Engineering education

Electrical Apparatus, Mar 2006 by Hoff, Joseph

Each year, 12-15 third-year (or fourth-year in a five-year program) students entering their last year of undergraduate study are selected for a nationwide competition to spend ten weeks in the summer in Washington, D.C. During the course of the internship, they learn how government officials make decisions on complex technological issues and how engineers can contribute to legislative and regulatory public policy decisions.

Students interact more with the leaders in the Congress and the Administration, industry, and prominent non-governmental organizations throughout the ten weeks. For more information, contact: WISE Program, c/o IEEE-USA, 1828 L. Street, NW, Suite 1202, Washington, D.C. 20036-5104; (202) 785-0017; e-mail s.richardson@ieee.org.

Women in engineering. In an opinion piece in the December 2005 issue of The Institute, writer Moshe Kam discusses the participation of women in engineering. Despite some increases in the last two decades, their participation remains low, with the percentage of female engineers in the U.S. workforce rising from 5.8% to just 10.9% between 1983 and 2000, according to Kam.

Edited by Joseph Hoff