Virgil

Earlier this week I caught this PBS Nova episode: "Engineering Ground Zero." For those not familiar, Nova is the science documentary show on our Public Broadcasting. Of course being an engineer, the title got my attention, and while the show did not provide the technical answers to the questions that came to my mind (I really wanted to know the structural loads in the frame of the Liberty Tower, those joint designs where the beams change direction, and the steel strength properties), it was still an outstanding show. It's not really all that technical; it's for a mass audience after all, not engineers. But what I think it really captures was why I love engineering - the technical challenges, the planning, the designing, the manufacturing, the failures, the regrouping, and the execution. What you can see is that engineering is not a solitary endeavor. It truly is a team process.

If you catch the episode, sit back, I think you'll enjoy it, even if you're not science oriented. I did find the episode at the Nova website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/. Here's the link for the entire episode (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/en...ound-zero.html), but I don't know if they allow their episodes to be accessible forever. This link may disappear at some point. So either watch it here or try to catch a repeat.

So if there are any young people who are science oriented and still considering careers, consider engineering. I can't say all engineering is that much fun or challenging, but it's usually not boring.