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District engineers to support 2012 Engineers Week activities

Published Feb. 10, 2012
FORT SHAFTER, HI – More than 200 members of Hawaii's engineering community, including engineers from the Honolulu District, will gather at the Hale Koa's Banyan Tree Showroom Feb. 21 for a luncheon to kick off Engineers Week 2012, which runs Feb. 19 to 25.

"Engineers Week is a great opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of our professional engineers, architects and surveyors," said Todd Barnes, chief of Engineering & Construction, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District and past post president, Society of American Military Engineers (SAME).

The celebration of National Engineers Week was started in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers in conjunction with President George Washington's Birthday. President Washington is considered the nation's first engineer, notably for his surveying work.

Jointly hosted by the Honolulu Post of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) and the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies (HCES), the kickoff luncheon will feature keynote speaker, Capt. Peter Lynch, vice commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, whose presentation will be “Naval Engineering: Contingencies to Construction.”

Barnes and his staff will orchestrate the District's Engineers Week activities in concert with Joseph K. Ting, chair of the HCES and the Honolulu Post of SAME.

Engineers Week activities include: signing an Engineers Week Proclamation and photo opportunity with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle Feb. 6; signing of an Engineers Week Proclamation and photo opportunity with Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Feb. 10; Engineers Week static exhibits at Pearlridge Shopping Center from many engineering organizations on display Feb. 19 to Feb. 24; and attendance at the Engineers Week Awards Banquet Feb. 25 in DeRussy Hall at the Hale Koa Hotel, expected to attract more than 300 members and friends of the 17 organizations within the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies plus invited local VIPs and dignitaries.

The Corps supports these events.

The guest speaker for the 2012 Engineers Week banquet is Kent Peterson, P.E., who’ll address and provide building professionals with the details of requirements for designing and engineering high performance green buildings.

Honolulu District engineers will also be gearing up to support the 2012 MATHCOUNTS competition with the Oahu event to be held Saturday, 25 Feb 12, at Punahou School's, Case Middle School where they will volunteer their services as moderators, proctors and scorers. Sixth, seventh and eighth graders from more than 36 Oahu public and private schools will participate in the competition. Respective winners from Oahu, Maui and the island of Hawaii will meet for the State MATHCOUNTS championship on Oahu at Iolani School March 3. State winners advance to the National MATHCOUNTS held May 11 in Orlando, Fla. The MATHCOUNTS Program is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers at the state and local levels to emphasize the importance of mathematical skills in the development of future technology and encourage students to excel in these areas.

MATHCOUNTS builds skills, promotes strategic problem solving and challenges students to sharpen their analytical abilities by bringing together sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in a lively exchange of mathematical ideas through competition.

For the past years, several societies’ consulting engineering firms & manufacturing companies, the student groups from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and the robotics clubs from local high schools have gathered at Oahu’s Kahala Mall or Pearlridge Shopping Center and displayed projects that they had been working on and entering in competitions. It turned out to be a great success. Not only did it achieve the goal of public outreach, but students or engineers were also able to practice their presentation skills and receive positive feedback from a range of people. The purpose of the displays and interactive exhibits sponsored by HCES during Engineers Week is to improve the public image of the engineering profession and to stimulate qualified students in public and private schools to choose careers in engineering and in related science fields.

The 2012 event will be focusing on “the future of engineering” once again. HCES is inviting the societies’ consulting engineering firms, manufacturing companies, the UH-Manoa engineering student groups and  high school robotic clubs to participate in this event that will showcase their respective projects as well as to allow interaction with the public and to excite others about the engineering profession.

The static portion of their exhibits will be on display at Pearlridge Shopping Center from February 19 through February 24. HCES is also inviting high school robotic clubs to participate in the 2012 Engineers Week Robotics Tournament that will be held at Pearlridge (Uptown section) February 19 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Also coinciding with this year’s Engineers Week activities is the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Engineering Career Fair that will be held Feb. 22. The Corps always supports this outreach event.

The Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies is chaired by Joseph K. Ting and is composed of: the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACEI); American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii (ACECH); American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI); Engineers and Architects of Hawaii (EAH); Filipino American League of Engineers and Architects (FALEA); Hawaii Association of Land Surveyors (HALS); Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE); The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc (IEEE); Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE); Society of American Military Engineers (SAME); Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii (SEAOH); the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE); the University of Hawaii College of Engineering; American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) and Engineers without Borders-Honolulu (EWB). HCES has been celebrating Engineers Week in Hawaii since 1965.

For more information about Engineers Week, contact: Joseph K. Ting, Chair of the Hawaii Council of Engineering Societies at (808) 956-6597.

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Contact
Dino Buchanan
808-438-9862
or
Joseph Bonfiglio
808-438-9862

Release no. 12-005