For the Media

Chicagoland Engineers Week seeks to educate and attract people to the engineering fields. This can't happen without publicity, though—please help us get the word out about this valuable event by using the following fact sheet and press releases in your own publications, websites, and other timely media.

Contact:

Tim Seeden - Executive Director
Western Society of Engineers
630-724-9770
e-mail: tim@wsechicago.org

Press Releases and Other Information

Future City Press Release - click here to download PDF version.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: January 31, 2008

Contact: Scott Pfeiffer
Phone: (630) 682-6001
FAX: (630) 682-6010
Email: pfeiffer@iit.edu

DuPage Area Engineers Week 2008: Engineered in Illinois

Green roofs, Illinois engineers, architectural innovations, VoIP and frozen bananas.... What do they have in common? They’ll all be part of the 24th Annual DuPage Area Engineers Week Expo on Saturday, February 23, from 11 am to 3:30 pm at IIT’s Rice Campus in Wheaton.

What is Engineers Week? It is many things to many different audiences, but to children it is a series of interactive displays that are fun and educational and are designed to enhance their interest in math, science and engineering. To accomplish this objective, volunteers from engineering societies, business, government and education donate their time in hopes of encouraging children to take an interest in learning. This year we have a new partner, Chicago Architecture Today (www.chicagoarchitecturetoday.org). They will be holding their Midwest Creative Architecture Competition at the Rice Campus; entries will be on display to the public from February 13 – March 1, including showing off the winners at the Engineers Week Expo on February 23. Their awards ceremony will also be held at Rice Campus on March 1; see their Web site for details.

This year’s theme is “Engineered in Illinois,” with a particular focus on “sustainability,” from “green buildings” that help us all to Illinois engineers recently inducted into the Hall of Fame. These are two of the many areas we will be exploring at the DuPage Area Engineers Week celebration, held each year during National Engineers Week, February 17-23, 2008. Programs will be held on Thursday, February 21 and Saturday, February 23, 2008 at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus.

On Saturday, February 23, children of all ages will see many fun and educational exhibits; one of the more popular demonstrations is cryogenics, in which items are dropped into a liquid that can freeze an object within seconds. New exhibitors this year include SCARCE, DuPage County’s environmental education arm; robotics from IIT’s Mechanical Engineering Department; and architectural exhibits, including models, photos, and other forms. Engineers Week will also feature many interactive displays and presentations, including model planes and a wind tunnel, lasers, and bicycle power, as well as hands-on activities with ZOOM, Design Squad, SciTech, and the DuPage Children’s Museum. The Saturday event, February 23, is free and open to the public from 11:00 AM to 3:30 PM.

“Scientific exhibits and demonstrations like these have an amazing effect on the children and create lasting memories that make them want to learn”, stated Dr. Robert Carlson, Director of Illinois Institute of Technology’s Rice Campus.

The Thursday evening Speaker’s Forum on February 21 will feature Jim Patchett and his team from Conservation Design Forum in Elmhurst. This event is also free and open to the public. It begins at 6:30 PM with snacks and networking, followed at 7:15 PM by the presentation and questions.

Please join us for one or both of these free activities. Both events are located at Illinois Institute of Technology's Rice Campus at 201 East Loop Road in Wheaton. And check out our Web site from time to time to see what’s new: www.dupageeweek.iit.edu. If you wish further information, contact Barbara Kozi at 630/ 682-6040 or kozi@iit.edu.

NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT:    Donald Lehr – The Nolan/Lehr Group, (212) 967-8200 / dblehr@cs.com 
FOR RELEASE:  September 27, 2006                                                     

BIAS AGAINST WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE?

IT'S NOT NEWS TO PROFESSIONALS WORKING AGAINST IT EVERY DAY
When the National Academy of Sciences issued its watershed report, "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering" on September 18, it made headlines across the nation for its forceful indictment of long-running institutional anti-women bias.

For America's women engineers and the societies, organizations and programs that work with them, however, it didn't come as news at all.
"Women have made major strides in other academic and professional areas, while their progress in a number of science and engineering fields remains stubbornly low," says C. Diane Matt, CAE, Executive Director of Women in Engineering Programs & Advocates Network, Inc.  "WEPAN members' experience and work in university settings to realize the full participation of women in engineering mirror the findings of the study."
Jude Garzolini, President of the Society of Women Engineers, says the findings also echo her organization's work.  "SWE has long been concerned with this issue, and for the past five years has released a comprehensive annual review detailing the status of women engineers in industry and academia."

Speaking for efforts that directly help women who choose engineering and science careers, Carol Muller, the founder and CEO of MentorNet, says she and others doing similar work "were far ahead of the majority of the scientific and technical community in bringing the social science research on gender to the attention of practitioners."

Yet, Muller adds, the study could have gone farther by noting the impact that mentoring programs have in helping recruit and encourage women in science and engineering.

MentorNet, which links women graduate students and early career faculty in science and engineering with tenured faculty mentors in their fields, found that mentors typically spend as little as 15 minutes a week reading and writing emails with proteges.

Can years of institutional bias and ongoing subtle discrimination against professional women in science and engineering be fixed in 15 minutes?  The time may sound short, but according to two-thirds of the program's participants surveyed, those messages of encouragement and advice translate to a substantial base of support at critical moments in their academic pursuits.

MentorNet, SWE, and WEPAN are three of more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and some 50 corporations and government agencies that are partners of Engineers Week, a formal coalition founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers.  Engineers Week (), February 18-24, 2007, is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science.

One flagship program of Engineers Week is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, scheduled for Thursday, February 22, 2007.  "Girl Day" mobilizes thousands of women engineers – with support from their male colleagues – to mentor and share firsthand experiences of engineering to more than one million girls and young women each year.

Muller says that programs sponsored by MentorNet, SWE, WEPAN, and, among others, the Association for Women in Science, and the Women in Engineering Leadership Institute, offer important forums that support women in science and engineering.  "They provide ways for women to access significant support and mentoring, and the opportunity to benchmark their experiences in ways which have enabled women to recognize that their experiences were not isolated," says Muller.  She adds that the sense of belonging that men in engineering and science take for granted is often missing for their women colleagues.

The voices of those working in the trenches are often isolated and sometimes ignored, but women in the profession are hopeful that the prestige of the National Academy of Sciences will finally be the catalyst for real change on a widespread scale.

"The report provides a much needed policy imperative, and we hope university leaders across the country will engage in a full assessment of the climate and take steps to improve the recruitment, retention and advancement of women," says Diane Matt of WEPAN.

Carol Muller says she also hopes the report will prod a change but, like any good engineer, is waiting for concrete results.  "The National Academies, representing the nation's best-recognized scientists and engineers, have now heard about gender bias and discrimination from their own and reviewed by their own," she says.  "It will be very interesting to see what actions may ensue."

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About MentorNet
MentonNet, headquartered in San Jose, California, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization working to further the progress of women and others underrepresented in scientific and technical fields through the use of a dynamic, technology-supported mentoring network.  MentorNet aims to advance individuals and society, and enhance engineering and related sciences by promoting a diversified, expanded and talented global workforce.  In partnership with colleges and universities, corporations, government labs and agencies, and professional societies, MentorNet is international in scope, serving students and professionals from all over the world.

About SWE
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization.  SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women.  SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders.  For more information about the Society please visit the SWE website or call (312) 596-5223.

About WEPAN
WEPAN's mission is to be a catalyst, advocate, and leading resource for institutional and national change that enables the success of all women in engineering.  It has over 600 members from nearly 200 engineering schools, companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations, and nonprofit organizations.  A national nonprofit educational organization, WEPAN is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.  Click here for more information.

National Engineers Week Foundation
1420 King Street Alexandria,Virginia 22314
703-684-2852
www.eweek.org
eweek@nspe.org
The National Engineers Week Foundation is a non-profit organization.
TIN 32-0039097
Leslie Collins, Executive Director