IEEE: A Call to Action from Dean Kamen

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

While the engineering profession has earned an A+ for contributing to society, we get a D for communicating to the public and in particular to kids about what is important.


I think engineers have to be a voice to the next generation. ... there needs to be a venue where engineers and scientists can show kids what an engineering career is all about. If professional engineers of the world aren’t willing to tell them about engineering, who will?


When the IEEE has a big awards event, it’s extraordinary electrical engineers who are telling other extraordinary engineers what extraordinary work they’ve done. The public is unaware of their activities. ... Where is the voice of the IEEE, the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), the NAS (National Academy of Sciences), and the NAE (National Academy of Engineers)? Where are the professionals who need to have some kind of context for the general public to be involved with and engaged in what they do?

What Dean Kamen SHOULD realize (read the Code Ginger book to see what I mean) is that many engineers CAN'T communicate their activities, because they are involved in "secret," "proprietary," or otherwise clandestine activities! Whether these projects involve working for the defense industry, or developing new products, the government and corporate leaders are PARANOID about "the enemy" (Russia, China, or Honda, to name a few) getting hold of the latest technology and using it to beat us in a war or in the marketplace. Actors and sports figures, on the other hand, are SUPPOSED to show off their skills.

A personal example:

When I was growing up, my dad was an engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company (Southern California, aerospace industry). He worked there something like 25 years. In all that time, the company held open houses exactly twice, that I was able to attend. I actually remember seeing my dad's office ONCE in his entire engineering career! Most of what I knew about Dad's work involved carpools, lunchtime bridge games, or practical jokes. Later, when Mom was taking programming classes at the same time as my older brother in college, dinner table conversations usually revolved around the difficulties of computer programming, so my sister and I were always left out of the conversation. I had no idea of what my dad was paid to do, other than working with computers, because he was FORBIDDEN to speak about his actual work (as were DEKA employees before the Segway was revealed to the public).

When I was little, I asked Mom what Dad did for a living. She replied that he used to be an electrical engineer, but now he was not exactly an electrical engineer any more. She couldn't or wouldn't explain to me what his occupation was. The only "work" I ever saw him do was electronics, carpentry, or home repair projects in our garage workshop. (I didn't know much about electronics, except that Dad had a stock of little tiny cylinders with wires coming out the ends, and they had little prettily colored bands on them. I thought then that they were transistors, but actually they might have been resistors--or something; I don't really know. I had to use two of them for a high school physics project in our house, which my parents later remodeled over.)

Finally, when I was in my early thirties, someone I had just met "by chance" told me that my dad, who had just been "retired" by his company, was a package designer! --Not marketing, but electronics device packaging, in case you didn't figure that out. (This person I met was none other than Ric Roberts, who, along with his two kids, has been heavily involved with FIRST and Team 330. Thanks, Ric, for communicating what my own family forgot to tell me. Moreover, you definitely deserved that Volunteer award this year!)

My point is:

It's not just the engineers' fault. Under these working conditions, how can they communicate the excitement of engineering to outsiders? Can anyone blame me for having zero interest in becoming an engineer, even though I'm a creative person, too?

No wonder my husband got sucked into FIRST--it's like flypaper for him!

[Erin Rapacki]

Originally Posted by KarenH

When I was little, I asked Mom what Dad did for a living. She replied that he used to be an electrical engineer, but now he was not exactly an electrical engineer any more. She couldn't or wouldn't explain to me what his occupation was.

My Dad is a Mechanical Engineer at Hamilton Sundstrand. I had no idea what he did at work, until I used my connections through FIRST to get an internship there.

It's nice to know what dad does, it was also a great way for a father & daughter to grow closer when we saw each-other's "professional side."

I enjoy providing alternate perspectives.


ByE

erin