NEWS RELEASE

Guiding Principles For Improving Engineering’s Public Image Released:

Focus Is On Attracting Youth To Engineering Studies And Careers

June 26, 2006   

Menlo Park, CA-To meet an identified critical need, a 10-point set of guiding principles for establishing a “new and improved” image for engineering and engineers – one designed to be particularly compelling in regards to attracting today’s youth to engineering studies and careers – has been issued today by Engineers Dedicated to a Better Tomorrow (a.k.a., DedicatedEngineers) in a document entitled, “Improving Engineering’s Public Image: Ten Guiding Principles”. The document addresses engineering’s current public image (cited as being “all over the map”) before setting forth the ten developed principles which focus on “piggybacking” on the image of scientists while also emphasizing design, creativity/inventiveness, real-world impact, job satisfaction, teamwork, and real-world engineers. 

“Given declining student interest in pursuing engineering careers, along with a failure to achieve gender and minority diversity on a par with other scientific fields,⁽¹⁾ it is critically important that we establish a highly compelling image of engineering and engineers specifically aimed at attracting youth to the profession,” stated Jeff Staudinger, the Executive Director of DedicatedEngineers. “Engineering should be as universally attractive of a career to youth as becoming a doctor, lawyer, or research scientist, but it’s not because we remain the ‘stealth profession’ to many people, while many others hold inaccurate or incomplete views of who engineers are and what they do. We obviously need to change this situation, and this document offers a set of common sense principles designed to help guide both ongoing and new efforts aimed at doing so.” 

The cited document is available online; printed copies can also be requested by contacting DedicatedEngineers as noted above. 

Engineers Dedicated to a Better Tomorrow (a.k.a., DedicatedEngineers) is a charitable/educational non-profit [IRS 501(c)(3)-approved] dedicated to “making a difference,” both in terms of advancing the engineering profession, as well as in helping improve the world through the practice of engineering.

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⁽¹⁾ Two new reports simultaneously issued today by DedicatedEngineers identify engineering as an academic field of study which substantially lags other scientific fields in achieving both gender and racial/ethnic diversity in its graduating baccalaureate classes. The reports are:

--- “Women in Engineering & Related Fields – Diversity Analysis of Students Earning Bachelor’s Degrees”

--- “Minorities in Engineering & Related Fields – Diversity Analysis of Students Earning Bachelor’s Degrees”