ASME Foundation Approves Nearly
$250,000 in Project Grants

Many Society members may not know that a significant function of the ASME Foundation is its grants program, which provides funding for grant proposals in three areas: technical literacy, career planning and skills development, and technologically sound public policy stewardship.

Within these three areas, this year's grant projects all reflect a foundation priority on funding the future of engineering. At its annual winter meeting, held at the 2007 Congress in Seattle, the ASME Foundation's board of directors approved a total of $247,100 in funding for six project proposals for the 2008 calendar year.

The approved projects are:

1) "World Class Engineering Student/Engineer Design," a joint project of the Center for Education, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Center for Professional Development, and two ASME Sectors — Practice and Ethics, and Knowledge and Community.

With a focus on a change in design challenges, this two-year project will strengthen ASME's position on college campuses and help bridge the gap in membership from the student to early-career membership stages. Design solutions in this project will emanate from capstone design courses, graduate research, and commercial projects of early-career engineers.

2) "Heroes of Engineering Comic Book Education Series," developed by the Center for Public Awareness.

Over a period of two years, this project will build on the comic series created for ASME's 125th Anniversary and will enhance the content created for use in K-12 classrooms. The curriculum will be developed to accompany each of 12 comic panels, which will be distributed online at asme.org.

3) "Increasing ASME Impact at the Graduate Level," a joint project of the Center for Education and Professional Development, and ASME Knowledge and Community.

This two-year project will focus on defining and expanding ASME's role in graduate education, and will create services and resources specifically designed for graduate students. Over the long term, the success of this project will be reflected in engineers who have built a commitment to ASME during their years in graduate school, which will take them into leadership roles in the engineering profession and within ASME.

4) "Students Engineering a Sustainable Planet," developed by the Center for Professional Development, the Center for Public Awareness, ASME Practice and Ethics, and Knowledge and Community.

A limited number of matching grants and funds will be offered for collaborative proposals from ASME Student Sections and their local schools to engage engineering students and pre-college students in substantive design projects that focus on sustainable design. Projects would be student-executed, but guided by faculty. The successful projects would be presented at ASME's new Annual Meeting (formerly the ASME Summer Annual Meeting).

5) "ASME Faculty Development Workshops — Understanding Student Diversity, Increasing Learning," proposed by the Center for Education, the Center for Leadership and Diversity, and ASME Knowledge and Community.

The objective of this program is to enhance faculty understanding of the impact and needs of diverse college student populations in their courses, in particular an understanding of the needs of women students, and to help them develop teaching strategies that are critical to improving the quality of all student learning. The two-year project will produce and offer a major revision of the successful series of three-day faculty development workshops, building on and enhancing the previous project that involved nearly 400 engineering faculty members.

6) "ASME Federal Government Fellowship Program," developed by ASME Strategic Management.

This grant will place one ASME Federal Fellow on Capitol Hill at a federal agency or at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for a one-year term during calendar year 2008 to serve as a key advisor on issues requiring technologically sound decision making.

The Foundation accepts proposals in July and August for its annual review process. Final decisions are made in November. Proposal levels begin at $20,000. More information is available at http://foundation.asme.org/Program/Foundation
_Grant_Program.cfm.

— Judith Kearney
ASME Foundation

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