The IEEE Boise Section is pleased to announce

the upcoming Engineers Week Banquet

Featuring guest speaker Gordon Day, 2009 President of IEEE-USA
“Prosperity, Innovation, and Engineering Brain Power”

When: Wednesday, February 17, 6:30 (doors open 6:15)

Where: BSU’s Student Union Building Lookout Room

Banquet registration

Banquet registration URL:
http://www.surveybob.com/surveybob/s/55f4c3c4-4460-4741-9599-08f239a32588.html

If innovation is the key to American competitiveness and prosperity in the 21^st century, then engineering brain power is the essential ingredient.  Engineers create jobs, perhaps more than any other profession.  Through the development of their ideas, existing companies grow and new companies are born.  This talk will explore the public policy aspects of maintaining a vibrant engineering workforce by examining five important questions:  Who thinks we need more (or fewer) engineers?  What are the trends?  Is the flat world a threat, an opportunity, or a strategy?  If we need more engineers, should we grow them or import them?  How do we show our children that engineers change the world?

Gordon Day was the 2009 President of IEEE-USA, the unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that supports the career and public policy interests of 210,000 IEEE members in the U.S.  He is also a past president of the IEEE Photonics Society, and a candidate for IEEE President-elect in the 2010 election.  Day spent 33 years in research and management at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, Laboratories, where he contributed to some of NIST’s best known research in optoelectronics.  In 1994, he founded the NIST Optoelectronics Division and guided it to an international reputation for measurements and standards.  Since retiring in 2003, he has served as a science advisor to Sen. Jay Rockefeller and as Director of Government Relations for the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association.  He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the AAAS, the Optical Society of America, and the Institute of Physics (UK).  He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Elisa H. Barney Smith
EBarneySmith@boisestate.edu
208-426-2214