Group encourages blacks to become, and remain, engineers

Engineering a strategy for growth

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

By Corilyn Shropshire, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Carl Mack, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers, speaks to reporters yesterday about his group's upcoming convention March 29 to April 2 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Click photo for larger image.

If the large percentages of black children dropping out of high school continues, the number of African-American engineers in the United States -- already small -- could shrink to nothing, a trade group warned yesterday.

"We're no different than dinosaurs looking at a meteor heading right toward us -- because we're headed to our own extinction," warned Carl Mack, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

Mr. Mack, speaking to reporters at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center to promote the group's annual conference to be held here late this month, blamed the low numbers of black students pursuing engineering degrees or dropping out altogether on teachers who, untrained in teaching math and science, don't make it enjoyable subject matter. He also cited the absence of strong mentors and visible examples of successful black engineers.

Blacks received 3,276, or about 5.2 percent, of the engineering degrees earned in the United States in 2002, the most recent year for which numbers are available, and compose about 6.2 percent of the science, technology and engineering work force, said Eric Addison, managing editor of NSBE magazine.

Moreover, blacks only make up about 36,000, or 2.6 percent, of the 1.4 million working engineers in the United States -- even though blacks represent roughly 12 percent of the overall population. "We haven't seen any evidence of a major gain in the numbers of black engineers," Mr. Addison said.

That, coupled with the recent reports, such as one published this month for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that said half of black students do not finish high school, is a death knell for the future of black engineers in the United States, Mr. Mack said. "It's impossible to think that NSBE will exist with the devastation we see in K-12," Mr. Mack said.

His organization, which has 17,000 members, the majority of them engineering students, is working to steer more young adults into the professional field and to help those already there. Black engineers must step in where educators and parents, ill-equipped to help children with math and science course work, have fallen short, Mr. Mack said.

The group spent $250,000 last year to launch an online tutoring program for students in kindergarten through high school who need math and science homework assistance. The program, he said, was open to elementary and secondary school students who pay NSBE's $5 membership fee.

NSBE also is developing a summer program that will focus on immersing third- through fifth-graders in math and science, he said. "There's a lot of problems that we see, and we think that the NSBE can be a solution to that," Mr. Mack said.

NSBE's annual conference will be held March 29 through April 2 at the convention center. About 12,000 students and technical professional are expected to attend, which Mr. Mack estimated could generate tens of millions in conference and tourism revenue for Pittsburgh.

What type of engineer are we talking about here? Civil, or Financial? Let's be honest here and ask ourselves, "What does it take to be an engineer?"

1 HS Grad (not even close)
2 College Grad (atleast)
3 Graduate School MA/Phd (ok, your there)

Now tell me how many blacks are hurly from step 1 to step 2, let along moving from step 2 to step 3?

Engineering is one of those industries that is suffering nationally. Internationals are literally cramming out American Nationals when it comes to PhD dissertations. Seperately, there is far less of an incentive to become an engineer, present day, versus say in the 1970s.

quote:

Originally posted by blackblogger:
What type of engineer are we talking about here? Civil, or Financial? Let's be honest here and ask ourselves, "What does it take to be an engineer?"

1 HS Grad (not even close)
2 College Grad (atleast)
3 Graduate School MA/Phd (ok, your there)

Now tell me how many blacks are hurly from step 1 to step 2, let along moving from step 2 to step 3?

Engineering is one of those industries that is suffering nationally. Internationals are literally cramming out American Nationals when it comes to PhD dissertations. Seperately, there is far less of an incentive to become an engineer, present day, versus say in the 1970s.

Agreed but I would focus on incoming freshmen high school student if I was them. You would have better odds of students possibly pursuing this field. And plus they would be fairly familiar with the rigors required in college.

I have seen more ill prepared high school in college switch to engineering major disasters than high school prep to college pursuing engineering.

But your right even "hippie" engineer is sweating blood drops with China and India on the horizon.

Search their site for book and books. Do they have any suggestions for books on math, science or engineering?

I found a couple of mentions of sci-fi by Octavia Butler but although I like some of her books I wouldn't suggest any for learning about science of engineering.

umbrarchist

Anyone can spare a 'special' brother $75 to $400 dollars. That is how much an aspiring engineer has to fork over to get inside 'special' events.

Slicing and dicing left overs. Its kind of ironic since Pittsburgh is not considered the best of surroundings for saying "we're headed to our own extinction". Pittsburgh steel industry collapse under political and economical interest. There is no more steel industry to boast of in Pittsburgh and its rusting fast. Will the same happen to NSBE?



Tuesday, March 28, 2006
By Ervin Dyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The National Society of Black Engineers rolls its much-expanded presence into town tomorrow, bringing with it a wide-ranging examination of black Americans and their role in an ever-expanding technological world.



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Group encourages blacks to become, and remain, engineers



Dozens of nationally known speakers and more than 10,000 people are expected for five days of community events, workshops and awards sessions all tied to the conference's theme: Building the FIRE, or the Foundation to Impact, Revitalize and Empower.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, Mayor Bob O'Connor and schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt are expected to join group officials and others to kick off the conference tomorrow.

The society, spread over six geographic regions, has 300 chapters and has been in existence since 1975. But as a group it has catered mostly to college students and stayed mostly under the radar. A conference in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s was a significantly smaller affair that went largely unnoticed.

Today, Carl B. Mack, a former president of the Seattle NAACP and a mechanical engineer, is determined to bring what he called "America's best-kept secret" out of the dark.

Mr. Mack is not shy about addressing what he calls a dearth of black professionals in the engineering fields and is poised to involve the organization in changing that.

Nationally, blacks make up about 36,000, or 2.6 percent, of the 1.4 million working engineers in the United States -- even though blacks represent roughly 12 percent of the overall population.

Increasing those figures, said Mr. Mack, is tantamount to self-preservation. If the numbers don't get higher, he said, the NSBE would struggle to exist.

To address the level of minorities in engineering, Mr. Mack is positioning the NSBE to be mission-oriented by telling its members to volunteer in schools and be a resource that is lacking in the home.

"If there is a crisis in the country," he said, "it needs a solution and NSBE can be the solution."

To turn the tide, the society has launched a $25,000 online tutoring program for kindergarten through high school students and is developing a summer program to immerse third- and fifth-graders in math and science.

Before the conference wraps up on Sunday, delegates will debate the role of women in technology, host a math competition, launch rockets from Point State Park and examine roles for black engineers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans.

A few high-profile names in business and engineering will weigh in during the conference, including: Randal Pinkett, the first African American to win on Donald Trump's TV show "Apprentice"; Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd of Johns Hopkins University, the first black woman to earn a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University; Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University; and National Public Radio journalist Ed Gordon, who will host the black-tie Golden Torch Awards on Thursday night.

A large part of the conference is the national jobs exhibition, the graduate student fair, designed to interest students in advanced technical degrees, and free community activities that reach out to high school students of color to interest them in engineering careers.

The National Society of Black Engineers, based in Alexandria, Va., is expecting that 10,000 attendees will be family and pre-college students, 7,000 will be undergraduate or graduate students, 1,000 will be technical professionals from across the country and 300 corporate members.

Conference-goers are expected to fill the city's 3,500 Downtown hotel rooms and will spill out into 7,000 rooms in other nearby lodgings. The four-day conference, the largest convention this year, is expected to drop $37 million into the city's coffers. The conference runs through Sunday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. Most activities start at 9 a.m.

NSBE is one of the largest student-managed organizations in the world. Students do all the planning, budgeting and administration for the conference.

For entertainment, there are comedy and gospel shows.

A free Pre-College Community Day is scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Students must be accompanied by an adult to attend workshops on mentoring, health and engineering. There will be a math-athon competition and a model rocket launch. Lunch is free for the first 200 and dress is casual.

Paid registration, from $75 to $400, is required for most events.

For more information, or to register, visit www.nsbe.org and click on the Pittsburgh '06 link.

The conference is supported by local corporations, including Alcoa, PPG Industries, U.S. Steel, and by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.