NCEES Engineering Award
(From the NCEES publication LICENSURE EXCHANGE, April 2009, ISSN NO. 1093-541X, VOLUME 13, ISSUE 2)
President’s Message (Henn Rebane, P.E. – NCEES President)
Inaugural NCEES Engineering Award raises campus exposure for licensure
As members of NCEES, we work toward an ideal in which all working engineers are licensed P.E.’s. Imagine the benefits for society if this were the case. The public and the profession would certainly benefit from the knowledge that all engineers in every engineering discipline had met the same standards in education, experience, and examination.
What are some of the ways we can increase the percentage of licensed engineers relative to the number of working engineers in this country? This is a question that has been on the strategic radar for the NCEES Board of Directors for years. One strategy for doing this is to increase awareness of licensure and its career benefits among college engineering students. With the NCEES Engineering Award, we have shown we are serious about doing this.
The NCEES Engineering Award recognizes ABET-accredited engineering schools that partner students with professional engineers on projects that help students transition their academic knowledge into practical know-how. This was the first year the award has been given. I’m happy to report that we received 28 entries from engineering schools throughout the country.
After a jury of distinguished professionals conducted a blind judging of the entries, the top award was given to the joint submission from Florida A&M University and Florida State University. The winning entry featured a senior capstone course that paired civil and environmental engineering students with professional engineers working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Everglades restoration projects. Other prize-winners included programs from the University of Arizona, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Seattle University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Virginia Tech.
