If Only Snooki Had Learned to Use Power Tools
In today’s celebrity culture it’s easy to appreciate why the average teenager might believe their only options in life are MTV or the NBA. Introducing children to new experiences and perspectives can...
View ArticleSpace Exploration: Designing a Future for Young Engineers
My 7-year-old son is always talking about what he wants to be when he grows up. “I want to build spaceships,” he tells me. So when I returned recently from a trip to the National Space Symposium in...
View ArticleIndustry Involvement Key in STEM Education
The premise that Mark Zuckerberg holds the fate of the United States in his sweaty little hands is highly debatable, and, well, nauseating. But the general idea behind President Obama’s recent tour of...
View ArticleElementary Class Spends a Day With Engineers
Students from Boston Renaissance Charter Public School—the largest elementary school in Boston—headed to PTC headquarters last month to get some hands-on engineering experience. The group of 3rd and...
View ArticleEngineering Companies Offer Best Internships
Natalia Baryshnikova takes a rare break from her work planning a new sustainability program, from scratch, for the technology company where she interns. It’s been a frantic summer of preparing for the...
View ArticleIndustry Looks to High Schools for Next-Generation Engineers
As she begins to describe her work, Paige Grody transforms from serious and solemn to wildly enthusiastic. She’s learned about programming in her internship at a major software corporation, and about...
View ArticleInside American R&D – Part II: Big Cuts on Campus
Across the Charles River from Harvard University’s historic main campus is a huge vacant lot surrounded by a temporary fence. This site in Boston’s Allston neighborhood was to have become a $1 billion,...
View ArticleInside American R&D – Part IV: The Road Ahead
Rising Above the Gathering Storm. That was the ominous title of a report by a commission of respected scientists who urged fast action to confront increased foreign competition and flat federal and...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Product Lifecycle Stories!
Contrary to what I’ve been told by family and friends, I strongly believe everyone should have a full month to celebrate their birthday. It’s perfectly acceptable to frequently remind people it’s your...
View ArticleBid to Boost Women Engineers Abroad Works Both Ways
When 42 technology-minded women from the Middle East and North Africa were paired up with mentors from the United States, it was hard to tell who learned more from the experience. TechWomen, a...
View ArticleEngineers and Scientists Get the Gift of the Gab
Bob the Stem Cell, all squiggly lines and eyes, stares out from under a hard hat at an audience of 500 people in Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre. “He was a construction worker once, and built up all our...
View ArticleHigh Demand for Civil Engineers as Infrastructure Repairs Become Critical
Between the endless fiscal problems, the divisive politics, and the response from the thirsty Republican senator, it was easy to miss one of the most dramatic moments of President Barack Obama’s State...
View ArticleShouldn’t We Know What a Meteor Is?
Today I happened across the March edition of Space Watch, a newsletter sent out by the Space Foundation. The top story—entitled Not Necessarily Smarter Than the Dinosaurs—got my attention. The article...
View ArticleVideo Games Help Promote Engineering and Science
All over the world more and more of us are playing video games. According to a Business Insights report, by 2015 they’ll be 150 million social gamers in the United States alone. Sixty-seven percent of...
View Article15 Ways to Spot a Future Engineer
Are some people natural born engineers? Does engineering ability run in the family, like artistic or musical talent? Engineering is hot right now, and continues to top the list of highest-paying...
View ArticleDon’t Worry; Today’s Kids Are Smarter Than You Think
Quick – what is the temperature at which water boils? Correct, 100 degrees. But what about in Fahrenheit? Yes, 212. But did you know this when you were seven years old? Last weekend, my son and husband...
View ArticleArt, Design Educational Needs Pushing STEM To STEAM
A push for better U.S. art and design education is changing STEM to STEAM. Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) have long been the Holy Grail of a U.S. drive for improved education,...
View ArticleScience-Minded Kids to Show Projects at MIT
The weather is finally turning to Spring… so what’s up for the weekend? At our house, the schedule is often packed with the kids’ sports and other activities and the weekends fly by too fast. But,...
View ArticleStanford Builds Strong Innovators with New “Design Thinking” Curriculum
PALO ALTO, California—The skylit atrium that serves as the centerpiece of Stanford University’s d.school spans two of the campus’s stately old red-tile-roofed, Spanish Revival-style academic buildings....
View ArticleManufacturing Growth Holds Less Promise for Women
Today in the United States more women graduate college, they make up nearly half of the working population, and one-third of women out-earn their spouse. So why are women losing their footing in the...
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