Date: January 4, 2000

PROJECT AIMS TO SOLVE ENGINEERS' IMAGE PROBLEM

HOBOKEN, N.J. Ð Susan Staffin Metz has a message for youngsters who dream of growing up to become doctors, lawyers or politicians. Think engineer instead!

Engineers design incredible things that make a real difference in people's everyday lives. There is a shortage of talented candidates and the pay is good.

So why are fewer young women and men pursuing careers in engineering at a time when the demand for talented professionals is so great? The public's image of engineers or lack of image is part of the problem, says Metz, president of Women in Engineering Programs & Advocates Network, WEPAN. She cites a 1998 Harris Poll , commissioned by the American Association of Engineering Societies, in which 61 percent of the adults surveyed said they have little or no understanding of who engineers are or what they do. Only 22 percent of the women responding believed they were well informed about the field.

WEPAN recently was awarded a $295,000, three-year grant from the Lucent Technologies Foundation to change engineers' public image among those who matter most, the engineers of the future.

The goal of the program, called "Making the Connection" is to create an awareness and interest about engineering among students, particularly women and minorities, in grades 3-12.

"Even the word Ôengineering' never makes it into the K-12 curriculum," Metz said. "We want to spark kids' imaginations and make the connection with them about what engineers do, which is basically everything. Engineers are responsible for so many things that we take for granted-- from computers, to to airplanes, to artificial limbs, to communications systems Ð things that improve the quality of our lives."

Girls and boys take math and science courses at increasingly similar levels in grades K-12. Although math and science are the tools used in engineering, the field of engineering goes unnoticed and unexplored among educators, students, the media, and therefore the American public.

For the project, experts are assisting in the development of a series of activities that will help students understand what engineers do and how their contributions effect students' lives by connecting math and science to basic engineering principles. The activities being designed by Dr. Martha Cyr, a faculty member in the school of engineering at Tufts University will include a combination of age-appropriate, hands-on experiments, demonstrations and games focused on topics that students can relate to. A presenter's guide will accompany the activities to allow educators, women engineering and science professionals and students to deliver the lessons effectively.

Twelve U.S. universities and an estimated 7,000 students will be involved in the project. Metz, director of the Lore-El Center for Women in Engineering and Science at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J., is the project's principle investigator.

Participating schools include Massachusetts Pre-Engineering Program, Boston; Michigan Technological University, Houghton; North Carolina State University, Raleigh; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; St. Louis (Mo.) Community College; San Jose (Calif.) State College; Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J.; University of Central Florida, Orlando; University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Missouri-Columbia; University of Texas-El Paso; and University of Texas, Arlington.

WEPAN, a nonprofit educational organization was founded in 1990 to be a catalyst for change to enhance the success of women in the engineering profession. It has raised more than $5 million in private, foundation and federal government grants. A 20-member board of directors from academia and industry oversees the organization.