Engineers Week (EWeek) is an annual campaign sponsored by a coalition of professional engineering association and corporations, aimed at increasing public awareness of engineers' contributions to our society by celebrating innovation and technology, sustaining and growing a dynamic engineering profession by seeding and nurturing a future work force of innovative engineers through an education outreach initiative spanning kindergarten thru high school, and expanding the pool of skilled, creative engineering talent by reaching out to diverse individuals through educational initiatives.

IBM is co-chairing the EWeek 2008 campaign with the Chinese Institute of Engineers - USA, Sam Palmisano is serving as honorary chair, and the theme is Diversity in Engineering. IBM's leadership of EWeek 2008 is a testament both to the importance of the event's focus on driving a stronger, more diverse engineering profession, as well as the value the program brings in meeting the challenges of a rapidly expanding, global workforce.

John Kelly, IBM Sr. Vice President and Director of Research is actively involved as IBM's executive liaison to the EWeek coalition. Bob DeAngelis and Laura Kosbar are the co-coordinators of the Watson Research Center activities for EWeek.

We participate in this campaign by sending our technical people to visit local schools, where they share personal experiences derived from their technical careers and demonstrate examples of technical/engineering projects. Our volunteers aim to provide students and teachers with a flavor of how the subjects they study in school, namely mathematics and science, are put to use in productive technical careers.

A special event, the IBM EWeek Design Challenge - EWDC 2008, will be held at the Watson Research Center on May 7th, 2008.

One may think of this competition as an "engineering fair," analogous to the more common "science fair" that many schools hold for their students. For the rules of the competition and a list of teams that entered, go to the IBM EWeek Design Challenge - EWDC 2008.

Information on the Design Challenge events of the previous seven years:

• IBM Musical Instrument Design Challenge - MIDC 2001
• IBM Future School Design Challenge - FSDC 2002
• IBM Future School Design Challenge - FSDC 2003
• IBM Future School Design Challenge - FSDC 2004.
• IBM EWeek Design Challenge - EWDC 2005.
• IBM EWeek Design Challenge - EWDC 2006.
• IBM EWeek Design Challenge - EWDC 2007.