EWeek is Just Days Away, But There’s Still Time to Join In

Engineers Week (EWeek), the annual celebration of engineers and their contributions to society, may be just a week away. But if you’re interested in taking part in one of the many activities that comprise the event, there’s still time to get involved.

Engineers Week, which is co-chaired by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying this year, will take place from Feb. 17-23. This year’s EWeek activities include:

• The Future City Competition, in which teams of middle school students and their engineer mentors design and model a city of the future. The Future City Competition finals are held in Washington, D.C., during EWeek. To see how you can participate, visit futurecity.org/.
• Discover Engineering Family Day, an annual festival at the National Building Museum featuring hands-on activities provided by local and national engineering organizations. More than 8,500 attendees are expected for this year’s event, be held on Saturday, Feb. 16, from 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Visit http://eweekdcfamilyday.org to learn more.
• Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, on Thursday, Feb. 21, a grassroots outreach program in which thousands of women engineers, with support from their male colleagues, are given an opportunity to directly mentor more than one million girls and young women in grades K-12.
• The announcement of the 2013 selections for the New Faces of Engineering-Professional program, which highlights the exciting unique work of young engineers and the resulting impact on society. Through the New Faces-Professional program, ASME and the other engineering organizations comprising the EWeek Foundation recognize engineers 30 years old or younger for their contributions to their professional association and to humanity. The 2013 group of New Faces will be unveiled in an advertisement to be published in USA Today during Engineers Week. The related program called New Faces of Engineering-College Edition focuses on the accomplishments of third-, fourth- and fifth-year engineering students. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/CollegeEdition.

Two other programs — the DiscoverE Educator Awards and the Global Marathon — will extend the EWeek celebration well past Feb. 23.

The DiscoverE Educator Awards program gives engineers the chance to honor pre-college STEM educators who are responsible for introducing young people to engineering concepts. ASME launched the program last year, while serving as the lead society for EWeek 2012. To be eligible, the nominated teachers must be full-time educators teaching in grades 6-12 (U.S. or U.S. equivalent) and the nomination must be submitted by an engineer or engineering student. Applications are due March 8, and winners will be notified by late April. To learn more, visit www.eweek.org.

Another EWeek endeavor, the Global Marathon for, by and about Women in Engineering and Technology, will provide a platform to support and unite women in the fields of engineering and technology from March 6-8. The Marathon was designed as a place where women in engineering and technology can connect via live Internet chats, telephone conversations, webcasts and live events. For more information, visit https://presentations.inxpo.com, or see the article “Global Marathon Highlights the Contributions of Women in Engineering and Technology” in this issue of ASME News.

To help you get into the spirit of EWeek, make sure to visit the Engineers Week website, www.eweek.org, and check out a special video tribute from the U.S. crew of the International Space Station. In the video, produced by NASA and the Engineers' Council, San Fernando Valley, Calif., watch Commander Kevin Ford deliver an Engineers Week greeting to viewers on Earth and discuss the mission of EWeek as he drifts around the cabin of the space station.