Central Florida School Children Become Engineers for a Day During IBM's Engineers Week, April 13-15, at Epcot(R)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., April 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) is hosting more than 850 students from schools throughout Central Florida during Engineers Week at IBM's Smarter Planet exhibit at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort.  The annual Engineers Week program, running April 13-15, is designed to help motivate and inspire young children in the local community to pursue technical careers and to excel in the core subjects of math and science.

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Students, grades 2 through 8, are given a unique opportunity to meet real-life engineering experts from IBM and other program sponsors, and to think – and play – like engineers in a series of activities and rides.  This year's Engineers Week sponsors also include GM, HP, NASA, Red Hat, Siemens UL and Walt Disney World Engineering.

This year's Engineers Week hosted by IBM promises to be educational, dynamic, high-energy and all about fun.  The students are broken into small groups and are led by IBM employee volunteers through various activities ranging from music to rockets.  Activity highlights of the program include:

• "Engineering the Magic" with Walt Disney World Engineers
• GM's "Robots are COOL" with Marty Linn
• IBM's "Materials Matter" with Dr. Stefanie Chiras
• NASA's "Engineering Rockets…out of this world!" with Dr. Linda Scauzillo and Les Gold
• Red Hat's "Mathematically Artistic" with Mairin Duffy
• UL's "Choke the Smoke" with Rob Sly and Scott Ritchie
• GM, HP and Siemens have invited the students to discover engineering by riding their attractions.

IBM hosts Engineers Week programs around the world as part of its commitment to promote math and science for all students and to ultimately increase the number of people entering into engineering and technology careers.

In 2003, two highly publicized studies examined the challenges the U.S. is facing in the development of a technologically literate workforce and more specifically, the engineering profession.  In its study "Maintaining a Strong Engineering Workforce," ACT reported:

• a drop in the number of high school seniors planning to study engineering, from 9 percent in 1992 to 6 percent in 2002;
• a decrease in the percentage of students interested in engineering who had taken college preparatory courses in high school;
• a drop in the number of female ACT test takers considering engineering careers;
• a gap between aspirations of racial/ethnic minority test takers, as indicated by expressed interest in engineering, and their relevant preparation with more than basic coursework.

IBM has been a long-time supporter of Engineers Week and the National Engineers Week Foundation.  Last year, more than 4,000 IBM employees at 49 different sites in the U.S. and Canada volunteered in Engineers Week programs.  Together, through the efforts of its employee volunteers in countries across the world, IBM reached more than 200,000 students.

Engineers Week, a coalition of more than 75 engineering, professional and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies, began in 1951.  Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the week is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing an understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science.  Among the oldest of America's professional outreach efforts, Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineering contributions to society.

SOURCE IBM