Scott Adams, aka the creator of Dilbert, has written a post promoting the value of engineers in politics. Have a read.

 ”China’s leadership isn’t big on religion. And apparently they don’t see any upside in war. They handle their money wisely. They put a lot of energy into building infrastructure. And they care more about stability than human rights. In other words, they value efficiency over feelings. It’s exactly the way you’d expect a bunch of engineers to run a country. Obviously this approach has served China well.”

Food for thought.

‘Anything is possible when you follow your passion…’ That’s the message from the new campaign from the South Australian Government designed to encourage students to study maths and science and look to future careers in the field.

The campaign includes an interactive website, career ambassadors and a competition to win an ultimate worksite visit.

SA Deputy Premier, Kevin Foley announced, “We need more students thinking about careers in science, engineering and technology, as well as the mechanical, electrical and construction trades.” Adding, “Choosing the right subjects in the final years of high school is a vital prerequisite to working in these dynamic sectors.”

South Australia has a high demand for these industries, particularly due to defence, research, information technology and mining sectors.

This is an excellent resource for anyone considering their future. This campaign has the same core goals as EngVibe, so we’re big fans. Check it out, the main site is here:

 www.TheresMoreToIt.com.au

Overall, this is an outstanding initiative by the SA Government.

(Source: SouthAustralia.biz | Image: TheresMoreToIt)

James Willcox, a seventeen year old student from the Hunter School of Performing Arts has had the NASA experience with another round on the horizon.

The youth astronaut program involved a science and engineering challenge held in California. This challenge involved the design and build of Mars Rover-type model vehicle capable of going over rough terrain. No easy task.

For James one of the highlights of the trip was the chance to see the neutral buoyancy lab used for astronaut training.

After impressing the staff at NASA, James has been invited back in a teaching role. This is hopefully the next step towards a career as an astronaut. Big goals, good luck to him.

Source story from the Herald.

Were you jumping around the lounge playing Nintendo Wii games the other day? Did you turn around to your fellow Wii Sportsman and say, “What’s the next step after these motion-controlled games? I reckon we should try and make a console that uses your brain to control the game.  We’ll be millionaires!”

Well, you are too slow. This article covers an Australian company, Emotiv Systems, who have done exactly that.  CEO and co-founder Nam Do says, “Our vision for the future communications between man and machine is that it’s not going to be limited to conscious control, but non-conscious interaction will play a big part.”

Can’t beat them to market, why not join them: Senior C / C++ Software Engineer / Architect - Sydney,  Research Scientist - Sydney

Do you want to be one who contributes to making the world a better place to live in? A US brains trust has come up with the top 14 challenges that you need to start working on.

This is the list, networkworld has the rest of the info.

• Make solar energy affordable

• Provide energy from fusion

• Develop carbon sequestration methods

• Manage the nitrogen cycle

• Provide access to clean water

• Restore and improve urban infrastructure

• Advance health informatics

• Engineer better medicines

• Reverse-engineer the brain

• Prevent nuclear terror

• Secure cyberspace

• Enhance virtual reality

• Advance personalised learning

• Engineer the tools for scientific discovery

Year 12 students who are considering a career in science, engineering and technology are getting a taste at the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF).

The NYSF is a two week program held at the Australian National Uni in Canberra where approximately 140 students get the opportunity to visit leading research institutions, meet scientists and engineers and gain a greater understanding on what options are available to them. 

The program covers pure research, applied research and engineering in both physical and biological sciences in equal doses. The focus for human biology is on biomedical research and biotech, so students come away with a broad appreciation of the profession.

After the intensive fortnight in January, students participate in uni seminars and industry site visits in March and April and remain in contact with the network of professionals and other students met throughout the program. 

These summer programs are a great chance to see firsthand the opportunities available. This forum looks similar to the Honeywell Engineering Summer School another great initiative. Good luck to everyone, coordinators and students – I’m sure everyone involved can look forward to a great couple of weeks of science ahead.

For more information about the program and for information about applying for next year (‘The people that go the NYSF aren’t your stereotypical science geek at all! – NYSF site) visit the official website. Fore more, read a detailed Wikipedia article and an article about one of the participants, Sophie Dawson (pictured), on the AdelaideNow website.

In a similar vein to the engineering policy guide for the Rudd/Howard election (see here), Popular Mechanics has created a science and technology election guide for the 08 elections.

The guide lists 11 presidential candidates and their policies relating to eight key issues; Automotive, Digital/Technology, Energy/Climate, Environment, Gun Control, Infrastructure, and Science/Education.

Five Democrat (Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Richardson) and six Republican (Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul, Romney, Thompson) candidates are included.

Check it here.

If you like that, you might also be interested in Digg The Candidates.

A survey by Graduate Careers Australia has shown that Australian grads are being employed at the highest levels since 1990 and engineering grads doing particularly well.

Across all disciplines 84.5% of grads found full time employment within four months, up 2 percentage points from the previous year. 

Engineering remained the fourth highest paying graduate profession, $50k across all professions; after the health services (dentistry, optometry and medicine).

Rates of employment with in the engineering industry were high notably mining engineering (98.7 per cent) and civil engineering (97.8 per cent). 

For more data download the survey from Graduate Careers Australia, their website is at www.graduatecareers.com.au . An interesting read.

The nationwide interest in the drought and global warming has been reflected in students selecting subjects related to the environment.

First preference applications for agriculture, environment and related studies are up a huge 108 per cent this year, according to figures from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre.

This major increase has had a side effect to other science subjects including chemistry and physics.

Melbourne Uni Dean of Science Prof Peter Rathjen says applications for their Bachelor of Science degrees are up 98 per cent this year. ‘That’s unbelievable. If you look around the country, there is a swing in demand back to science.’

For the first time next year, Melbourne Uni is offering a Bachelor of Environments degree, which is a combined effort between the Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering, Science and Land Food Resources faculties and form part of the uni’s new Melbourne Model approach. With so many faculties, I’m sure you would gain an appreciation for the environment spending so much time walking around the various parts of the campus.

Those figures really are impressive, so congrats to Al Gore and everyone else who made these issues so important, looks like that Peace Prize might have been justified. Read more from the Herald Sun.

According to the latest Olivier Internet Job Index, despite 13/21 sectors recording a seasonally adjusted decrease in advertisements in November, the tech sector recorded an increase of 2.29%.  Much of the growth was in software development and engineering roles (3.59%), which have now risen 50.83% in the past year.  Read The Oz’s article here.