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National Engineers Week
During Girl Day, Raytheon hopes to inspire future female engineers (Fox News)
Fifth grader Natalia Perez-Fiato, 10, wasn�t always a big fan of science. That all changed when she started participating in Girl Lab!, a STEM education-focused club for girls at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence, Mass. Beyond participating in simple, yet fun, science experiments, Perez-Fiato said that learning from the club�s founder Meredith Monaco was a big part of what made science exciting for her. Monaco, an engineer who works for aerospace and defense company Raytheon�s Integrated Defense Systems in Andover, Mass., started the program last fall through a grant from her company. On Thursday, young girls nationwide like Perez-Fiato will explore the possibility of a career in engineering. Through Girl Day, which is part of National Engineers Week, Raytheon is sponsoring 16 events at various Boys and Girls Clubs across the country.
Rep. Tonko aims to boost engineering education with legislation (WNYT)
It's National Engineers Week, but Rep. Paul Tonko says America is lagging behind in engineering education. Tonko says part of the reason America is falling behind Europe and China in engineering education is because there are federal barriers that block funding and resources. So, he has introduced legislation to knock them down. Tonko spoke to students at Tech Valley High School this morning about the importance of engineering and about his legislation called the Educating Tomorrow's Engineers Act. Current federal regulations require states to develop science standards. Tonko wants engineering to be included in the language of this law, so that funding and resources can be directed toward engineering education, research and professional development.
Nancy Choi (Operation Engineer, XTO Energy): Career Day Re-Engineered (Huffington Post)
When I overhear my elementary school-aged daughter playing with her friends, she never pretends to be an engineer. As a female engineer, I can't say I'm surprised. But what she does mimic is my excitement for my job, my confidence and my devotion to the science that makes my work so important. The reality is, while my title isn't fancy, it betrays just how interesting my job actually is. I was encouraged by another woman, my sister in fact, to pursue engineering. I've always been very mindful, for that reason, that simply knowing and being encouraged by another person, another woman, to pursue engineering can have a great impact, as it had on my life and my career. 
STEM Jobs
The Top Cities For Engineers (Forbes)
To determine the best cities for engineers, personal finance site NerdWallet looked at 350 of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. �All 20 locations have larger engineering industries than the national average of 12 engineers for every 1,000 employees,� states the report. �Engineers in 13 of our top 20 places earn more than the national mean engineering salary, which is $92,170, and 14 places have lower median rents than the average U.S. metro area, which is $905 per month.� Many of these cities are concentrated in warmer climes. At the top of the list is �The Rocket City� Huntsville, Alabama. The city is home to a NASA flight center and an Army arsenal..
Skills and innovation strategies to strengthen manufacturing: Lessons from Germany (Brookings Institute)
Faced with stagnating wages for most Americans, business, civic, and political leaders across the United States are rediscovering manufacturing as a source of good jobs and lasting economic growth. In an era of unrivaled global competition, however, revitalizing the U.S. manufacturing sector will require a renewed commitment to public-private-civic partnerships that deliver on the key driver of industrial competitiveness: a highly trained workforce that can use technology to translate basic and applied research and development (R&D) to large-scale commercial innovations. However, in both skills training and technological innovation, U.S. policies to support manufacturing have not matched the sector�s evolution from one dominated by massive, vertically-integrated companies to a more distributed mix of small, medium, and large firms.
Industry
AT&T Aspire And Genesys Works Bring Students And Business Together To Prepare For Jobs Of Tomorrow (PRNewswire)
AT&T, as part of the AT&T Aspire initiative, announced a $3 million contribution to Genesys Works today to support more opportunities for high school students to experience meaningful year-long internships in businesses � including AT&T � across the country. Genesys Works is an innovative social enterprise that places economically disadvantaged high school students into a professional career through workplace training and meaningful senior-year internships. The commitment was revealed today by Tim Wolff, Vice President of Construction and Engineering, AT&T during the National Opportunity Summit.
Higher Education
Universities fear the federal research funding pipeline is withering (Washington Post)
University officials from around the country fear that a key engine of U.S. innovation and economic power is in danger of stalling: federal investment in basic research. The nation needs to spend more, they say, in pursuit of discoveries with unknown and long-term payoffs. Sometimes, they say, lawmakers focus too much on research with short-term goals. The time it takes for basic research to yield a payoff can be 10, 15, or 20 years. That translates to five or 10 congressional elections. �You�ll have no short-term results 20 years from now if you don�t have enough in the basic research pipeline,� said Kimberly Andrews Espy, senior vice president for research and discovery at the University of Arizona.
K-12 Education
Project I: Students Make STEM Real for Young Teens (U.S. News & World Report)
Chemical engineering. Biomedical research. Computer programming. These aren�t the usual interests driving your average American high school student. But sophomore Claire Wild, 15, and junior Shay Kiker, 17, are working to change that. The teens and longtime friends are passionate about all things STEM. In 2013, Wild and Kiker co-founded a club at Glenbard West High School in suburban Glen Ellyn, Illinois, to provide an outlet so like-minded students could share and grow their STEM interests. �Science is not just someone in a lab coat,� Kiker tells U.S. News, explaining that there are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to work in science or engineering.
Arkansas
Governor signs measure expanding Arkansas computer science classes (AP)
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has signed into law a measure requiring public high schools to offer computer science courses in the coming school year. Hutchinson signed the bill Tuesday, following through on a campaign promise he says was inspired by his 12-year-old granddaughter learning computer coding. The new law gives districts the option of offering the courses in-person or online. Supporters have said course work could be offered through Virtual Arkansas, a digital delivery system that serves 180 districts in the state. Hutchinson says the new law will help make the state more competitive by increasing the number of students pursuing computer science careers.
Massachusetts
High-tech council creates data dashboard to keep state on right road (Boston Herald)
A top tech industry group unveiled a new tool to compare Massachusetts to other states yesterday as Gov. Charlie Baker said the state needs to solidify its position as a high tech leader by working harder to be more competitive and lowering the cost to do business. �The goal here is to strengthen the areas we have a national lead in, and rectify or improve the areas we can now see a disadvantage,� said Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council. �This is actually going to be very helpful for not only keeping track of what our peer states are doing, but informing our decisions.�
Utah
House Bill would give $4,200 to STEM, special ed teachers (Good4Utah)
A new education funding bill is on its way to the Utah State Senate. The bill would give teachers in special education, science, engineering, and math.. more money. Those teachers would make $4,100 more than teachers in other subjects. Each year for the next 10 years, STEM and special ed teachers would get a one thousand dollar raise... totaling $10,000 by 2021. House Bill 203 passed overwhelming with 58 votes out of the house to the Senate Committee, but the Utah Education Association says the bill needs to change. With a $700mil surplus the fact that we've been dealing with a budget cut of 2% in base budget for public education is extremely concerning," said Utah Education Association President Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh.
STEM Innovation
Our Universities Are Not Teaching Innovation (Forbes)
 Our system of higher education is out of whack with the future, and with innovation; and it is at direct odds with what we say we believe. Not only are our universities not teaching innovation or delivering an innovation experience, they seem to be doing their best to destroy innovative thinking in young people. This is not intentional, but it may be all the more insidious for being unplanned, unnoticed and unseen. Business leaders, politicians and economists all say more or less the same thing: The future depends on innovation and without it we are doomed as a country and a society to second-class status. So innovation, and those who can lead and cause innovation, are at a premium. You would think we would respond to this in our system of higher education; but, in fact, we are doing the exact opposite.
The Next Hot Trend On Campus: Creating Innovation (Fast Co.Exist)
Faced with the shifting ambitions of students and changes in institutional funding streams, colleges and universities are embracing "learning by creating," allowing them to leverage the traditional spirit of an educational community with students� growing entrepreneurial focus. A number of colleges and universities around the world are leading the way as they introduce learning facilities billed as "innovation + incubator + maker centers." These centers focus on multi-disciplinary inquiry that can foster partnerships with industry and fully leverage available grants and funding for research. Advancing these new models can help universities recruit fresh talent, establish new partnerships for success and promote an environment where emerging leaders can explore the complex social challenges of our time. |
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Stay Connected       
 STEMconnector�
Today's 100 Diverse Leader in STEM: Rebecca Rhoads- President of Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer of Raytheon Company
 "It�s critical that all students, regardless of background, gender or ethnicity, have the opportunity to learn and excel in math and science. One way to accomplish this is through student mentoring. Raytheon has teamed up with the White House to be one of the founding sponsors of US2020, a program that will match 1 million STEM mentors with students at youth-serving nonprofits and education organizations by the year 2020. One example of our mentoring programs is our Science of Sports science fair, a partnership with the New England Patriots, where Raytheon employees mentor New England-area Boys & Girls Club members for four months as they develop projects that showcase the science involved in sports."
From Young Minds Come Fresh Solutions
 The Clean Tech Competition is the only worldwide research and design challenge for students ages 15-18. This competition is administered by The Center for Science Teaching and Learning, a science center in Rockville Centre, NY. The theme for the 2015 competition is �Feed the World,� and it challenges students to develop a clean technology solution to the world�s problems of an unstable and inadequate food supply. At the Finalist Event, which will be held at the Dow facility in Philadelphia this year, students from the top 10 teams from around the world will gather to present their innovations to a panel of judges. All finalist teams will receive monetary prizes, and the grand prize is $10,000.
X-STEM Brings You Up Close and Personal With Amazing Startup Geniuses!
 "Josh Wolfe doesn't trust genies or fortune tellers. He thinks the only way to predict the future is to invent it. And that really means finding the people who are inventing it�the scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs�and investing in the new companies they start. Josh is co-founder of Lux Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York which focuses on investments in the physical and life sciences. Be there in Washington, D.C. this April for the X-STEM Extreme Symposium, as the USA Science Festival brings you up close with Josh and other amazing STEM innovators and startup visionaries!"
Dow and Project Lead The Way Partner to Grow STEM Skills in Key Dow Communities
 To kick off national Engineers Week, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) and Project Lead The Way (PLTW) announced a significant partnership to increase K-12 students� access to high-quality STEM education programs. Through a $400,000 commitment, Dow will fund PLTW programs in 17 schools in Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. These 17 schools enroll more than 14,000 students, and about half of these students are minority students. Dow�s support of PLTW furthers the Company�s commitment to building the workforce of tomorrow in the communities where its employees live and work. Through PLTW�s hands-on, activity-based K-12 programs, students become engaged in STEM fields while developing critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills. |
