By Honolulu District Public Affairs
FORT SHAFTER, HI -- More than 150 members of Hawaii's engineering community, including engineers from the Honolulu District, will gather at the Hale Koa's Banyan Tree Showroom Feb. 22 for a luncheon to kick off Engineers Week 2011, which runs Feb. 20 to 26.
More than 150 members of Hawaii's engineering community, including engineers from the Honolulu District, will gather at the Hale Koa's Banyan Tree Showroom Feb. 22 for a luncheon to kick off Engineers Week 2011, which runs Feb. 20 to 26.
"Engineers Week is a great opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of our professional engineers, architects, and surveyors," said Todd Barnes, chief of Engineering & Construction, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District and past post president, Society of American Military Engineers (SAME).
The celebration of National Engineers Week was started in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers in conjunction with President George Washington's Birthday. President Washington is considered the nation's first engineer, notably for his surveying work.
Jointly hosted by the Honolulu Post of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) and the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies (HCES), the kickoff luncheon will feature keynote speaker, Jeff Chang, Engineering Program Manager, Engineering Branch of the Airports Division, Department of Transportation, State of Hawaii, who will speak on the Airports Modernization Program.
Barnes and his staff orchestrated the District's Engineers Week activities in concert with John Ramos, chair of the HCES and the Honolulu Post of SAME.
Engineers Week activities include: signing of an Engineers Week Proclamation and photo opportunity with Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz on Feb. 23; signing an Engineers Week Proclamation and photo opportunity with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle Jan 29; Engineers Week exhibits at Pearlridge Mall from many engineering organizations will be set up for display from Feb. 20 to Feb. 23; and
attendance at the Engineers Week Awards Banquet Feb. 26 in DeRussy Hall at the Hale Koa Hotel, which will be attended by more than 250 members and friends of the 17 organizations within the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies plus invited local VIPs and dignitaries. The Corps supports these events.
Honolulu District engineers will also be gearing up for the 2011 MATHCOUNTS competition with the Oahu events to be held Feb. 19 at Punahou School's, Case Middle School where they will volunteer their services as moderators, proctors and scorers.
Sixth, seventh and eighth graders from more than 36 Oahu public and private schools will participate in the competition. Respective winners from Oahu, Maui and the Island of Hawaii will meet for the State MATHCOUNTS championship on Oahu at Iolani School on March 5. State winners advance to the National MATHCOUNTS held May 5-8 in Washington, D.C. The MATHCOUNTS Program is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers to emphasize the importance of mathematical skills in the development of future technology and encourage students to excel in these areas.
MATHCOUNTS builds skills, promotes strategic problem solving and challenges students to sharpen their analytical abilities by bringing together sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in a lively exchange of mathematical ideas through competition.
For the past years, several societies’ consulting engineering firms & manufacturing companies, the student groups from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and the robotics clubs from local high schools have gathered at Kahala Mall and displayed projects that they had been working on and entering in competitions. It turned out to be a great success. Not only did it achieve the goal of public outreach, but students or engineers were also able to practice their presentation skills and receive positive feedback from a range of people. The purpose of the displays and interactive exhibits sponsored by HCES during Engineers Week is to improve the public image of the engineering profession and to stimulate qualified students in public and private schools to choose careers in engineering and in related science fields.
The 2011 event will be focusing on “the future of engineering” once again. HCES is inviting the societies’ consulting engineering firms & manufacturing companies, the UHM student groups and the high school’s robotic clubs to participate in this event that will showcase their respective projects as well as to allow interaction with the public and to excite others about the engineering profession. The static portion of their exhibits will be on display at Pearlridge Shopping Center from February 20 through February 23, 2011. On February 26, HCES is inviting the participating students at the high school’s robotic clubs to perform demonstrations from 10 a.m.to 2 p.m. (times are tentative).
The guest speaker for the 2011 Engineers Week banquet is Wayne Y. Yoshioka, the Director of Transportation Services for the City and County of Honolulu. He will provide a presentation on Honolulu Rail Transit covering project time line, budget/funding, preliminary engineering, transit-oriented development, and its relationship to other transportation capital improvement projects.
Also coinciding with this year’s Engineers’ Week activities is the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Engineering Career Fair that will be held Feb. 18. The Corps always supports this outreach event.
The Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies is chaired by John Ramos and is composed of: the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACEI); American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii (ACECH); American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI); Engineers and Architects of Hawaii (EAH); Filipino American League of Engineers and Architects (FALEA); Hawaii Association of Land Surveyors (HALS); Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE); The Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc (IEEE); Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE); Society of American Military Engineers (SAME); Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii (SEAOH); the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE); the University of Hawaii College of Engineering; American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) and Engineers without Borders - Honolulu (EWB).
For more information about Engineers Week, contact: John Ramos, Chair of the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies at (808) 956-6597.