Is engineering for everyone? How exclusive is our profession, and what can we do about it? All are welcome to the conversation: engineering students, engineering technology students, educators and professionals, and anyone who is affected by engineering (which is everyone!) the #EngCulture online event will consist of a live chat on twitter starting at 8 pm. On May 13th 2015, at 8 pm, we…
Did you know that March is National Engineering Month? It’s Canada’s biggest celebration of engineering and technology, its people and its effects on society. For the first time ever, National Engineering Month 2015 will include a completely virtual event. Intended to facilitate a conversation amongst engineering students, engineering technology students, educators and professionals, the #EngCulture online event will consist of…
Hello Twitter enthusiasts and Big Beacon community members, Come join me, Erica Lee Garcia, for this week’s twitter chat about student-powered movements, collaboration and community-building. We get started Wednesday September 24th at 8 pm ET, on #BigBeacon. Recycling: A tale of student-powered change When municipal leaders and engineers in Ontario, Canada developed the technology and infrastructure to make…
Hello Twitter enthusiasts and Big Beacon community members, Come join me, Erica Lee Garcia, for this week's twitter chat about engineers acting as change agents in the world. Engineers Without Borders Canada has a decade and a half experience of effecting change via a student-powered movement. They work to end global poverty and inequity by investing in ventures that drive 'systems change' both…
At this time of year, thousands of post-secondary students around the world are enjoying the fruits of their many many hours of hard work and attending their graduation ceremonies. It's a fun time, a celebratory time, and a time for families to show their pride in their graduate's accomplishments. It's a time for students to emerge from the fog of…
One of the key step in creating inspiration and momentum for change is understanding the consequences of not changing. In the parlance of the important change work of John Kotter, author of the Heart of Change and friend of Big Beacon, building the narrative that explains the need for change is called creating a 'burning platform'. That term paints a…
I've spent the last several years of my engineering career thinking very carefully about what engineers can and can't do. So far my conclusions are that engineers can have tremendous impact in areas that you might not expect - ending poverty, fighting injustice, creating jobs, saving lives. The engineering profession's scope is well beyond the boundaries of the purely technical.…
This post presents the topic of this week's #BigBeacon twitter chat - join us tomorrow, Wed May 7th at 8 pm EDT. I (@engineeryrlife) will be hosting the chat this week. All are welcome! One familiar practice in the engineering educational status quo is to swamp incoming students with work in order to get them to buckle down, get humble,…
I was recently asked to write an open letter giving some advice to the class of graduating engineers this year. You can check out my whole letter here, but I'll share a snippet that got me thinking about what engineering education (mostly) isn't and what it could be: You'll need your creativity and imagination every bit as much as…
Tomorrow, October 16th 2013, at 8 pm EST, we'll join Jeff Shelton, aka 'Sheltoneer', a mechanical/industrial engineer with a passion for telling the lesser-known stories of the engineering profession and in improving engineering education, on the #BigBeacon twitter chat to hear why he believes that engineers would benefit from understanding or even adopting the skills and mindset of an…