Hyla Napadensky
Cook County Higher Education’s next Guest Lecture series is Engineering as a
Profession: Current Status, Future Needs
and Challenges
on June 8, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, with refreshments. Hyla Napadensky will present the topic and lead the discussion, which will emphasize how the current shortage of engineers may present economic and security risks for our nation.
At American universities more women and foreign nationals are studying engineering, but fewer men. There is concern that the USA will lose its dominance in many areas because of the decrease in the number of Americans studying engineering. Other countries have taken action to increase the number of engineers they graduate, with China being the most aggressive.
Salaries in the USA continue to increase annually, new graduates readily find jobs. There was no recession in engineering employment. At universities and in the work place there is rapid growth in new fields such as bioengineering. What should be done to increase the number of new engineering graduates? Are we at risk of outsourcing these high-paying jobs?
Napadensky will draw on her experience working for a range of clients in the USA and overseas as well as her past and current memberships on national committees and boards.
Napadensky began her career as an automotive engineer and eventually became an explosives expert as well as a rocket scientist. She was director of the Explosion Science and Engineering Division at IIT Research Institute, with a staff of 40 engineers. In 1984 Napadensky was elected to the National Academy of Engineering which is one of the highest honors that an engineer can receive. She has lived in Cook County for 16 years.
Guest lectures are held at Cook County Higher Education’s North Shore
Campus, located at 300 West 3rd Street. The events are free and open to the public, although donations are welcome. The June 8 event is sponsored by the Grand Marais State Bank, the Lake Superior Trading Post, Birchbark Gifts, and Johnson’s Foods.
Call 218-387-3411 to register for this event. And watch the Higher Education web page, www.boreal.org for updates on the guest lecture schedule.
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