Engineering Careers Online

U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever, according to a study released on Oct. 28 by a group of academics. But that finding comes with a big caveat: Many of the highest-performing students are choosing careers in other fields. The study by professors at Rutgers and Georgetown suggests that since the late 1990s, many of the top students have been lured to careers in finance and consulting. [read full article at Yahoo! News]

One of the few Intelligence Community Centers of Academic Excellence with an engineering thrust will be based at Virginia Tech with Howard University of Washington, D.C., as an academic partner.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the sponsor of these academic centers, made eight awards from the more than 40 proposals submitted for 2009. Virginia Tech and Howard are now among 21 CAE’s across the country. [read full article at The News Leader]

Tiny levers, cranks, joints and axles are dumped onto the table as sophomores at Paradise Valley’s Horizon High School
study how to piece together a miniature conveyor belt and universal joint.

As sophomore Jerry Trayer fiddled with the pieces and fit together the elbowlike joint, he explained why he is taking this pre-engineering course.

“I really wanted actual college credit,” said Trayer, of Scottsdale.

Now he and other students in this special engineering preparation program can get it.

Horizon High School became the fifth Arizona school
this month to obtain what is called “affiliate” certification by Project Lead the Way so students in its engineering-preparation program can earn college credit. [read full article at The Arizona Republic]

The accomplishments of ten outstanding educators from across the United States have been recognized with the “Building the Future Award” by the SME Education Foundation and their industry partner, 3M for their efforts in furthering excellence in science, technology, engineering and math education based on Project Lead The Way® curriculum and inspiring students to pursue technical careers. [read full article at ThomasNet News]

Young Alaska Natives from small rural communities are showing they can excel in advanced university engineering and science programs, overcoming the handicaps of scarce resources in village schools.

The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, or ANSEP, started in 1995, and since 2002, the University of Alaska has graduated 149 Native engineers and scientists, a substantial contribution to the state’s skilled professional workforce. [read full article at The Alaska Journal of Commerce]

Can children who do not know how many sides a triangle has get excited about learning math and engineering? Maybe a field trip to an amusement park will do the trick.

That is the idea behind a new initiative from Disney and Raytheon to let children design their own theme-park ride using math tools and then hop in a robotic simulator to try it out. [read full article at The New York Times]

Through contributions of technology and engineering know-how from Siemens, Virginia Tech’s entry is more competitive than ever at this year’s Solar Decathlon, now underway on the National Mall in Washington DC. Virginia Tech’s entry will be among 20 solar-powered, zero energy homes on display from colleges and universities across the country and Europe. The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which the Department of Energy (DOE) challenges teams from architecture and engineering schools to design and build homes that use energy derived entirely from the sun. [read full article at Yahoo! Finance]

The unemployment rate for U.S. electrical and electronics engineers (EEs), which had jumped to a record high in the second quarter, has eased, according to third quarter data just released by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the engineering profession as a whole, the rate continued to climb, but more slowly.

The jobless rate for EEs dropped from 8.6 percent in the second quarter to 7.3 percent in the third. Quarter to quarter, the EE workforce grew by 26,000. [read full article at EurekAlert!]