Well, I've thought about this for, oh, about two years now. A focus on the real Rock Stars of the 21st century - ENGINEERS!
Just name any of the hundreds of things currently in your field of view (lamps, light bulbs, furniture, TV, plumbing, mirrors, windows, roads, buildings, construction materials, air conditioning (thankfully), coffee makers, bottled water...). Without engineers, none of these things would exist. We'd all be sleeping on dirt floors inside caves. As you might have guessed from my list, I'm in a hotel room - in Austin, Texas attending a LabVIEW Graphical System Design conference.
I was inspired to do this advocacy (and the name for it) by a keynote at NI Week a couple of years ago by Dr. Geoff Orsak, Dean of Engineering, Southern Methodist University. He spoke of the decline of engineering graduates and the need to inspire high schoolers to consider engineering by educating them about just what it means to be an engineer. He is the founder of The Infinity Project that does just that!
Well, as an engineer, I honestly can't think of anything better than being an engineer - to have a curiosity about how things work and have the desire (and ability) to make new things that make the lives of others (and my own) more comfortable, enjoyable, productive...and get paid well to have all the fun.
I hope to provide inspiration to those considering engineering, support to those pursuing engineering degrees and a bit of guilt to those like me who all too privately celebrate each day the fortune we've been granted by our society to be so graciously rewarded for doing something we'd almost as happily do for free. Guilted into action - to give back. to inspire, to support, to advocate, to share.
I hope to post regularly, sharing links and experiences of Rock Stars of Engineering by profiling the numerous Rock Stars in the world around us. I'll initially focus on U.S. based Rock Stars not to ignore others, but to narrow my scope.
