Calling All Future Engineers

By Katherine Bonfante, Managing Editor, Digital Media

2010 is here and I can't wait to see what this new year brings. Technology gets better with each passing day, and the imaginations of our future engineers will thrive with time and technological advances.

I'm not an engineer myself, but at times I wish that I was. Having the knowledge and skills to invent the imaginable and unimaginable is a ticket to one of the 20 highest paying jobs (www.controlglobal.com/HighPayingJobs.html)—jobs that are amazing.

Currently, going green is what's in, and many engineers are doing just that. To learn more about what today's engineers and scientists are doing, read the white paper, "Green Engineering—Improving the Environment and the Bottom Line," at www.controlglobal.com/wp_downloads/081212_NI_GreenEngineering.html.

ControlGlobal.com also has a knowledge center that focuses on using advanced measurement and control techniques to design, develop, and improve products and technologies that result in environmental and economic benefits. Visit www.controlglobal.com/knowledge_centers/ni/index.html for technical articles, white papers, webcasts and other green resources.

Now, I wonder what engineers will show us this year? What automation processes, software and machines are future engineers designing?

In 2009, we met Roxanne the robot who became a Guitar Hero master overnight. Pete Nikrin, a manufacturing engineer at Meier Tool & Engineering (www.meiertool.com), designed the robot to compete with a friend. Nikrin integrated vision system technology into the robot to accomplish his goal. To learn more about Roxanne, visit www.controlglobal.com/GuitarHeroRobot.html.

For those who believe a career in engineering wouldn't be as fun as the Australian island care-taker job (http://bit.ly/5vv3Ix), or as inspiring as being a scientist discovering cures for illnesses, or who think engineering is a "guys only" field, check www.engineeryourlife.org. Meet the "Nerd Girls" and watch videos of these young engineers as they brainstorm, design and produce their own devices. Inspiring these young engineers is how we can  have many years full of the next technologies we can't live without.

I can't wait to see what engineers have in store for us this year. One thing for sure, no matter how long it takes, these future engineers will come up with inventions I'm sure I will love, I'll be here waiting for their creative and advanced technologies.