By now, you may have seen the March 1 cover story. And you may be wonderingwhat such a story—sans schematics, technical jargon,and just plain design basics—is doing in
EDN. We are aboutengineering, after all, so where’s the engineering in the coverstory? In this issue’s cover story, instead of presenting a designtopic for you to build from, we’re presenting a challenge for all of us toovercome. That challenge is how to engineer a new generation of STEM(science/technology/engineering/math) talent.
We all know the problem. Too fewnew engineers, as well as other STEMprofessionals, are graduating from UScolleges. The underlying issue is thatkids these days aren’t taking an interestin science and math, without whichthey can’t develop critical-thinkingskills and that sense of curiosity thatcontributes to entrepreneurial attitudesand life-long discovery.
Image: Thinkstock
Many people reading this editorialwill say that we shouldn’t be encouragingkids to study STEM because of aclaimed lack of engineering jobs in theUnited States. This situation isn’t justabout jobs, though. It’s about creatinga climate of more creative and moreintelligently thinking, and, ultimately,more proactive people. We can be sureof this: If engineers—who are creative,intelligent, productive people—ranthings in this country, we’d all be ina better position when it came to theemployment market, as well as manyother hot-button concerns.
Engineering the next generation isabout creating leaders who can helpus build a better tomorrow. Althoughthese leaders would preferably benew engineers, we also need moreprofessionals in other fields, insideor outside STEM, who think like engineers to help brighten the picture.
It’s easy to point fingers; politiciansdo it all the time. But, as engineers, youdo, you make, you design, you build, andyou fix. Those abilities—not the degreeyou received—make you an engineer.Those same principles make the topicof next-generation STEM talent anengineering issue. We know there is aproblem. Let’s do something to fix it;let’s engineer it.
As issues about STEM evolve, you’llsee more content like this cover storyon how to engineer this crisis into ahealthier state. This content will appearin print, on EDN.com, through oursocial-media efforts (on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn), in our webcasts,and through the events we attend. Forexample,
EDN is presenting a DesignWest panel on this topic on March 28at the San Jose McEnery ConventionCenter. Look for it in the show-floortheater at 1:30 pm. After the panel,we’ll also host a networking session inwhich we’ll invite experienced engineersand executives to connect withincoming and new STEM talent.
- IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, March 9, 2012, at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ
- "Engineering the next generation of STEM" panel session and networking event at Design West, San Jose, March 28, 2012
- Second USA Science and Engineering Festival, April 28 to 29, 2012, Washington, DC
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Further, the IEEE has asked meand my colleague at UBM Electronics,Naomi Price, online brand manager forInnovation Generation, to speak at itsIntegrated STEM Conference on March 9, at the College of New Jersey (Ewing,NJ). Naomi and I will also attend theUSA Science and Engineering Festivalin Washington, DC, during the lastweekend in April to celebrate the brilliancethis next generation brings tothe game.
We hope to see you at these eventsin March and April. In the meantime,we invite you to share your ownthoughts on what we can all be doing tohelp encourage the next generation ofSTEM here.
We’ll bring back the design focusin EDN’s March 15 cover story. Butdon’t walk away thinking that this needfor more STEM talent isn’t an engineeringtopic. It is vital to the future ofengineering itself and something thatwe can together engineer—do, make,design, build, and fix—toward a betterfuture.
Contact me at [email protected].