ECTC helps early career engineers gain experience, learn about ASME resources

Last month, the Early Career Technical Conference (ECTC) gave more than 20 young engineers from the southern United States a forum in which to present finished or in-progress technical papers and, in turn, augment their technical résumés.

The ECTC, formerly called the Region XI Technical Conference, was held at the headquarters of Entergy Nuclear in Jackson, Miss., on Oct. 6 and 7. The meeting was sponsored by ASME's District F (previously Region XI), Entergy, and Florida International University.

Panel members and presenters at the Early Career Technical Conference: (From left) Tal Webb, Yong Tao, Reggie Vachon, William Campbell and KR. Rao.

The purpose of the conference is to afford early career engineers — graduating seniors, graduate students, and practicing engineers with less than three years of experience — the opportunity to present a peer-reviewed paper in a learning environment. The meeting is intended to provide these early practitioners with paper-presentation experience as well as to emphasize ASME's strength in providing the resources for lifetime learning.

Ultimately, this program will enable early career engineers to compete in an ever more demanding and changing global marketplace by providing and developing the skills and the demonstrated technical performance that will make them stand out among their peers, according to Burt Dicht, managing director, ASME Knowledge & Community.

Early career engineers residing in the southeastern United States (the states that comprise District F), as well as Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, were invited to submit abstracts of their technical papers, which were considered for presentation at the ECTC.

A panel of reviewers led by Yong Tao, who served as chair of the Technical Committee and editor of the Technical Journal, examined the papers, provided feedback to the authors, and rated them for acceptance. In all, 23 authors were invited to present their papers at the technical conference and 22 of them had their papers published in the technical journal. Invited authors received an honorarium to offset travel costs that was made possible by a donation from Entergy.

The authors and organizers of the 2006 ECTC.

The ECTC opened with a plenary session and a welcome from K.R. Rao, past vice president of Region XI and the chair of the Coordinating Committee. Rao, when he was the regional VP, initiated the RTC concept and has worked tirelessly throughout his ASME career to promote the professional development of early career engineers. During his speech, Rao urged the authors to maintain their ASME memberships and to take advantage of the professional development opportunities the Society has to offer.

Rao then introduced the keynote speaker and host, William Campbell, the chief operating officer of Entergy Nuclear South. In keeping with the conference theme of "Mechanical Engineering in a Changing World," he provided the authors with insights on how to adapt to the changing engineering environment and keep technologically current in this competitive marketplace.

Complementing this important advice was Reggie Vachon, past president of ASME, who served as the featured speaker. Vachon applauded the authors for their participation in professional development activities such as this and also encouraged them to give back to the profession through continued involvement in ASME programs.

The plenary session concluded with short presentations from Burt Dicht; Tal Webb, past vice president Region XI; Richard Bunce, District F leader; and Nina Webb, past president of the ASME Auxiliary.

Next came the meeting's technical session, in which each author was given 20 minutes to make a presentation to an audience that included local members of the Mississippi Section, engineers from the Entergy staff, and the local chair of the IEEE chapter. A question-and-answer session with the authors followed.

Authors and ECTC organizers were recognized during an awards banquet where Entergy COO Campbell discussed the company's current operations and opportunities for early career engineers. ASME and District F also recognized Campbell and Entergy for their generous support of ASME's early career engineer programs.

If you would like to learn more about the ECTC or view more photos of this year's event, go to http://districts.asme.org/districtF/ECTC/2006ECTC.htm.

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