Engineering Students to the Rescue
Posted on September 17th, 2012 by Mary Lord
Earthquake-shattered Haiti is a world apart from America’s grassy college campuses. Yet for a growing number of U.S. engineering undergraduates, the country serves as a living classroom where they can apply their knowledge and skills to help real people – half a million of whom still live under tarps or tents – recover from the worst natural disaster in modern times.
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Tags: clean drinking water, Curriculum, Disaster relief, Embry-Riddle, Engineering, Engineers Without Borders, grand challanges, Haiti, Humanitarian efforts, Lafayette College, project Haiti, solar power, University of Colorado
As one of the worst droughts in decades continues to shrivel reservoirs and sear fields, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated more than half of all counties – 1,584 in 32 states – primary disaster areas this growing season. While the dry, hot spell has decimated agriculture, it also has strained the steel, asphalt, and other engineered parts of the nation’s infrastructure.
Scholarships that target students interested in engineering provide an excellent way to help pay for the rising costs of higher education. Since engineering scholarships are plentiful and come from a variety of sources, such as corporations, non-profits, foundations, institutions, and governmental bodies, future engineers have a host of opportunities available to them.
From safety gear and split-second timekeepers to systems that improve training or healing, the impact of engineering on sports is pervasive. As Team USA heads to London in July, the National Science Foundation has partnered with the educational and Olympics divisions of NBC News to create videos highlighting the engineering that helps the world’s top athletes go for glory. 
When the Space Shuttle Discovery made its final flight May 12 and landed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space annex in northern Virginia, it marked “a very emotional, poignant, bittersweet moment” for former astronaut Mike Mullane. A few short weeks later, a spacecraft named Dragon made history as the first commercial vehicle ever to successfully berth at the International Space Station.
In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2012, ASEE salutes the achievements of these remarkable engineers and engineering educators: Amar Bose, Kalpana Chawla, Yuan-Cheng Fung, Ellison Onizuka, Arati Prabhakar, Chang-Lin Tien, and An Wang.
From Lady Gaga’s glowing, LED-encrusted gown to lightweight body armor and high-tech sports apparel, engineered fabrics are turning up well beyond the fashion world. ASEE’s Prism magazine highlights some innovative examples.
The much-anticipated first draft of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) was released for public comment May 11, a day after a federal report showed slim gains in science proficiency among the nation’s 8th graders. The standards, which include engineering and design, represent a profound shift in what students will be expected to know and be able to do. Want to weigh in? You have until June 1.
Engineering researchers who toil in the field of sanitation, especially sanitation for the world’s poorest citizens, used to find that their field carried about as much cachet as a fly-ridden latrine. Not anymore. In July, 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced eight grants totaling $3 million for university engineering projects to “Reinvent the Toilet.”
