The 20th Pittsburgh Regional Future City Competition was held on January 19, 2019 at the Carnegie Science Center in the brand new PPG Science Pavilion. 

Congratulations to the following winners of the 20th Pittsburgh Regional Future City Competition!

• 1st Place: Fort Couch Middle School
• 2nd Place: St. Edmund’s Academy
• 3rd Place: West Mifflin Area School District
• 4th Place: St. Bede School
• 5th Place: Marion Center Jr./Sr. High School

Future City Pittsburgh Alumnus of the Year – Eric Belski, M.Sc.

Also, visit (and like!) our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pghfuturecity for more competition photos.

ESWP 1st Vice-President Dave Borneman, and Rucha Shah of Arcadis participated as judges in the “Sea, Air & Land Challenge” event at Seneca Valley High School on April 25, 2019, where Innovation and teamwork were keys at this robotics and engineering competition. Dave and Rucha volunteered as part of ESWP’s Student Outreach Initiative.

Design Lives Here is a semester-long engineering initiative that equips teachers and students to participate in engineering activities within their school or afterschool program. Professional engineers serve as mentors to students throughout the year. Schools who participate are diverse – public, parochial and private – and have the option of making this part of their school day or an extended program. Each spring, all the participants come together for a day of engineering challenges, grouped in new teams to compete for prizes. Design Lives Here activities are inspired by the popular PBS KIDS program and website, Design Squad Nation.

Gwen Anderson, WQED Education Department Outreach Coordinator explains the program in more detail and the relationship with ESWP “WQED has received funding and support from ESWP from the inception of the Design Lives Here program. ESWP collaborates with WQED Education to pair local engineers with students from participating schools. These engineers will mentor the participants through the duration of the engineering challenges that are presented through the in-school portion of the program.  The overall goal for Design Lives Here is to provide students with opportunities to learn about the engineering design process, develop creativity and team building skills, and to begin exploring careers in engineering.”

ESWP supplied eleven mentors to the program this year. One of the eleven mentors is Jonathan Shimko, ESWP Member, International Water Conference® Executive Committee Member, and Senior Project Manager at McKim & Creed explained how his experience with Design Lives Here has impacted him. “The opportunity to support ESWP and Design Lives Here has been extremely rewarding.  I have had a great time teaching engineering principle to the young people and they have taught me new ways to approach problem solving.  I’m confident that I’m a better professional for having worked with this dynamic group of individuals.”

The 2018-2019 Design Lives Here initiative is a project of WQED Multimedia, with major underwriting by The Arconic Foundation, MSA, PPG, ANSYS, and additional support from Rolls-Royce, Arconic, Daedalus, Independence Excavating, and founding partner the Engineers’ Society of Western PA.

2018-2019 Participating Schools:

Blessed Trinity Academy

Deer Lakes Middle School

Elizabeth Forward Middle School

Franklin Regional

Haines Middle School

Independence Middle School

J.E. Harrison Middle School

Marshall Elementary- North Allegheny

Moon Middle School

New Kensington Arnold School District

Our Lady of Most Blessed Sacrament

Propel East

Ryan Gloyer Middle School-Seneca Valley

Schiller STEAM Academy

St. Phillip

Design Lives Here’s day of engineering challenges are taking place on March 13 and 14, 2019 at WQED Multimedia. Good luck to all the schools participating in this event. To learn more about the program, please visit https://www.wqed.org/education/designliveshere.

Congratulations to New Lebanon Jr/Sr High School for winning the 2015-2016 Capital District Future City Competition! Their city, “Marhielo” took first place overall in the competition on January 9. A list of all the winners can be found here.

ESWP’s 3rd Annual Engineering Career Fair took place on Friday, February 8, 2019 at the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Our career fair provided a rare opportunity for students and professionals to meet employers and company representatives in the engineering field all in one place.

This year, 25 companies participated in greeting over 140 students from the tri-state area. The students were eager to participate this year, as ESWP had a waiting room of approximately 20 students before the start of the event on Friday. At the end of the event, companies commented “This was the best career fair yet” and “This event gives us an opportunity to talk to students from various schools, it is very beneficial for us to attend.”

In addition to the career fair, we had almost 25 students take advantage of the mock interviews that were offered. This was an opportunity for students and professionals to interact and get quick feedback on their resume and interview skills. The actual qualifications required for the job were provided by the employers prior to the interview. This includes factors such as work experience, minimum educational qualification, and average salary offered. The students that participated appreciated the feedback and experience.

ESWP recommends that students consider these five (5) things after attending the ESWP Engineering Career Fair:

1. Get organized.
2. Follow-up with employers.
3. Maintain the connection.
4. Practice your interviewing skills.
5. Reflect on your experience at the ESWP career fair.

These five items will better prepare students for a future opportunity. For more information about upcoming student or young member events, visit https://eswp.com/events/.

ESWP hosted their 3^rd Annual YMF Summer Social at the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania on September 7, 2018. The event was co-hosted by ASCE, ASHE, Tau Beta Pi, SAME, and WTS Pittsburgh Sections. This year the event brought together a record attendance of more than 60 young engineers in the Greater Pittsburgh area. The goal of this event is to seek and prepare the next generation of engineers by highlighting the diverse spectrum of engineering and related technical societies. Each co-host contributed a gift basket to raffle off and had a chance to inform attendees of their professional organization.

New this year, ESWP implemented a 50/50 raffle, that the proceeds benefited the Red Door Program at Saint Mary of Mercy Church. St. Mary of Mercy Church, which is in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, provides several kinds of assistance to people in need. The “oldest” of St. Mary’s services is the Red Door Program which began during the Great Depression. This program provides a bag lunch, Monday through Saturday to more than 100 persons each day. The program is underwritten by St. Mary of Mercy Church through various contributions made directly to the Red Door. After the conclusion of this event, ESWP donated a total of $80 to the Red Door Program. ESWP plans on implementing this event again in 2019 in hopes to exceed their contribution to a charitable organization.

As you can see our Young Member Forum is gaining momentum by offering the YMF Summer Social and other quality programs designed specifically with the young engineer in mind. If you are not already a ‘young member’ ESWP offers an Under-35 dues rate of $25 annually, with a limited time offer of NO entrance fee (a $55 savings!)  Now is the time to add ESWP to your professional network and expand your horizons.  Click here: https://eswp.com/membership/individual-membership-2/

We are now accepting applications for the ESWP Members Scholarship. Applicants must be the spouse, child, or grandchild (natural, step, adopted or ward) of a member in good standing for one or more previous, continuous years of the ESWP. Scholarship applicants should be current high school seniors, or currently enrolled full-time undergraduate students in engineering, architecture or applied sciences at an accredited college or university. The application deadline is July 31, 2018 for the 2018-19 academic year. Please contact the ESWP offices to request an application.

Congratulations to The Ellis School, for placing 15th in the National Future City Competition! The Ellis School was the winning team from the Pittsburgh Regional Competition, and represented Pittsburgh in the Nationals, held in Washington, D.C., over National Engineers Week. Overall, 44 teams competed in the national competition. For more information on Future City, click here: https://futurecity.org/pennsylvania-pittsburgh