Engineering Careers Online

Auto ID Solutions has made a three year commitment to the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering’s STEPS (Science, Technology and Engineering Preview Summer camp for girls) program. This program is for girls entering the 7th grade who spend a week taking classes in plastics, electricity, machining, computer-aided design, assembly, web design, chemistry, physics, engineering, and robotics. [read full article at Yahoo! News]

Fluctuating funding for NASA could drive away highly specialized workers at a time when fewer students want to embark on careers in science, space industry officials warned a House panel Thursday.

“One of the reasons for a lack of interest in aerospace and defense could be the uncertainty of NASA programs,” Marion Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, told the House Science and Technology Committee. “A commitment to a robust human spaceflight program will help attract students and hold workers.” [read full article at Florida Today]

Funded with a $95,500 Champlin Foundations grant, the Structural Monitoring and Remote Testing (SMART) Laboratory includes the high-tech instrumentation and processing power necessary to measure and analyze structures in natural conditions, all contained in a van for easy access to sites around Rhode Island.

“The lab will enable students to work together in small groups designing experiments on challenging problems related to structural health monitoring, and then gain experience obtaining real-world measurements that can be applied in their future careers,” explained Mayrai Gindy, associate professor of civil engineering who developed the mobile lab. [read full article at PhysOrg.com]