Engineers Week — a Chance to let the Engineering Profession Shine!

An island golf paradise? An underwater eco-dome? Subterranean cities covered by forests, parks, and hyperbaric agricultural biospheres? Solutions for cities overtaken by floods, climate changes, food shortages, and other major crises are child's play during Engineers Week's Future City Competition, now in its 15th year.

Terry Shoup

ASME annually supports a special "best futuristic city" award for the competition's finale during Engineers Week (Feb. 18-24). The teams, formed from seventh- and eighth-grade students, are growing steadily, gaining global interest. Participants include some 30,000 middle school students in 1,100 schools from 38 regions. This year's competition focuses teamwork on fuel cell development in their designs (using computer simulations to build tabletop models) and in the accompanying essays that students prepare. In addition to the energy needs of these cities, the teams also address housing, recycling, transportation, and environmentally friendly recreational systems.

The spirit of innovation is amazing, the learning is intense, and the fun is endless. Does this kind of excitement and creativity carry through to rewarding careers as engineers for these young innovative people? I certainly hope so, because now, more than ever before, there is a pressing need for people who can engage problems to make the world a better place. Envisioning the future is a lifelong process, as we have seen through this Society's own strategic planning processes, environmental scanning, and collaborative endeavors. ASME's goal to promote the education of tomorrow's engineers draws us into these creative competitions that look at important technological issues, provide exercises in systems thinking, and build collaborative learning environments that mirror the challenges we identify as priorities for us today. And like these students, we in the engineering profession are not attempting to idealize the future, but rather trying to prepare for it and to improve our options in the face of opportunities and challenges.

Building for the future involves all sorts of expectations, too. Public expectations are being built today, as emerging technologies evolve. As members of the engineering profession, we need to be advocates for innovation to keep a competitive edge, but we also need to be advocates for public awareness and technological literacy. We need to contribute to helping the non-engineering public stay technologically literate and well-informed in an environment of unparalleled challenges and rapid advances. The public needs to understand the scientific basis for such things as energy production, natural resource utilization, environmental protection, and sustainability. As engineers, we need to be engaged in the conversations in today's public forums.

Engineers Week is our prime opportunity to showcase our profession in the public eye. In addition to competitions such as Future City, young minds are approached in a variety of ways, including PBS television programs such as "Cyberchase" and a new program debuting this month, called "Design Squad." There are also mentoring activities such as that held for more than one million girls and young women (grades K through 12) participating in Girl Day events. New Faces of Engineering is another annual opportunity to feature 15 new faces, age 30 and younger, who have worked on projects that impact public welfare or further professional development and growth. For women, E-Week activities include a global marathon using Webcasting and teleconferencing technologies for a live, continuous series of presentations and discussion sessions for women and by women to examine workplace and college retention issues.

The global effort to encourage understanding and appreciation for engineering is gaining strength as well. Inspired by the Future Cities competition, industry and government collaboration in India has initiated a Future Cities India 2020 Competition. And this year, in March, the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA will host an annual Asian-American Engineer of the Year awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Engineers Without Borders continues to be a year-round collaboration, launched by ASME in E-Week 2005, with new projects in Nicaragua and Kenya supported by the National Science Foundation. ASME sponsors student scholarships to the EWB-USA conference in April, to help build teams and support projects.

While February offers professional societies, agencies, and interested industrial sponsors a chance to focus on the exciting and meaningful opportunities in diverse fields around the world, we must not forget to acknowledge the exceptional work of the teams and individuals who make this possible as a year-round endeavor. Section, division, and institute newsletters as well as ASME News and ASME.org are our key resources in spreading the word. The Committee on Strategic Communications, which works through the Center on Public Awareness, is currently working with the Knowledge and Community Sector to identify new programs and projects that will allow us to communicate our success stories on a regular basis. And, our own ASME Communications staff continues to seed news stories that keep media outlets informed about the Society's role in the engineering and technology community.

And so, I conclude with my wish that you have a great Engineers Week wherever you may be celebrating this important event. This week is a chance for us to reflect proudly on the good things that happen as a result of a very important profession - one that really does make the world a better place!

— Terry Shoup
ASME President 2006–2007

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