First in the country: USA Science & Engineering Festival takes off

Washington, DC – The inaugural USA Science and Engineering Festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin, is the country's first national science festival. This multicultural, multigenerational and multidisciplinary celebration of science in the U.S. is a collaboration among more than 500 of the nation's leading science and engineering organizations.

Centered in Washington, DC and environs, it started October 10 with a concert of science songs, and culminates October 23-24 with an expo on the National Mall and surrounding areas, featuring some 1,500-plus hands-on science activities and more than fifty shows and performances on four stages.

Festival initiator is high-tech entrepreneur Larry Block. Block and his family have enjoyed activity-based science festivals in the UK, Italy, Australia and India, and he notes that these events were celebrations, not contests like the typical U.S. science fair.

Block organized a similar science celebration in San Diego last year: a month of programs in schools and youth groups ending in a stimulating daylong festival. "Students lined up at booths as if it was Disneyland, waiting to do a cool science thing!" Block reports.

This year's event targets K-12 kids and their families, since Block is convinced that family involvement is important. "A society gets what it celebrates," he says. "If we want more STEM professionals, we need to celebrate STEM!"

More than 650 major organizations are participating in the festival and almost a thousand activities and programs are scheduled. The event is sponsored by some hundred professional science and engineering societies including IEEE, SHPE and NSBE and more than a hundred universities, colleges and research institutions including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The fifty-plus participating government agencies and national labs include NIH, NSF, EPA, NASA and the Office of Naval Research. Twenty-five high-tech firms including Cisco, Dow, Intel, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are supporters, as are some seventy-five science outreach organizations including the Smithsonian, another seventy-five community organizations and more than twenty Nobel laureates.

Check out www.usasciencefestival.org for more info or to get involved.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu gets CSU-LA engineering award

Los Angeles, CA – California State University-Los Angeles (CSULA) aims to give its annual president's award to someone whose career has advanced engineering, CS and technology. This year the prize went to Nobel Physics Laureate Steven Chu, the U.S. Secretary of Energy.

The presentation was made at the new Greater Los Angeles Engineer of the Year awards. Sponsored by the CSULA Friends of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, the awards gala also recognized other engineers, including Emanuel Brady of Raytheon: information technologist of the year; Intissar Durham of Los Angeles World Airports: engineering public servant of the year and Armando Ramirez of AECOM: engineering project of the year.

Saundra Johnson Austin is NACME's new ops SVP

White Plains, NY – The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) has named Saundra Johnson Austin senior vice president for operations. She will be responsible for development, coordination, evaluation and administration of NACME's programs and research agenda.

"Saundra joins NACME as we commence implementation of Connectivity 2015, the new NACME strategic plan," says Dr Irving Pressley McPhail, president and CEO. "Saundra's background and experience as a practicing civil engineer, engineering educator and secondary school administrator make her uniquely suited to continue the growth and development of our program portfolio."

She has a BSCE from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN). She has served as executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM).

She worked as an engineer at Bechtel Power before becoming director of the Minority Engineering Program at Penn State. Most recently she was president and CEO of St. Michael's High School (Santa Fe, NM).

"Throughout my entire career I have experienced nothing more gratifying than providing opportunities for individuals to pursue their educational goals," says Johnson Austin. "Personally and professionally I understand the impact STEM education has on our nation's global competitiveness. NACME, in collaboration with its partners, continues to play a significant role in addressing these global demands."

Kaitz Foundation presents cable industry diversity awards

New York, NY – Each year the Walter Kaitz Foundation honors a business and an individual exemplifying the foundation's mission of increasing diversity in the cable industry. This year's awards went to cable content company Discovery Communications and U.S. Representative Doris O. Matsui of California.

Discovery Communications has developed programs to recruit, retain and promote diverse employees. Through this inclusive environment, Kaitz notes, they have created a company where innovative thinking and expression are valued, creating better content for viewers.

Representative Matsui was honored for her appreciation of the role broadband networks can play in fostering economic growth, especially in rural and underserved communities.

U California prof gets Drexel achievement award

Philadelphia, PA – Engineer Rafael L. Bras, distinguished professor and dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California - Irvine, has been given Drexel University's 2010 Anthony J. Drexel Exceptional Achievement award. The award recognizes collaborative, multidisciplinary research focusing on real-world solutions leading to a better society. Bras' research in hydrology and hydroclimatology has helped forecast rain and floods.

He has also made major contributions to the study of the impact of deforestation on the hydrologic cycle and the evolution of landscapes. He's currently heading a project to develop and build a system of barriers to protect Venice, Italy from flooding during unusually high tides.

A native of Puerto Rico, Bras holds three degrees from MIT: a 1972 BSCE, a 1974 MSCE and a 1975 science doctorate in water resources and hydrology.

Battelle's Hurst joins URI advisory board

Columbus, OH – Pam Hurst, Battelle senior market manager for Navy undersea systems in the national security global business, has been appointed to the advisory board for the department of ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island (URI).

Hurst has worked with the Navy and at a number of major defense companies, specializing in undersea vehicles, telecom and hardware. She has a 1969 BS in engineering science from the engineering school at URI.

NASA astronaut sends signs of encouragement from space

Washington, DC – This summer American
Sign Language (ASL) made its debut in the International Space Station in a special video recorded by astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Caldwell Dyson signed directly to the deaf community, telling about what she does on the space station and how she became interested in ASL.

Caldwell Dyson used ASL in grad school where she worked as a chemistry tutor
for a deaf student. The student had to simultaneously take notes, look in the textbook and watch her interpreter, who
stood way off at the front of the room.

"It was a difficult and strange way to learn," says Caldwell Dyson. "It opened my eyes to the challenges deaf students face every day in hearing universities."

The astronaut wants her story "to be an avenue for deaf students, from children in kindergarten to college undergrads to doctoral candidates, to see themselves belonging
to this amazing thing called NASA and participating in scientific research and space exploration."

Caldwell Dyson has a 1993 BS in chemistry from California State University - Fullerton and a 1997 PhD in ChE from the University of California - Davis. She's been with NASA since 1998, and most recently served as a flight engineer on a long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station.

New partnership supports digital access and literacy

Atlanta, GA – The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE) is a nonprofit organization that provides broadband and broadband-related services to underserved and unserved communities. ADE and the Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) are now partnering in digital advocacy, digital literacy, job creation and economic development.

The two organizations will target projects that bring digital technology and job training to these underserved communities.

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