ENGINEERING What is it all about?

ENGINEERING What is it all about? George S. Dulikravich, Ph.D., FASME, FAAM, FRAeS Professor, Founder and Director of Multidisciplinary Analysis, Inverse Design, Robust Optimization and Control - MAIDROC Laboratory Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering journal Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Florida International University 10555 West Flagler Street, EC 3462, Miami, Florida 33174 +1 (305) 348-7016 office phone +1 (954) 554-0368 mobile phone dulikrav@fiu.edu http://maidroc.fiu.edu Presented at 2012 STEM Conference held on 05/18/2012 at GCHS in Naples, FL

STEM Science Technology Engineering Mathematics should actually be SMET Science Mathematics Engineering Technology

Plumbers ENGINEERS are NOT (fixing plumbing in your bathroom and kitchen) Automechanics (changing oil and tuning up your cars in a garage) Heating and ventilation guys (installing air-conditioning units in your home) Nurses (giving pills to people in hospitals) Electricians (fixing bad wiring in your attick or a phone box)

Engineers Design and Build Cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains, ships, Airplanes, rockets, space probes, Tanks, cannons, guns, humvees, helmets,.. MRIs, CATSCANs, hospital beds, Homes, buildings, bridges, highways,. New alloys, new plastics, new glasses, Laptops, phones, supercomputers, TVs, Software for communication and control

Aerospace Agricultural Architectural Automotive Biomedical Chemical Civil Computer Electrical Engineering Science Environmental Different kinds of ENGINEERS Industrial & Manufacturing Marine Metallurgical & Materials Mining Nuclear Petrochemical

Why be an engineer? Job availability Job stability Good salary Freedom to relocate Ability to start your own business Respect from other professions Personal satisfaction with your work Ability to become a research scientist Ability and freedom to design new useful products Ability and freedom to manufacture new products Ability to contribute to the important societal needs

Government agencies are offering salary, travel and housing to high school STEM students to spend 8-10 summer weeks working in university and government research labs Government agencies are offering excellent stipends/scholarships to students studying STEM disciplines There is an acute shortage of engineers and scientists in the defense industry Female students and minority students have outstanding opportunities in the STEM area, because of the underrepresentation of these two categories within the current STEM workforce.

The U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee has adopted a proposal to encourage more American students to pursue advanced mathematics and science degrees: "This amendment addresses a crisis. U.S. competitiveness depends on the quality of our Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) workforce. Careers in these disciplines support the United States in maintaining its leadership in innovation and in ensuring that we can solve challenging problems such as designing new technologies, protecting our nation, and ensuring a strong economy."

BUSINESS LEADERS CALL FOR DOUBLING OF STEM GRADUATES BY 2015 Representatives from 15 leading business organizations are calling for a doubling of the nation's science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates in the next 10 years, citing an erosion of U.S. scientific and technical capacity as compared with those of other nations. The coalition, organized by the Business Roundtable, released "Tapping America's Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative," an action plan focused on five key areas: * Launching a public awareness campaign to make STEM education a national priority; * Providing incentives to motivate students and adults, with an emphasis on under-represented groups, to study and pursue careers in those disciplines; * Upgrading math and science teaching in elementary and secondary schools; * Reforming U.S. visa and immigration policies to attract and retain top STEM students from around the world; and, * Boosting funding for basic research with emphasis on the physical sciences and engineering.

U.S. R&D MOVING ABROAD It is no longer just manufacturing jobs that are being outsourced. Increasingly, U.S. companies are moving their research and design operations to locations in Asia and Central and Eastern Europe to take advantage of the larger labor pools and cheaper costs. In addition, sending R&D functions abroad can reduce the time to market by over 30 percent. With more than one million scientists and 4,500 R&D centers, Russia is fast becoming a global center for electronic design. Motorola, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Intel all have workers there. China graduated 425,000 engineers last year- five times the number of U.S. engineering graduates. With over 811,000 scientists, China is outpacing Japan and the European Union and closing in on the U.S. Unlike a decade ago when many of China's best and brightest left the country to get their undergraduate degrees, the country's elite educational institutions compete with the best universities around the globe. Additionally, there is increasing cooperation between China's public and private sectors, easing the transition of technologies from research lab to the market place. For additional information, go to: http://www.reed-electronics.com/ebmag/index.asp?layout=articleprint&amparticleid=ca610433.

COULD CHINA OUTPACE THE U.S. IN TECHNICAL R&D? The U.S. hasn't lost its position of pre-eminence yet, but there are sobering indications that it is losing ground. In 2001, 25,509 Americans earned doctoral degrees in science and engineering, down from 27,243 in 1996. U.S. government investment in R&D in math, engineering and the physical sciences stands at just 0.16 percent of GDP, down from 0.25 percent in 1970. U.S. Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. corporations with a combined workforce of more than 10 million employees, views the lack of science and engineering students in the U.S. as a threat to the country's future global competitiveness. It notes that since 1980, the number of science and engineering jobs in the U.S. has grown at five times the rate of overall employment, but that the number of college degrees awarded in those fields has not kept pace. Its study, Understanding & Responding to Imbalances in Engineering & IT Labor Markets, speculates that inadequate science and math education in primary and secondary schools may be one reason that fewer than six in 100 U.S. students seek science or engineering degrees [www.businessroundtable.org/pdf/20040930002harrington.pdf]

BRAZIL HAS A SHORTAGE OF 15,000 ENGINEERS PER YEAR!!! Engineering salaries in Brazil are becoming higher than in the USA!!! The first 75,000 international scholarships that Brazilian will award to Brazilian students will be distributed in the first semester of 2012.. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC), the four year investment from 2011-14 will cost US$ 936 million. In 2010, 5.3 thousand international scholarships were distributed by the government. The priority will be given to students in strategic areas that will help the development of the country, such as Engineering and Technology. The scholarships will be for Post-PHD, PHD, Masters, graduate and undergraduate technical courses. A release from the Ministry clarified that Preliminary information of the priority subject areas are: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry (pharmaceutical, pesticide, waste treatment), Biological Sciences, Agronomy, Informatics: Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Communication, Marine Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Civil Engineering: Construction Ways, New Materials, Nanotechnology Engineering, Cell Energy Engineering.

During a White House reception in mid 90s for a group of distinguished STEM leaders, one of them voiced his concern about an extreme shortage of STEM graduates. The President waved and laughed it off by answering Ah, don t worry we will import them!!! Ex-Chinese President is an electrical engineer. Half of the Chinese cabinet posts are filled with STEM professionals. Gilba Rouseff of Brazil is a petrochemical engineer. Angela Merkel of Germany is biochemical engineer. Vladimir Putin of Russia is an engineer, too.

and what foreign languages are being taught in schools across the United States?

What should be taught in middle schools and high schools to entice and prepare students to study STEM Teach basic principles of physics, chemistry, math early!!! Teach trigonometry to everyone Teach a programming language (C++) to everyone Teach more applied math courses including integrals Teach computer graphics software use (SolidWorks) Teach applied math software use (MatLab) Have more technical clubs such as electronics, aerospace, bioengineering, materials, unmanned vehicles Involve expert volunteer speakers from the community Involve students in regional and national design contests Publicize and reward best STEM program students Advise students to use numerous available scholarships Create/increase dual enrollment courses with universities

Going from B.Sc. to M.Sc. to Ph.D. After high school, it will take four years of an undergraduate engineering program to get a B.Sc. degree in one of the engineering disciplines. After B.Sc. degree, a person can get a job with a starting salary of $60-$70K, or enroll into a M.Sc. program. M.Sc. program takes two years and involves 8 graduate courses plus performing research, writing and defending a M.Sc. thesis in one of the engineering disciplines. After M.Sc. degree, a person can get a job with a starting salary of $72-$82K, or enroll in a Ph.D. program Ph.D. program takes 3-5 years and involves 10 additional graduate courses plus performing research, writing and defending a Ph.D. dissertation. After Ph.D. one can have a starting salary of $90-$110K.