Engineering FYI, Part II, March 2010

A blog post in the Smithsonian Magazine online highlights the recent meeting of the Business and Industry STEM Coalition.

Among the initiatives of the Coalition, is to “double the number of college graduates with a bachelor’s degree in the four STEM disciplines by 2020.”

The article also highlighted Norm Augustine’s appearance at the meeting held in Washington, D.C., last week. Augustine, NJ D ’57, is the former CEO of Lockheed Martin and served for 16 years on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

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The Missouri Alpha Chapter of Tau Beta Pi, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, took part in the campus celebration of Engineers Week.

The campus celebration is a “107-year-old tradition” and features new events every year. This year the MO A Chapter hosted the Quiz Bowl Prelims.

Read more, from The Maneater, about the activities that celebrate E-Week and St. Patrick’s Day simultaneously

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Using a new technique “in which polymers automatically fall into place to create an integrated circuit,” researchers at MIT recently released details of their research on “how molecules in chips can self-assemble.”

While the researchers were the first to use the polymer, there is similar research being done by several companies, including Intel and Micron.

Read the article from IDG News (Network World Inc.) for more on how the smaller chips could change design and manufacturing costs.

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