Get Connected

"The motions and patterns and connections of things became apparent on a gut level."

-- Robyn Davidson, author Desert Places

Kimberly Chapple
Editor

What does this quote mean to you? What do you think about the word "connect"? Internet connections? Did a connection get you tickets to the big game? Does a new line of connectors designed to handle voltages of up to 400V and line current of up to 16 Amps come to mind?

Or, as design engineers, are you thinking about how your engineering designs and technological breakthroughs connect you to our Earth -- and each other -- in many invisible ways? "What we do is all around you," says Leo Peters, president, The American Consulting Engineers Council and 2000 chair, National Engineers Week. Of course, you are conscious of this, but who else is?

This month some of you will participate in National Engineers Week during which a consortium of more than 100 engineering, scientific and education societies, as well as major corporations will help increase public awareness and appreciation of technology through hundreds of events nationwide. Sponsoring organizations with Designfax readers include Boeing, Chevron, DaimlerChrysler, Eastman Chemical, Eastman Kodak, GE, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Rockwell and 3M. This year's emphasis is on Earth's current environment (that includes you and me as a carbon-based species called humans) and creating a sustainable future.

I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything better to do February 20-26. What is more important than helping make people -- especially children -- aware of the existence of technology and their role in its application? And how does that not affect YOU directly? Who better than design engineers can explain how life is a series of never-ending connections and balances? That it's imperative to acknowledge the present and imagine the future? That each action causes a reaction? And each choice has a consequence? (OK, I know, this is yet another issue that "starts at home." But if someone's home is not providing the guidance or thought-provoking stimulation to allow a child to experience his or her own insights, then don't we have an obligation to help fix the problem?) Kids need our help. Schools need our help. The environment needs our help. If not us whom, and if not now, when?

I'm not alone in my thinking. Writes Dr. Paul MacCready, one of the world's most admired design engineers, "Over billions of years, on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life -- complex, improbable, wonderful, and fragile. Suddenly we humans, (a recently arrived species no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature), have grown in population, technology and intelligence to a position of terrible power: we now wield the paintbrush."

I say, we're ready for a renaissance. Who's got the canvas?

kchapple@designfax.net

"To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream, not only plan, but also believe." -- Anatole France, 1921 Nobel Laureate in Literature