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IEEE Fellow, Former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine Addresses Role of Science & Engineering in U.S. Job Creation at IEEE-USA Annual Meeting

NASHVILLE, TENN. (5 March 2010) -- Innovation is the key for the United States to thrive in an increasingly global economy, IEEE Fellow Norman R. Augustine said at the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting on Friday morning.

Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, chaired the committee that produced the 2005 report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future." He said Friday the focus of report was jobs, not just in science and engineering but all occupations.

Augustine added that while only 4 percent of jobs in the U.S. workforce are held by engineers and scientists, they play a pivotal role creating jobs for the other 96 percent.

"That's why the average citizen should be concerned about the state of science and engineering in our country," Augustine said in his keynote address at the Nashville Airport Marriott.

The theme for IEEE-USA's yearly gathering of volunteer leaders is, "The Gathering Storm: Are You Engineering the Solutions?" To follow the sessions, go to the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting blog at http://ieee-usa.blogspot.com/.

Augustine lamented that many of the challenges facing the country in 2005 are still confronting us today. He cited statistics showing the U.S. K-12 education system still "performing abysmally" by international standards. This doesn't bode well for a nation trying to maintain its position as the world leader in science, engineering and technology.

 "Aviation and informatics has brought the world together, leading to the death of distance," Augustine said. U.S. citizens now have to "compete for jobs with their neighbors from all around the world. … If we are going to compete, it's going to have to be through innovation."

"Rising Above the Gathering Storm" served as the basis for the America COMPETES Act of 2007, legislation that bolsters research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and improves educational programs. The authorization bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives, 397-20, and the Senate, 88-8, and was signed into law by former President George W. Bush. IEEE-USA lobbied strongly in favor of the bill.

 America COMPETES was fully funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which President Barack Obama signed into law.

 A video of Augustine’s speech will be available soon on the IEEE-USA homepage.

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 210,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE. http://www.ieeeusa.org

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IEEE INTRODUCES TAGLINE - ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMANITY: IEEE has unveiled its tagline: Advancing Technology for Humanity. The tagline showcases the organization's basic tenet that IEEE and its members across the engineering, computing and technology community worldwide advance innovation and technological excellence for humankind.

The tagline, which should only be utilized in a visual treatment with the IEEE Master Brand, was introduced through a fast-moving video <http://www.ieee.org/portal/ieeetv/viewer.html?progId=121511> illustrating how innovations by IEEE members positively impact the world. The tagline and accompanying video reflect IEEE's strategic vision and values.

The tagline was selected after extensive research across four major global target audiences: pre-university students, university students, professionals and members. It was part of the IEEE Public Visibility initiative, established in 2008 by the IEEE Board of Directors to increase the visibility of IEEE, its members and the profession.

The tagline is being rolled out to more than 395,000 IEEE members and staff across the globe. It also will be integrated into the upcoming launch of the redesigned IEEE main site and other corporate applications. Find out more at <www.ieee.org/tagline> or read the full press release at <http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/news/2010/10feb.html>.

The First Place award ($2,000) for the 2010 IEEE-USA Online Video Competition goes to Sergio Flores Castro, Miguel Murillo and Carolina Flores of UNLV.  Check out their entry at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET3SDuY55s0.

During Engineers Week 2010, IEEE-USA will present four scholarship awards totaling $5,000 to U.S. undergraduate students who create the most effective 90-second video clips reinforcing for an 11-to-13-year-old audience on "How Engineers Make a World of Difference." Winners will be announced as part of an EWeek Web cast to college students from Howard University in Washington, DC, on Thursday, 18 February. In its third annual competition, IEEE-USA is awarding the following: first prize, $2,000; second, $1,500; and third, $1,000. A special award of $500 will be given for the most innovative and effective presentation of a video entry to the "tween" target audience. The three judge panel includes: Andrew Quecan, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering Stanford University; Suzette Aguilar, a Ph.D. student in radio frequency engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Nate Ball, mechanical engineer and host of PBS' Design Squad.   The award winning entries will also be feature in the first nationwide Web-based gathering of engineering students, an "Engineers Week Blast!" live from Howard University in Washington, D.C. on 18 Feb. from 8-9 p.m. ET, at http://www.ibroadcasts.tv/asce-live-webcast.html.

To foster an interest in the engineering profession, IEEE serves student members and colleges around the world.  IEEE realizes that high school student exposure to the accomplishments of engineers is critical to significantly increase engineering enrollment at the university level.  Thus, the IEEE created and sponsors the IEEE Scouting Program, whose mission it is to provide a global pre-university technology education program, primarily through the Boy Scout and Girl Scout organizations.  The program is designed to reach pre-university students and educators to “enhance the level of technological literacy of pre-university educators and students worldwide”.  The program has two main activities 1) emeritbadges.org (Boy Scouts) and (2) GirlsGoEngineering.org (Girl Scouts).

2009 FIRST "HOTSHOT!" TECH CHALLENGE

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology, has launched its 2009 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) season with an online kickoff event unveiling this year's game, "Hotshot!" The FIRST Tech Challenge is an intermediate robotics competition designed for 14 to 18 year-old high-school students, where teams of up to ten students work alongside mentors, applying real-world math and science concepts to solve the annual challenge. Students compete and cooperate in team alliances at high-energy regional tournaments that reward the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of students. Through their FIRST involvement, students discover the rewarding and engaging process of innovation and engineering. "Hotshot!" was developed with the input of professional robotics designers, engineers, and sensor experts from across the country to provide a relevant engineering challenge. The use of sensors to track and target, manipulators to collect objects, and launching mechanisms to score those objects are all part of the challenge. Coupled with uneven playing surfaces and challenging goal locations, "Hotshot!" emulates many things real-world robotics designers face.

More than 13,000 high-school-aged young people are expected to participate in this year's competition, in which robots will develop and execute both offensive and defensive strategies to score balls into a rotatable center goal and off-field goals in the last 30 seconds of a match. Using a combination of sensors including infrared tracking (IR), line following, ultrasonic, touch, and more, students will program their robots to operate in both autonomous and tele-operated modes. The HotShot! matches will last two minutes and thirty seconds, and will begin with a 30 second autonomous period followed by a two-minute tele-operated period. More details are at www.usfirst.org.

IEEE-USA Online Engineering Video Competition Offers $5,000 in Scholarships Awards

WASHINGTON -- IEEE-USA is launching the organization's third online engineering video competition for undergraduate students on "How Engineers Make a World of Difference." IEEE-USA will present four scholarship awards totaling $5,000 to undergraduates who create the most effective 90-second video clips reinforcing for an 11-to-13-year-old audience how engineers improve the world. Entries must be submitted through YouTube by midnight Eastern Time on Friday, 15 January 2010. Winning entries will be announced and shown during Engineers Week, 14-20 February 2010.

Entries in the 2009-10 competition should provide an individual profile of an engineer and how he or she makes "a world of difference." Entries will be judged on their effectiveness in reaching the target audience by portraying engineers as "real people" who seek to make life better, as well as on their originality, creativity and entertainment value.

First prize is: $2,000; second prize, $1,500; and third prize, $1,000. The first-place winner also will receive up to $1,000 to cover travel expenses to receive his/her award at the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., on 6 March 2010.

Further, a special award for $500 will be presented for the most innovative and effective showing of a video entry to a "tweener" target audience. This could involve presenting the video entered in the competition at a university engineering expo for K-12 students, in a middle school classroom, with a scout group, or in another setting with 11-to-13-year-olds.  

For the first time, the video competition is open to all U.S. undergraduate students regardless of academic discipline. However, at least one undergraduate participant must be an IEEE student member. For the third consecutive year, the competition will be judged by two engineering graduate Ph.D. students, Andrew Quecan and Suzette Aguilar; and by Nate Ball, engineer-host for PBS' "Design Squad."  

For more information on how to enter the IEEE-USA Online Engineering Video Scholarship Competition and to upload an entry on YouTube, visit http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/video_competition.

Information on how to become an IEEE student member is available at http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/join/join.html.

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 210,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE. IEEE-USA is part of IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society with 375,000 members in 160 countries. See http://www.ieeeusa.org.