Engineering Trends: July 2009

According to the IEEE-USA, the unemployment rate for electrical engineers reached 8.6% in this year’s second quarter.

The unemployment rate for all engineers was reported to have increased to 5.5%. Gordon Day, IL A ’66, President of the IEEE-USA, reacted to the record-setting unemployment rate by saying, “We’re surprised by the size of the jump in the unemployment rate and have no basis to predict where it will go from here.” Read the article

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South Dakota School of Mines and Technology announced that university researchers have been awarded nearly $21 million in research and development funding during the Fiscal Year 2009.

The amount is a university record and more than double the $10.1 million received in Fiscal Year 2008. There were a total of 92 awards given to Mines researchers with an approximate average of $227,000 per award. Read news release

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As a follow-up to the recent article in The BENT detailing
T. Boone Pickens’ energy plan (A Closer Look at the T. Boone Pickens Energy Plan, Roan & Uhrig, 2009), it has been reported that Mr. Pickens has suspended his plans to build the world’s largest wind farm.

Many factors were cited by Mr. Pickens, including a lack of transmission lines and a fall-off in the price of natural gas.
Read a related article from The New York Times.

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