Category Archives: Career

Information on jobs and careers in science and engineering.

K-12 Engineering Education

Program aims to steer students into engineering (site broke the link so I removed it – poor usability):

Throughout the year, they will use the same tools that engineers use in the field to learn concepts of mechanics and simple machines.
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Across the country, 27 universities have partnered with Project Lead the Way, a non-profit organization, to train high school and middle school educators planning to teach the program.
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Helm said one student in the program in Texas designed a thin and flexible life vest to fit more comfortably over foul-weather gear worn by shrimpers on the Gulf Coast.

“The Coast Guard liked it so much they bought the idea from her,” she said.

Learn more about Project Lead The Way and see more posts on other such projects: Middle School Engineers (another post on project lead the way which includes many related links) – Directory of Science Education Sites – Engineering Education Program for k-12 – Inspiring Students to be Engineers

Google India Looking for Engineers

Google not finding right talent in India to suit its needs

Google, which is considered to have a very low attrition rate even in the high-job-hopping Indian IT space, has found it more challenging to hire certain talent in India as compared to other parts of the world, the company’s Founder-Director Kavitark Ram Shriram admitted recently.

The Indian origin founding board member of Google and a well-known venture capitalist said at an ‘investing in India’ conference in San Francisco, “I know first hand that we have had a bit more of a challenge trying to hire engineers for Google in Bangalore compared to the other parts of the world.”

Google even has a we’re hiring link on the Google India home page.

Recent articles also point to other companies having trouble finding Indian engineers to fill all the jobs they hoped to fill.

Inventor for Hire

Inventor for hire, Pioneer Press, Minnesota (update – sigh the newspaper removed the page, argh! poor usability):

Nicholas Powley, an MIT graduate, quit his engineering job at Guidant to work as a consultant and an inventor.
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“My whole goal is to make my life user-friendly so I can devote all my time to thinking,” he said.

One of Powley’s former professors calls him a “nouveau nerd,” someone with not only the requisite engineering knowledge, but also lots of people skills and business savvy.

Woodie Flowers, an engineering professor at MIT for 40 years, said America needs more Nick Powleys if it is to succeed against overseas competition. Engineers can no longer be the equation-spouting geek loners in the back room, he said.

Good luck Nicholas. The combination of engineering knowledge and business acumen is exactly what drive economic success and why those striving for healthy economies try to create as many Nicolas’ as possible. The article is very good but why do people write such articles without links to relevant web sites site still? Learn more at the Open Design Forum web site.

Update, Jan 2007 (update – sigh the newspaper removed this page too, argh!):

Powley has been inundated with requests from ordinary people who want him to help them make their invention ideas become reality since he was profiled Oct. 15 on the front page of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. But he said one beguiling request came from a group of top executives and sales people in the health care industry who read the story about the MIT graduate: Come work for them as the head of research and development for a new medical products company they want to create in New York City.

“It was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Powley said last week as he, his mother, his girlfriend and his business partner on a medical catheter cover he helped develop five years ago were driving to New York for a weekend business dinner. Powley said his partners want to remain unnamed for now. He was reluctant to say how much the position would pay him but he did say it was “fabulous.”

China’s Gene Therapy Investment

We have recently added a new blog to our offerings: the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog. For those of you interested in those topics I hope you will give it a try.

Our favorite economics radio (pre-podcast technology) show is Marketplace from National Public Radio. Today they have a story on China’s commitment to gene therapy as a economic strategy to get in on a potentially huge market: China bounds ahead in gene therapy.

This is happening at a time of conservatism toward gene therapy in the United States. Investment in the U.S. slowed after an 18-year-old Pennsylvania boy died in a gene therapy trial seven years ago. His parents filed a lawsuit. The Food and Drug Administration put other trials on hold.
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Patients in China are less likely to file lawsuits, and Chermak says Chinese regulators are more open-minded to new treatments. They see the slowdown in the United States as an opportunity to get ahead.

At the same time, a lot of Chinese researchers who studied in the U.S. are returning home because in China, you can get much more bang for your research buck.

This is an example of the future we discuss in: Diplomacy and Science Research

Science and Engineering Degrees – Career Success

Fortune magazine has selected the 50 most powerful women in business and selected 4 rising stars. It is another example (granted just an anecdote) illustrating that science and engineering degrees can pave the way to career success (also see: Top degree for S&P 500 CEOs? Engineering).

Shona Brown, Senior Vice President, Business Operations, Google, has a bachelor of computer systems engineering degree from Carleton University in Canada and a master’s degree in economics and philosophy from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. She received her Ph.D. and Post-Doctorate from Stanford University’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. Our management blog mentioned her last month: Chaos Management (by design) at Google – and her book, Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos.

Adriane Brown, President and CEO, Transportation Systems, Honeywell. Degree: environmental health from Old Dominion University.

Padmasree Warrior, EVP, Chief Technology Officer, Motorola – “received a M.S. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University, and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India.”
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Academic Positions in Singapore

A friend shared this with me and I decided to post the opportunities here. The National University of Singapore is looking for a Head of Department and faculty in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Feel free to apply directly, or let me know and I can put you in touch with my friend.

The National University of Singapore is ranked in the top 25 universities in the world by the Times (newspaper in London). The top 10 are:

Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge University
Oxford University
Stanford University

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500 Engineering Jobs for Texas

Dell, Perry announce 500 engineering jobs:

Dell, the world’s largest seller of personal computers, aims to attract a broad range of educated and experienced engineers, including electrical, mechanical and software engineers, as well as those holding doctorates, to expand the company’s commitment to technological design.

“Austin and Central Texas is the largest engineering recruiting site by far,” Dell said, adding that Texas college graduates will compose nearly 10 percent of new recruits.
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New jobs are likely to yield an annual income of $60,000 to $100,000.

Interesting, Dell is often criticised for not investing in technological innovation. They have often been seen as relying on manufacturing and business process (build to order system) innovation but not technological innovation. Maybe the recent stock price troubles have caused Dell to decide to invest in more technological innovation. Dell has stated they have greatly increase spending on customer service as a result of recent troubles.

UTexas: Engineering Career Podcasts

Introducing the Engineering Career Assistance Center Podcast

The University of Texas at Austin “ECAC provides resources for students ranging from resume tips, job counseling, workshops, internship and externship programs, and yearly career fairs.” I’m not sure why they require iTunes but that is the choice they made. It would seem better to me to make things available in formats that don’t require one particular player.

externs.com (affiliated with this blog) offers a directory of externships and internships. It is completely free: add your internship openings or search for opportunities. We will be making an effort to increase the science and engineering related opportunities. Please add your internship positions.

Sports Science Open Access Journal

Sport Science is a Peer-Reviewed Site for Sport Research (open access). An interesting recent publication: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Rowing Faster by Stephen Seiler:

Improvements in rowing technique have increased boat speed by reducing boat yaw, pitch and roll, and by improving the pattern of force application. New tools for real-time measurement and feedback of boat kinematics and force patterns are opening new approaches to training of individual rowers and to selection of rowers for team boats.

They also moderate a email list with items of interest including academic positions in areas such as: Mechanical Engineering, focusing on Biomechanics; Sports Physiologist; Exercise and Sport Science.

Engineering the Future Economy

Today most nations, that have their act together, realize high tech jobs and a highly educated workforce are a huge key to economic success and they (governments often, but also companies, rich individuals and foundations) are taking action to position their country to do well. Anyone that is serious about this should read about How to cultivate Your Own Silicon Valley.

Where’d The Whiz Kids Go? by Nick Perry:
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