SoutheastCon paper submission deadline has been extended

SoutheastCon paper submission deadline has been extended to December 31, 2010!

SoutheastCon 2011 Paper Submission Website Open! Follow the instructions here.
Instructions for Student Hardware Competition posted.

Linking Science, Technology & Engineering Professionals with Government

Each year, IEEE-USA sponsors three government fellowships for qualified IEEE members. The fellows - chosen by the IEEE-USA Government Fellows Committee and confirmed by the Board - spend a year in Washington serving as advisers to the U.S. Congress and to key U.S. Department of State decision-makers. Known as either a Congressional Fellowship or an Engineering & Diplomacy Fellowship, this program links science, technology and engineering professionals with government, and provides a mechanism for IEEE's U.S. members to learn firsthand about the public policy process while imparting their knowledge and experience to policymakers.

2012 Application materials are now available online. The deadline is March 18, 2011

Application Kit for Congressional Fellowship
Application Kit for Engineering & Diplomacy Fellowship

Washington Internships for Students of Engineering

Each year, outstanding engineering students are selected to spend nine weeks in Washington, D.C., learning about the public policy process, including how government officials make decisions on complex technological issues and how engineers can contribute to legislative and regulatory public policy decisions. The WISE Program is ranked as one of the best Internship opportunities in the U.S. by the Princeton Review. Applications are on-line. The deadline for Summer 2011 is December 31, 2010.

IEEE SoutheastCon 2011 CALL FOR PAPERS

The annual IEEE SoutheastCon '11 conference promotes all aspects of the theories and applications of the engineering disciplines. Sponsored by the IEEE Region-3, this event will attract researchers, professionals, and students from the southeast region of the U.S. The event will be held in Nashville, Tennessee, the city of country music. Also, IEEE SoutheastCon 2011 will feature tutorial sessions and workshops.

Scope of the Technical Program

IEEE SoutheastCon 2011 invites prospective authors to submit their technical work on all aspects of engineering, science, and technology of current interest to the conference. The conference technical program includes, but is not limited to the following technical categories:

• Power and Sustainable Energy
• Military and Security Applications
• Optics and Optoelectronics
• Communications and Networking
• Applications and Interdisciplinary
• Bioengineering and Informatics
• Control and Automation
• Software Engineering
• Instrumentation & Measurements
• Robotics and Computer Vision
• Embedded Systems
• Remote Sensing
• Nanotechnology and Materials
• Electromagnetics and Microwaves
• Sensor Networks
• Signal and Image Processing
• Devices and Semiconductors
• Topics on Education

The Technical Paper submission deadline is December 10, 2010.
More information is available on their homepage.

This year E-Week is 20-26 February 2011

Engineers Week is traditionally the week in February that encompasses George Washington's actual birthday.

George Washington - The First US Engineer

NEW YORK - "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," George Washington has also been described as America's first engineer. That his birthday, on February 22 (observed February 20), is celebrated during National Engineers Week, February 20-26, is no coincidence.

A gentleman farmer of inherited wealth and limited formal education, Washington acquired credible surveying skills early in life, but excelled as a manager, strategist, and leader.
Washington directed a growing nation toward technical advancements, invention, and education. He promoted construction of roads, canals, the Capitol, docks and ports, water works, and new efforts to extract coal and ores and develop manufacturing resources.

Around the world, technology was gaining equal footing with pure science. Washington's contemporaries included James Watt (Scottish steam-engine inventor); Joseph Priestley (British chemistry pioneer); Richard Arkwright (British cotton-spinning inventor); John Fitch (American steamboat inventor); and the Montgolfier brothers (French aeronauts).
First in Washington's heart, it seems, was agriculture. As a young surveyor, his first sight of the Shenandoah Valley reportedly inspired the vision of an agricultural empire. As an adult, Washington settled into Mt. Vernon as a tobacco planter and experimented with the innovative agricultural techniques of crop rotation, soil fertilization, and livestock management. He had accurately predicted the valley's fertile farming potential.

As the foremost American general, Washington promoted at least one engineering marvel ahead of its time. During the Revolutionary War, he sent David Bushnell's hand-operated submarine into New York Harbor to sink a British warship. The Turtle's lone operator attempted to attach a timed bomb to the British Eagle's hull. The mission failed when the bomb floated away before exploding. The technology just wasn't advanced enough for Washington's vision, and submarines didn't become a force in navies for the next 100 years.

On June 9, 1778, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, General George Washington issued a call for engineers and engineering education. This order is considered the genesis of a US Army Engineer School, which found its permanent home at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where Washington had practiced surveying. As President (1789-97), Washington pushed for the passage of the first US Patent Act in 1789, and signed the first official US patent to Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for his process of making potash and pearl ashes. In 1794, President Washington established a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers to be educated and stationed at West Point in New York, which later become the US Military Academy at West Point.

From transportation to education, Washington's engineering vision proved to be ahead of its time. After his death in 1799, many of the technologies he supported provided an impetus to the American Industrial Revolution. New York's Erie Canal (1817-25) was built, and canals soon crisscrossed America east of the Mississippi. By the 1830s, the nation's population tripled, traveling west through canals, along rivers, and across new roads and bridges. The Army Corps of Engineers began many of these projects.

By the middle of the century, the railroads become the favored mode of transportation. As a result, America had gone west and Washington's vision was realized.

Courtesy of the
National Engineers Week Foundation
1420 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314