engineering

A disproportionate percentage of Islamist radical actors, including suicide bombers, come from an engineering background. Why? Right wing and Islamist extremism seem to share this and other traits, while left wing extremism is more commonly associated with individuals from the humanities and social sciences. This is what we learn from "Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education", by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog. An obvious reason that engineers may be more often associated with groups that carry out bombings is that such groups recruit engineers…

Oh, The Onion. You are so wonderful and your take on the world of patents is so spot on that it hurts. What are patents for, anyways? Here's a bit of an excerpt from their 11 Step Program. Drop by the site to see the rest. Brilliant. Step 1: First, come up with something really cool, like a cheese grater that works in both directions. Oh shit, don’t steal that one! That’s mine! Step 2: Research the marketplace to find out if your idea is original or if some asshole has already stolen it from you . . . Step 11: Spend remainder of bitter, unnaturally truncated life filing lawsuits to protect…

As Dean Kamen, inventor of such amazing technologies as the the Segway human transporter and one of the world's most advanced robotic arm prostheses, often says: "Our nation is enamored with sports and entertainment, but how can we groom kids to become as passionate about innovation?" At the Festival's fascinating all-day X-STEM Symposium, presented by MedImmune next spring, you'll not only meet Dean but also a compendium of other renowned STEM visionaries to explore the passion and excitement of innovation! Prepare to be amazed and inspired as X-STEM Extreme, set for Tuesday, April 28, 2015…

The USA Science & Engineering Festival is proud to announce the return of Lockheed Martin as its 2016 Founding and Presenting Host and expanded outreach activities to engage our nation's youth in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). "The USA Science & Engineering Festival provides an essential introduction and gateway to the exciting world of STEM," said Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed Martin senior vice president and chief technology officer. "It's an exhilarating event not only for the students, but also for the parents, teachers, and professionals like me to get hands-on…

Guest Blog by Festival X-STEM Speaker Dr. Joe Schwarcz How do you inspire students toward careers in science, and combat scientific illiteracy at the same time? First, you spend two years planning the USA Science & Engineering Festival, the largest of its kind in the world. Then you rent the gigantic Washington Convention Center to host it and line up 3,000 displays, many of which feature hands-on activities. You organize more than 150 stage presentations by Nobel laureates, athletes, astronauts, engineers and scientists of all kinds. You invite the likes of Bill Nye the Science Guy,…

It is difficult to grasp the magnitude of what was accomplished not only this past weekend, but also the entire two years leading up to the 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival.  The official numbers from the Washington D.C. Convention Center reveal that over 325,000 attendees visited our Nation's Capital to partake in the largest celebration of STEM or as we have dubbed it- the Superbowl of STEM! In addition to our Expo Finale weekend, we reached over 180,000 students and teachers with our STEM initiative programs including our Nifty Fifty and X-STEM School Programs. Numbers of course…

Guest Blog By Lek KadeliActing Assistant Administrator in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) Each spring around the same time that so much of the country is swept up in the “madness” of amateur basketball tournaments, a dedicated team of employees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are finishing up preparations to host student teams for another hard-fought college challenge: EPA’s P3 student design competition for sustainability. While participants may not grab national headlines, the long-term benefits of their efforts have the…

Under the theme of "Start Your Journey," Caterpillar, as a major Festival sponsor and leader in STEM and skilled trades, is set to wow audiences at the Expo this month with a dynamic array of interactive exhibits and presentations designed to demonstrate the breadth of opportunities that exist at Caterpillar and Cat Dealerships around the country in STEM-related frontiers and career paths. Says Gwenne Henricks, Caterpillar's Vice President of Product Development & Global Technology & Chief Technology Officer: "We want attendees to leave with the impression that Caterpillar is an…

  Many people know Walmart as the largest corporate retailer in the world, but did you also realize it is a leading innovator and employer in STEM? At Festival Expo 2014, you'll discover in unforgettable ways this other side of Walmart, which this year is serving as an Americum-level Sponsor of the Festival! Walmart's imprint on STEM is significant worldwide, and is especially noted for: developing ways to make its foods more healthful by reducing sodium, sugar and fat; designing high-tech fleet trucks; working with farmers to produce better crop yields; creating energy-efficient retail…

You've heard the saying: Science is truly all around us. Get ready to discover how accurate this maxim really is as Science Buddies, an award-winning, non-profit resource in STEM for students, joins the USA Science & Engineering Festival as a major sponsor. Moreover, don't miss Science Buddies' exciting, hands-on exhibits for kids at the Festival Expo, which include delving into the physics of catapult launching and how to build your own robot "bugs" that follow light! It's a natural fit for us at Science Buddies to join with the Festival in sharing projects that encourage kids to keep…

By Travis Earles, Lockheed Martin Senior Manager, Advanced Material and Nanotechnology Initiatives “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.” -Carl Sagan, famed astronomer, astrophysicist and cosmologist   Imagine a world where we have the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale, where unique phenomena enable novel applications. A world where novel materials enable entirely new approaches to design and production that is faster and better than ever before. The nanotechnology exhibits at the upcoming USA Science & Engineering Festival will provide a…

The 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival, the nation's largest celebration of STEM, is just one month away! This FREE and open to the public event will take place April 26 & 27 at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. Over 250,000 attendees will experience the weekend of a lifetime with 3,000 hands on exhibits, 150 stage shows, including presentations from science celebrities Bill Nye and Michio Kaku, teacher development workshops, a Festival Book Fair and much much more! Here is just a sampling of the upcoming stage shows at the Festival Expo Finale: Learn From Mike Rowe of  TV's…

When it comes to wowing young learners with a wide array of exciting hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the Chevron STEM Zone exhibit ranks among the nation's best! Get ready when the "STEM Zone" lives up to its reputation during its debut at the Festival Expo in April, bringing to visitors a smorgasbord of dynamic, interactive science demonstrations in one 3600 square-foot location. Chevron, which joins the Festival this year as a major sponsor, has used its STEM Zone with great success as a popular science outreach extravaganza throughout the…

By Shawn Flaherty The first ever X-STEM: Extreme STEM Symposium—presented by Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune—kicks-off the 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo and Book Fair, hosted by founding and presenting sponsor Lockheed Martin.  Being held on April 24th at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in DC, X-STEM is a “TED-style” event for kids with talks by 50 of the nation's most noted science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals representing top universities, corporations, non-profits, and governmental agencies. “X-STEM is the perfect…

By Larry Bock  Co-Founder of USA Science Science & Engineering Festival  No doubt, the influences that move individuals into their chosen field of science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) are often as different as night and day, but one thing seems constant: most STEM professionals, in remembering how they made their selection, can trace that ¨A-ha!¨ moment back to a pivotal experience in their lives that connected them on an emotional level for the first time with their chosen line of work. That moment for scientist James E. West, inventor of the foil electret microphone,…

By Jeri Moses, Lockheed Martin Engineer When I tell people I work at Lockheed Martin, they often assume I work in finance or human resources. This is a strange assumption considering more than 50 percent of Lockheed Martin employees are technologists and engineers. But, females are underrepresented in engineering, particularly in computer science. I may be biased, but I think girls that code are cool. According to Girls Who Code, 74 percent of middle school girls express interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and yet this is not translating into higher education…

By Larry Bock  Co-Founder of USA Science Science & Engineering Festival  Engineers are some of the most necessary problem solvers on the planet. They conquer the daunting technological challenges -- both immediate and long-range -- that stand in the way of human progress and quality of life. You don't have to think long and hard to realize what our daily existence would be like without these innovators. Their imprint is everywhere - ranging from the water we drink, the cars we drive (and the roads and bridges on which we travel) to our iPhones and computers, and the programs that…

Archibald A. Alexander – Noted Design and Construction Engineer Best known for designing Washington, DC's Tidal Basin Bridge and Whitehurst Freeway; first black graduate of the University of Iowa's College of Engineering; served as territorial governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands Growing up in Iowa during the late 1880s, Archibald "Archie" Alexander remembers being warned that engineering was not something he could expect to succeed in as a black man. But he pushed forward anyway, later graduating in 1912 with a bachelor's degree in engineering from the State University of Iowa (now the…

By Stephanie C. Hill, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President and General Manager of Information Systems & Global Solutions Civil & 2014 Black Engineer of the Year If you want to make a difference in the world – a great place to start is as an engineer or scientist! During my 27 years at Lockheed Martin, I have had the privilege to support programs that are integral to our national security, and I’d like to share some examples of what is possible in a STEM-based career. I worked on systems that provide safe air travel and on a Persistent Surveillance Detection System (PTDS) that was known as…

Sometimes a book isn't quite what you expected. And you're disappointed. Sometimes a book isn't quite what you expected and you're pleasantly surprised. Chris Impey and Holly Henry's Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration definitely falls into the latter category. What was I expecting? From the subtitle I was hoping the book would be a fairly straightforward account of the history of unmanned space exploration -- all the missions, how they were planned, the engineering challenges involved in getting them off the ground, the logistical challenges of keeping…