WASHINGTON (12 February 2010) -- Coinciding with Engineers Week from 14-20 February, IEEE-USA is announcing $8,000 in scholarship awards and honoraria to be presented to five U.S. undergraduate students and to two professional journalists who add to the public understanding of engineering.
IEEE-USA ONLINE VIDEO COMPETITION: According to Nita Patel, IEEE-USA vice president of communications and public awareness, $5,000 in scholarship awards will be given to five undergraduates at three U.S. universities, who entered the organization's 2010 "How Engineers Make a World of Difference" online video competition: First Prize ($2,000) to Sergio Flores Castro, Miguel Murillo and Carolina Flores of UNLV; Second Prize ($1,500) to Zachary Phillips of LeTourneau University in Long View, Texas; and Third Prize ($1,000) to Carrie Hunter of Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College.
The three video entries were deemed most effective in reinforcing for an 11-to-13-year-old audience how engineers improve quality of life. Entries in the third annual IEEE-USA video competition profiled an engineer or technologies.
Pensacola Junior College's Hunter will also receive a $500 scholarship award for the most innovative and effective presentation of a video entry to the "tween" target audience. A representative of the first-prize team from UNLV will be recognized at the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., on 6 March.
The award-winning entries will also be featured in the first nationwide Web-based gathering of engineering students, an "Engineers Week Blast!" live from Howard University in Washington, D.C., on 18 Feb. from 8-9 p.m. ET, at http://www.ibroadcasts.tv/asce-live-webcast.html.
The three-judge video competition panel included: Andrew Quecan, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Stanford University; Suzette Aguilar, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin; and Nate Ball, mechanical engineer and host of PBS' "Design Squad."
According to IEEE-USA's Patel, the video competition was designed to be replicated in IEEE student sections both in and outside of the United States. IEEE-USA will launch its fourth video scholarship competition in September.
To view all of this year's award entries, go to http://www.youtube.com/ieeeusavideo.
IEEE-USA JOURNALISM AWARD: Additionally during Engineers Week, according to IEEE-USA Communications/Public Awareness Vice President Patel, the organization is presenting two $1,500 honoraria to recognize print and electronic journalists who have added to a greater public understanding of the contributions of engineering and computer professionals to society. The two recipients of the IEEE-USA journalism award are: Holly Morris from Fox 5 Morning News in Washington; and Randy Atkins from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), also in Washington.
Fox 5's Morris, who has a degree in civil and environmental engineering, was singled out for her coverage of the 2009 National Engineers Week Future City Competition. Atkins, NAE's senior program officer for media/public relations, was tapped for providing one-minute weekly radio features on WTOP Radio highlighting engineering innovations and stories that add technical context to issues in the news. Both will be recognized with the IEEE-USA Award for Literary Contributions Furthering Public Understanding of the Profession, at the organization's annual meeting in Tennessee's capital city.
IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 210,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE. http://www.ieeeusa.org