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Curious Cat Science and Egineering blog full tag cloud
Toyota has a knack for cultivating engineering talent
Toyota established a two-year internship program for recent engineering graduates at schools like the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Lawrence Technological University and the University of Wisconsin. At the end of the two-year period, the automaker and the employee reach a mutual decision about whether the employee should continue working there.
Bruce Brownlee, senior executive administrator for external affairs for the Toyota Planning Center at the Toyota Technical Center, has said the company generated a “large pipeline” for engineering talent by leveraging the internship program.
Related: Engineering Internships - Toyota Engineering Development Process - Toyota Robots - Toyota k-12 Science Grants - Toyota Production System (TPS) management blog posts
Engineer Your Life is an outreach initiative committed to sharing with college-bound young women the opportunities available to them in the world of engineering. Unfortunately they chose to use flash content and the website fails to follow simple usability guidelines (basic stuff like human readable urls, links that work without javascript…) but there is decent content. The use of flash and failing to pay attention to usability are highly correlated in my experience. The site profiles 12 engineers including Judy Lee:
Designing for IKEA
Judy began her new project by thinking about the way kids play. “I realized that kids today play indoors a lot. Maybe because the world seems a little more dangerous and parents are more protective. So I knew that this mat had to incorporate some kind of physical play element.” Rather than a static mat, Judy designed one resembling a giant lazy Susan that kids could spin around on. “Once I had the concept, the mechanical engineer in me took over. I needed something simple. Simplicity is awesome. My mat is basically two injection-molded pieces of plastic that spin on a set of interior wheels.”
Judy will never forget the experience of seeing her mat in an IKEA store. “It was incredible,” she recalls, “and it was such important validation for me that my ideas matter, they’re good, and they’re marketable.”
Dream Job at IDEO
Today, Judy has found her dream job in Palo Alto, California, at a company called IDEO, one of the country’s most innovative design firms. IDEO hires engineers, designers, psychologists, and businesspeople who work in teams to develop cutting-edge products (they created Apple Computer’s first mouse, for example). Judy designs children’s toys, pet products, and packaging for over-the-counter drugs and food. “I feel pretty lucky to have such a creative and interesting job. I’m surrounded by brilliant people. It doesn’t really seem like work. It’s just plain fun!”
Related: Beloit College: Girls and Women in Science - Women Choosing Other Fields Over Engineering and Math - NASA You Have a Problem - Girls Sweep Top Honors at Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology - Women Working in Science - other posts on poor usability
externs.com is another curiouscat.com web site that lists internship opportunities. I am surprised that virtual internships and externships have not grown much more popular in the last 5 years. Scientists and Engineers for America do have such a virtual internship:
Members of the first Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA) virtual intern class can be located anywhere in the world and will work remotely on specific SEA projects. Intern will research the positions elected officials and candidates for office take on science policy issues.
The internship is for between 10 to 20 hours per week and can be done anywhere, as long as you have a computer, internet connection, and telephone. The dates of the internship are flexible accepted on a rolling basis.
Also see the externs.com science internships and engineering internships. If you have an internship you would like included, please add it (there is not cost for the site, listing or using).
Related: Summer Jobs for Smart Young Minds - Preparing Computer Science Students for Jobs - Science and Engineering Scholarships and Fellowships - Scientists and Engineers in Congress
2007 Data from Spencer Stuart on S&P 500 CEO shows once again more have undergraduate degrees in engineering than any other field.
| Field |
|
% of CEOs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |||
| Engineering | 21 | 23 | 20 | ||
| Economics | 15 | 13 | 11 | ||
| Business Administration | 13 | 12 | 15 | ||
| Accounting | 8 | 8 | 7 | ||
| Liberal Arts | 6 | 8 | 9 | ||
| No degree or no data | 3 | 3 | |||
The report does not show the fields for the rest of the CEO’s. 40% of S&P CEOs have MBAs. 27% have other advanced degrees. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton and Harvard tied for the most CEO’s with undergraduate degrees from their universities at 12. University of Texas has 10 and Stanford has 9.
Data for previous years is also from Spencer Stuart: 2006 S&P 500 CEO Education Study - Top degree for S&P 500 CEOs? Engineering (2005 study)
Related: Engineering Education Study Debate - posts on science and engineering careers - Science and Engineering Degrees lead to Career Success - The Future is Engineering
Several years ago we posted about the report on the USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates. The authors, and two others, have written a new report that provides some useful additions - Getting the Numbers Right: International Engineering Education in the United States, China, and India
Related: Filling the Engineering Gap by Vivek Wadhwa - Engineering Economic Benefits - posts on engineering education - Science Serving Society - Authors of Scientific Articles by Country - Educating the Engineer of 2020: NAE Report
Programmers at Work: Interviews With 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry. Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google had written a very positive review of it on Amazon
The author of the book, Susan Lammers, is now publishing the interviews and new discussions online. For example: Butler Lampson 1986/2008 Reflections
Lampson: A beautiful program is like a beautiful theorem: It does the job elegantly. It has a simple and perspicuous structure; people say, “Oh, yes. I see that’s the way to do it.”
via: Confessions of a Science Librarian
Related: Founders at Work (Wozniak and more) - Donald Knuth, Computer Scientist - Programming Grads Meet a Skills Gap in the Real World - Lean Software Development - A Career in Computer Programming
Rep. Lofgren wants residency for foreign engineers
Lofgren, a Democrat, spoke to an audience Friday at the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley conference about threats to innovation in the area. She said that about 56 percent of the Ph.D. candidates at the finest schools in the United States are immigrants, and because of the government’s current immigration policy, many of those people leave the country.
I support such legislation. I also think it is only one, of many measure to take to encourage science and engineering excellence (which will in turn help the economy). I have no doubt that other countries are going to be successful establishing their own global centers of excellence and attract scientists and engineers from around the world: including from the USA. The Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog now includes a tag cloud on the right side of our home page, tags for this post include: government and economy.
Related: Brain Drain Benefits to the USA Less Than They Could Be - economic benefits of science and engineering excellence - USA Losing Brain Drain Benefits
When the world’s great scientific thinkers change their minds
I have always believed that the scientist’s most sacred obligation is to continue to do science. Now I know that I was dead wrong. I am driven to the ultimately wise advice of my Columbia mentor, I.I. Rabi, who, in our many corridor bull sessions, urged his students to run for public office and get elected. He insisted that to be an advisor (he was an advisor to Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, later to Eisenhower and to the AEC) was ultimately an exercise in futility and that the power belonged to those who are elected. Then, we thought the old man was bonkers. But today… A Congress which is overwhelmingly dominated by lawyers and MBAs makes no sense in this 21st century in which almost all issues have a science and technology aspect.
It is important for some scientists to take on other important rolls in society - political leaders, popular authors, business leaders, government officials (regulators etc.), political commentators…
Related: Science and Engineering in Politics - The A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science - Diplomacy and Science Research - Proposed Legislation on Science and Education - Global Scientific Leadership - Open Access Journal Wars
Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow? by Dr. Robert B.K. Dewar and Dr. Edmond Schonberg
An additional benefit of the practice of Lisp is that the program is written in what amounts to abstract syntax, namely the internal representation that most compilers use between parsing and code generation. Knowing Lisp is thus an excellent preparation for any software work that involves language processing.
This is an excellent article: any CS students or those considering careers as programmers definitely should read this. Also read: Computer Science Education.
via: Who Killed the Software Engineer?
Related: A Career in Computer Programming - Programming Grads Meet a Skills Gap in the Real World - Programming Ruby - What you Need to Know to Be a Computer Game Programmer - Hiring Software Developers - What Ails India’s Software Engineers?
The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, established in 1996, honors the most promising researchers in the Nation within their fields. Nine federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers who are at the start of their independent careers and whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge. Participating agencies award these talented scientists and engineers with up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions.
Awards were announced today - links to some of the awardees:
Related: 2006 MacArthur Fellows - Young Innovators Under 35 - Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2006) - NSF Release on 2007 awardees that are also NSF CAREER awardees
2006 Data from Spencer Stuart on S&P 500 CEO (pdf document) shows once again more have bachelors degrees in engineering than any other field.
| Field |
| % of CEOs |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 23% | |
| Economics | 13% | |
| Business Administration | 12% | |
| Liberal Arts | 8% | |
| Accounting | 8% | |
| No degree or no data | 3% |
This data only shows the data for 65% of CEOs, I would like to see the rest of the data but it is not provide in this report. 41% of S&P CEOs have MBAs. 27% have other advanced degrees.
Related: Top degree for S&P 500 CEOs? Engineering (2005 study) - Science and Engineering Degrees lead to Career Success - USA Engineering Jobs - Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
Network to curb Mexican brain drain by Kathleen Miller
Mexico’s government has sponsored conferences for the network, but Camacho says the group is growing more by word of mouth. His Silicon Valley chapter holds regular meetings to share ideas and there are plans for similar groups in other U.S. cities.
Related: Mexico Graduating Large Numbers of Engineers - Engineering Jobs in Mexico - posts on science and engineering contributions to the economy
Excellent interview of Steve Wozniak from Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston, to be published in a few months.
Sounds like Google today, see: How Google Works focused on engineering and Enginners at Google Make Decisions.
(more…)
Jobs Update: The Death of U.S. Engineering by Paul Craig Roberts
The number of students that go into other fields does raise questions. However, I do not think the data provides answers on its own. Given that engineering majors are the highest paid graduates it is not a case that the students options are poor. It could well be that the engineering students are very capable in many ways and find jobs that are not focused on engineering (say management, finance or …).
Once again the whole area of engineering jobs and the future is complex. But once again I disagree with the thinking presented here. The competition from abroad will increase greatly going forward. That is because every country that is focused on competing with the most successful economies is focused on improving their engineering capabilities. They all want the high paying and economically valuable jobs.
See more posts on science and engineering careers.
The most common undergraduate degree for CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies is Engineering: with 20% of all CEOs (from 2005 CEO Study: A Statistical Snapshot of Leading CEOs
Another interesting point from the report (at least to those of us who grew up in Madison with a father who taught at the University of Wisconsin (teaching Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Statistics, in my father’s case, by the way):
Most lucrative college degrees by David Ellis, CNNMoney.com:
The data reflects, college seniors in most majors are experiencing an increase in starting-salary offers, according to a quarterly survey published by the National Association of Colleges & Employers’ (NACE). 83 private and public schools were included in this survey.
Last year 6 of the to 7 highest paid degrees were in engineering (computer science was in 4th place). The graphic to the left leaves off: computer engineering, aerospace engineering and industrial engineering.
NACE press release on salary data
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