Jackson honored

Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson was recently named the Black Engineer of the Year by the selection committee for the 15th Annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference.

She is the first woman ever to win the prestigous award.

Jackson tops the list of the more than two dozen African Americans who will receive recognition at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference, which will be presented during special ceremonies at 8 pm, February 10, at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore.

The conference is sponsored by US Black Engineer & Information Technology Magazine, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the Council of Engineering Deans of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The conference, which will be held February 8-10 at the Baltimore Convention Center, is considered to be one of the most comprehensive career and professional development events for black executives, professionals, and college and high school students.

This year more than 7,000 people are expected to attend the conference and take part in the Career Fair, workshops, and networking events.

Jackson’s selection was announced by Tyrone D. Taborn, chairmain and CEO of USBE & IT Magazine’s publisher, Career Communications Group Inc. In the announcement, he said, "Dr. Jackson is a distinguished theoretical physicist with a long string of ‘firsts’ to her credit. She is the first woman to win the prestigous Black Engineer of the Year award, the first African American on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the first to head that agency, and the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. at MIT in any discipline, among other achievements."

"The gender gap in technical fields is abysmal," Taborn added.

"Women have never received more than 18 percent of the engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded in the U.S. in any year. And the ethnic divide in engineering is worse: only 3,000 to 4,000 African Americans annually out of 64,000-plus graduates.

"It is our hope that Jackson’s achievements will shine a spotlight on this problem and also serve as a beacon to guide other talented women into the field," continued Taborn.

Bus routes changed

RPI and the Capital District Transit Authority have recently announced modifications to the bus routes in the surrounding area of the Institute, in an effort to reduce traffic, parking congestion, and noise and improve the air quality near the Rensselaer Union.

The 70, 90, and 86 bus routes will be changed, effective Monday, February 12.

CDTA buses, serving the 70 and 90 routes, will no longer stop at the Rensselaer Union, at the corner of 15th Street and Sage Avenue.

They will instead turn north from Sage Avenue onto 15th Street and continue to the Houston Field House on Peoples Avenue.

Then the buses will loop back through the Rensselaer campus, via Burdett Avenue, Tibbits Avenue, and 15th Street, before returning to downtown Troy and other points via Peoples Avenue.

Although the campus shuttle, the 86 CDTA route, will continue to serve the Pawling Avenue and Rensselaer east campus housing areas via Tibbits Avenue and Burdett Avenue, it will also now traverse campus north and south via 15th Street between Sage Avenue and Tibbits Avenue.

Maps of the new CDTA bus routes can be found at the CDTA’s website, http://www.cdta.org/ and at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/parking/.

Engineering celebrated

The capital district will celebrate National Engineers Week 8 am to 5 pm on Tuesday, February 13 at the Albany Marriot in Latham, N.Y.

Sponsored by more than 30 technical and professional engineering associations throughout New York state, the celebration festivities will feature various seminars and exhibits, the majority of which are free and open to the public.

The sessions will include the topics of buildings such as the Albany Cathedral Restoration Project and masonry construction, IBC 2000 Building Code changes, economic development initiatives, Intelligent Transportation Systems, a workshop on the Construction Specification Institute Certification Programs, the professional licensing process and admission requirements for college engineering programs, bridges such as the world’s first recycled plastic vehicular bridge; environment ranging from tire shreds for road sub-base and "green building" design, panel discussions on Brownfield Legislation and Hudson River dredging issues, the Delaware Avenue landslide, and the landfill gas collection and energy recovery.

At a luncheon, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, Schenectady Mayor Al Jurczynski, and Troy Mayor Mark Pattison will be the keynote speakers and will discuss economic improvements enacted recently, ongoing, and planned for the future.

The celebration will wrap up with a Gala Dinner Dance at 6 pm on February 16 at the Century House in Latham, New York.

For more information or reservation to either the Gala dinner or luncheon, call (518) 292-5340 or (518) 283-7490.