Fall 2023
NSPE Now
2024 Engineers Week: Welcome to the Future
Founded by NSPE in 1951, Engineers Week (February 18-24, 2024) is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce. This latest Engineers Week theme — Welcome to the Future — is about celebrating today’s achievements and paving the way for a brighter and more diverse future in engineering.
With the arrival of artificial intelligence, smart cities, electronic vehicles and more, there’s no denying that the future is here. It will be up to qualified, ethical professional engineers to usher in these powerful advancements responsibly.
Engineers Week is a time for you to celebrate how engineers make a difference in our world and engage students in engineering. It’s also an opportunity to add your voice to the conversation about the need for engineers, technicians, and technologists. Consider the following activities for your Engineers Week celebrations and outreach
- Join us on social media #Eweek2024
- Host an Engineers Week lunch or dinner
- Invite an inspiring speaker(s) for a lecture or panel
- Write a blog post or article
- Visit a classroom or afterschool program
- Invite a student(s) to shadow you at work
- Present engineering careers or share Chats with Change Makers
- Volunteer at a science and engineering competition
Important Dates to Remember
- February 18-24 – Engineers Week
- February 17-20 – Future City Competition Final
- February 22 – Girl Day
- February 23 – NSPE’s Federal Engineer of the Year Award Ceremony
- March 4 – World Engineering Day
Access more information and a social media and engagement toolkit.
Five Engineering Messages to Share
DiscoverE spent more than a year researching student attitudes, thoughts, concerns, and hopes about engineering through the Messages Matter research project. The research project, supported by the NSPE Education Foundation, found that appealing messages combined with engineering role models can increase student interest in engineering, especially among historically underrepresented groups.
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Engineering is Open to Everyone.
Engineering teams are made up of several different positions—specialists and technicians with two-year degrees to technologists with four-year bachelor’s and professional engineers—that work collaboratively to invent, design, and create things that matter. -
Earn a Big Salary.
Engineers, technicians, and technologists earn a lot of respect and a lot of money! Even the starting salary for entry-level jobs is impressive. Engineering may be your path to financial freedom. -
Make a Difference.
Everywhere you look you’ll see examples of engineering having a positive effect on everyday life. Things like cleaning up ocean garbage, developing sustainable and clean energy sources, and redesigning highways and roadways to reduce accidents. -
Be a Creative Problem Solver.
Engineering is a great outlet for the imagination—the perfect field for independent thinkers. Creative problem-solving will take you into uncharted territory, and your colleagues’ ideas will expose you to different ways of thinking. Be prepared to be fascinated and to have your talents stretched in ways you never expected. -
Work in Teams.
Engineering takes teamwork, and engineers work with all kinds of people inside and outside the field. Whether they’re designers or architects, doctors or entrepreneurs, engineers are surrounded by smart, inspiring people.
"ELECTRIFY YOUR FUTURE"
This year’s Future City® Competition challenges middle school students to explore: What clean, green, and renewable energy sources could power the electrical grid? How would these sources generate enough electricity for industry, transportation, agriculture, residential, and commercial uses? And to imagine what future cities will be like when engineers find and implement solutions to the challenge of electrifying our cities.
The Future City Competition is a project-based learning activity that introduces middle school students to project management and the engineering design process. Students will research, plan, and build a city that exists 100 years in the future while assessing risk and meeting a schedule. Through the deliverables of the project, students will do the following:
- Apply math and science concepts to real-world issues.
- Develop writing, public speaking, problem-solving, teamwork, project management, and time management skills.
- Learn how their community functions to improve citizenship.
- Build a scale model using recycled materials.
- Research and design solutions to engineering challenges.
- Present and defend their design to a panel of technical judges.
GET INVOLVED
The Future City Competition is actively recruiting judges and mentors to support teams, regions, and to help encourage STEM skills in the future generation. Future City projects transform middle school students’ understanding of engineering and strengthens their teamwork, problem-solving, and project management skills. Registration for volunteers is open now at futurecity.org/register.