Imagine a world without engineers. No bridges! No tunnels! No sewer systems! Wouldn't that be a mess? No big ships, or rockets to the moon, or V-8 engines, or diesel locomotives! Wouldn't that be be really really really boring? No"Invalid Boot.ini" or "Windows could not start" error messages! Wouldn't you miss that? Okay, maybe not.
Despite that last bit, Telstar Logistics would like to join President George W. Bush in a high-five of bipartisan appreciation for America's hard-working engineers during this National Engineer's Week, which runs from February 18-24, 2007. As explained on the eweek.org website:
Engineers Week, a formal coalition of more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies, was founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers. The program is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers' contributions to society.
And so today, when you fire up your spreadsheet, or turn on your coffee maker, or drive your luxurious automobile across a safe and secure overpass, please pause for a moment to remember the engineers who made these modern marvels possible. This week, we salute you!
Hat tip: Jennifer Johnson Avril
(Above: Construction of the new Bay Bridge eastern span across San Francisco Bay, 2006. Photo by Telstar Logistics.)
I really have hugged a potential engineer today. I hugged him before he went to work today, making sandwiches. Tomorrow he starts five and half years of university slog and I will be paying the bills.
I come from a long line of engineers, my father, mechanical and electrical and I said I'd never marry one. First husband, aeronautical, second husband, geotechnical and now son, looking at civil.
In truth, I dont know what else my boy is cut out for. His books are unintelligible to me and that was in school. He has that kind of mind and interest way beyond school hours and in fact, school was incidental.
My hope is that he will be rewarded, realistically but not excessively for all the years he squirrels away around the clock with his particular propensity for numbers, physics, chemistry and the mathematics of strange shapes. I hope we all benefit from what he will contribute with these skills that I find fascinating but nevertheless, unfathomable.
Posted by: KT | 24 February 2007 at 05:08 PM