You are now one of seven billion people on the planet. With the world’s population growing at the fastest pace in history, finding ways to provide for all of us requires the most innovative and creative thinking from the world’s best minds. Many of those answering the call are women engineers.
To tackle our many global challenges and expand our range of solutions, individuals from a cross-section of personal, cultural, and disciplinary perspectives need to work together. National Engineers Week Foundation delivers on this spirit of collaboration as it prepares to host its 8th annual Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering and Technology, March 5-10, 2012. The Global Marathon is the only event of its kind connecting women in engineering and technology worldwide across a diverse range of disciplines, experience levels, ages, interests, backgrounds, cultures, industries and employers.
Originating from a different part of the world each day, this year’s theme is 7 Billion and Counting: Dreams, Ideas and Actions to Change the World. The Global Marathon connects women from six continents for conversations ranging from water and food to energy and entrepreneurship. Individuals from corporations, universities, non-profit and community organizations, and others will participate in real-time webcasts, internet chats, polling questions, teleconferences and live events.
Cindy Kou, Program Director, Lotus Collaborative Productivity Tools, IBM China, serves as Chair. Gayle Gibson, Director, Corporate Operations, DuPont, is Vice Chair. Bechtel, IBM, DuPont, ExxonMobil Corporation, Motorola Mobility and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) are the 2012 Global Marathon sponsors. Along with more than a dozen regional leaders, DuPont, C3E and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) are among the prestigious organizations partnering with National Engineers Week Foundation to facilitate the daily sessions.
“It’s my distinct pleasure to chair the 2012 Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering and Technology!” says Kou. “With the dream of building a smarter planet, let’s connect and unite women engineers around the globe to develop solutions to the increasingly complex problems the world is facing.”
The free event kicks off each day with an hour-long webcast discussing today’s seminal issues such as clean water, clean energy, food, and entrepreneurship. Each webcast will offer a picture of what tomorrow can look like (dreams), projects and plans on how to achieve a better tomorrow (ideas), and concrete steps participants can take today (actions).
The daily schedule is as follows:
- Monday, March 5, Grand Opening and North America program
- Tuesday, March 6, Latin America program
- Wednesday, March 7, Middle East/North Africa program
- Thursday, March 8, India program (International Women’s Day)
- Friday, March 9, China program
- Saturday, March 10, UK/Europe program and Closing
This year, the Global Marathon is moving to a new robust online conference platform that allows a deeper level of engagement and interaction among speakers, virtual attendees and the worldwide community.
About Engineers Week
The National Engineers Week Foundation, a formal coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies, is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science. Engineers Week also raises public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society. Founded in 1951, it is among the oldest of America’s professional outreach efforts. Co-chairs for 2012 are Battelle and ASME.
For more information, click here.