It's time again to honor our nation's engineers via Engineers Week, which occurs every February. Founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers to raise public awareness of the contributions that engineers make to our quality of life, the event has evolved into a formal coalition of dozens of education, engineering and cultural organizations, and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. An important goal: promote the importance of a technical education and a high level of math, science and technology literacy in our schools, and to motivate young people to pursue engineering careers. Read all about the programs that make up National Engineers Week 2005 by logging onto www.eweek.org. New to this year's week-long celebration of engineers is a partnership with Engineers Without Borders-USA, a nonprofit humanitarian group that works on engineering projects worldwide. What could be more timely than such a global outreach of engineering assistance, in light of what's being called the single biggest natural disaster in the history of the world: the deadly tsunamis that rocked Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and everywhere in between. Says Reginald Vachon, president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (E-Week co-chair), "We have teamed with Engineers Without Borders (EWB)-USA to promote its mission to provide sustainable engineering solutions in developing areas worldwide. Through this endeavor we are enriching a new generation of engineers to continue the tradition of the engineering profession to be socially responsible, using their technical expertise to provide remedies to present and future engineering challenges."
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