HP’s Chandrakant Patel Honored with ASME Foundation’s Inaugural Next Gen Award

Sustainability and Workforce Development Initiatives are Focus of Tech Community Event
 
NEW YORK (October 3, 2022) — The Silicon Valley technology community recently honored Chandrakant Patel, chief engineer and senior fellow at HP, Inc., when he was presented with the ASME Foundation’s inaugural Next Gen Award at a VIP reception held September 29 in San Jose, Calif.
 
The Next Gen Award recognizes contributions by an outstanding engineering community leader to empower next generation engineers to build a more equitable and sustainable future. Patel is an impassioned advocate for expanding the role of community colleges in opening new paths of opportunity for skilled technical careers, particularly among those who are underrepresented in technical fields.
 
The ASME Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, funds programs in education, workforce development, and innovation support aimed at increasing equity in the engineering profession and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Foundation’s Community College Engineering Pathways initiative, of which Patel is a champion, addresses the technical skills gap by providing training, networking, and employment resources to community colleges and their students.
 
 “It’s an honor to be recognized by the ASME Foundation for contributing to the development of a more diverse, sustainability-minded next generation technical workforce,” said Patel, who began his engineering journey at City College of San Francisco before earning advanced engineering degrees. “Filling the employment needs of the tech community, and creating opportunity for more diverse young people, requires exactly the kind of partnerships that ASME’s community college program is facilitating.” 
 
The backdrop for the award presentation was the ASME Foundation’s “Engineering a Sustainable Future” event, where leading Bay Area technology companies were briefed on ASME’s array of high-impact workforce development and sustainability programs. These initiatives are funded in part by the Campaign for Next Generation Engineers, ASME’s five-year, $50 million capital campaign to support its philanthropic work.
 
“Meeting the surging demand for diverse skilled technical workers, while simultaneously engineering solutions to climate change, are the two critical imperatives that ASME Foundation programs address,” said Stephanie Viola, executive director of the ASME Foundation and managing director of ASME Philanthropy. “With the leadership of Chandrakant Patel and others across the engineering and technology community, we believe a more equitable and sustainable world is not only possible, but within reach.”    
 
With this event, the ASME Foundation further engages the global technology community in a concerted effort to increase access to rewarding technical careers for diverse young people—those with two-year degrees and other certifications as well as those with four-year or advanced engineering degrees—while harnessing the talent needed to engineer solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, most notably climate change and sustainable development. Among the leading employers in attendance at the event were representatives from Google, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, and HP, Inc.
 
 
About ASME
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education, and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world. In 2020, ASME formed the International Society of Interdisciplinary Engineers (ISIE) LLC, a new for-profit subsidiary to house business ventures that will bring new and innovative products, services, and technologies to the engineering community, and later established the holding company, Global Knowledge Solutions LLC. In 2021, ASME launched a second for-profit subsidiary, Metrix Connect LLC, an industry events and content platform to accelerate digital transformation in the engineering community and an agent for the Mechanical Engineering® brand of media products. For more information, visit www.asme.org.
 
About the ASME Foundation
The ASME Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, supporting an array of programs in three core pillars: engineering education, career engagement, and global development. With the goal of empowering tomorrow's technical workforce, the ASME Foundation advances equitable access both to professional opportunities and to engineering innovations that improve quality of life. For more information, visit www.asmefoundation.org.
   
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