White House Joins Grand Challenge for Engineering

This is a brief post by the National Academies on how President Obama and the National Economic Council is creating a joint effort with the National Academy of Engineering in order to combat the joblessness rate of the country. Previous administrations did not necessarily listen to their economists, so now the unemployment rate is much higher than it has been in the recent past. The reason why I am writing on this post is because I am glad that the leader of our country and the Free World is using all the resources available to fix this economic crisis. Although much progress has been made, there is still more to overcome, mostly the unemployment rate. It is about time that the National Academy of Engineering has been called upon because every facet of the economy and industry is understood by one tract of engineering or another. Collectively, engineering is the most diverse industry, so it makes extreme sense to me that the engineering community has been called upon in this time of pain for many in the country.

Polymers are Forever

"Polymers are Forever" by Weisman raises the question of how to deal with all the plastics that the world economy is producing. I have a problem with this article in that the author seems to complain about how much plastic is in the world and how long it will take for it to biodegrade, yet the world uses so much plastic that it is not feasible to think that the world could ever stop using them in an amount that would do anything to help the environment. I also think that if all the plastics end up in the one area of the Pacific that boats don't venture into anyways, then why not use that space as the "ocean fill".

Stereotype Threat: Causes, Effects, and Remedies

https://www.courses.miami.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_270898_1&frame=top

This article is about the stereotypes that keep women away from engineering. The amount of women that are in the engineering field is staggeringly low, and also a very unfortunate to society in general. Women bring a different perspective to most things than men, so not having their input has a drastic effect. Since the engineering field is one that requires peer editing of ideas, and the more people there are to brainstorm the further technology advances, especially when there are many different perspectives dissecting the same ideas.
The causes of women not being in engineering is both self-inflicted and society-imposed. A large reason is that many women feel like their performance in the classes must be better than their male colleagues because if not they will be looked down upon. Society also pictures women still in generic jobs and lifestyles. They are pictured as teachers and nurses, and even still stay-at-home moms.
This article outlines many different ways to combat these stereotypes. This includes ideas such as being more personal with all students so that women don’t feel singled out or all alone, and making teachers aware of how they teach the class so that they do not make subconscious comments that could be taken as sexist.
I firmly believe that women must be encouraged to be engineers. Their different perspectives, and attitudes help to advance the technology in ways that the male-dominated society may not have thought of.