll band T-shirt, Jonathan Wilson on Thursday was putting the finishing touches on an electric guitar he has been building this week in a laboratory at Purdue University’s Knoy Hall of Technology.
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But the workmanship has less to do with music than it does with career preparation — allowing 20 young people to learn about engineering technology through the use of advanced manufacturing techniques. [read full article at JCOnline.com]

CACT @ El Camino College Focuses on Quality Engineering Education

With a recession in full swing and unemployment numbers topping the charts, Americans are looking for careers that are sustainable and in high demand. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s 2008-2009 Occupational Outlook Handbook, which inventories and profiles industry trends, American engineers are looking at normal growth through 2016. Incoming engineers will be dependent on extraordinary education to help prepare them for these challenging and lucrative careers. [read full article at redOrbit]

A soon to be released exhaustive study entitled “Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty (2009)” published by The National Academies Press finds improvements in the representation of women in Science and Engineering at the PhD level. However, there remains significant gaps in the representation of women in certain disciplines at the Associate and Full Professor level in R1 and R2 institutions. Interestingly, women candidates applying to the very top level R1 institutions fare better than R2 institutions. [read full article at PhysOrg.com]

Teachers from Madison and Onsted will be attending training this summer at Eastern Michigan University to implement Project Lead the Way, a middle school engineering program, in their districts.

Project Lead the Way is designed to promote innovation, problem-solving and creative thinking, and is aimed at children who might be interested in pursuing careers in engineering. [read full article at The Daily Telegram]

A donation from National Grid to the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will be used to enhance science and engineering programs for Buffalo City School students and support a new biomedical industries program. [read full article at Business First of Buffalo]

The National Science Foundation has awarded the College of the Holy Cross a $900,000 grant to attract undergraduates to teaching careers, particularly in much-needed school districts, in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The NSF funding will help create the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. [read full article at Mass High Tech Business News]

Although women are still underrepresented in the applicant pool for faculty positions in math, science, and engineering at major research universities, those who do apply are interviewed and hired at rates equal to or higher than those for men, says a new report from the National Research Council. Similarly, women are underrepresented among those considered for tenure, but those who are considered receive tenure at the same or higher rates than men. [read full article at redOrbit]

Sometimes in the evening, long after her last class of the day, Patricia Medina has an uncommon urge. She wants to go back to school.

“I want to come at night and just, like, make something,” said Patricia, a sophomore at University High School in West Los Angeles.

What could reduce an otherwise bright, engaging student to dreams of breaking and entering? In Patricia’s case, it’s the lure of engineering — the chance to build a robot or design a bridge, to create something that bears no resemblance to the typical high school assignment.

There are plenty of others like Patricia at Uni High’s new Academy of Engineering, one of 13 such academies opened in the United States last fall under a national grant program. The network, which will expand to 110 schools nationally by 2012, is intended to draw more women, blacks and Latinos into engineering and generally bump up the number of American engineers. [read full article at the Los Angeles Times]