Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update - 05/13/05
UPCOMING EVENTS:
● May 13, 2005 -
ISPE
Southwest Chapter MATHCOUNTS and Future City Fundraiser Golf Tournament - 1:00
PM start - Purple Sage Golf Course. For more information contact Lynn Olson at
lolson@toengrco.com
● May 24, 2005 -
ISPE Southwest Chapter May Meeting
● July 7 - 9, 2005 - NSPE
2005 Annual Convention, Chicago, Illinois
● October 28, 2005 - PE and
PLS Examinations - Boise, Idaho
● October 29, 2005 FE (aka
EIT) Examinations - Boise, Idaho, Pocatello, Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
BILLS GIVE FINANCIAL
INCENTIVE TO PURSUE ENGINEERING CAREERS
Several members of Congress have a bright idea for attracting more students to
careers in engineering, science, and math.
House and Senate legislators introduced legislation in April that would create a
new student loan forgiveness program to encourage students to pursue careers in
math, science, and engineering. The legislation would establish a new Education
Department program under which the government would pay the interest on a
student loan in return for an individual working for five years in a job related
to science, math, or engineering, including teaching in those fields at any
level. The government would pay the interest on the loan starting at the
beginning of the service requirement and continuing afterward. The legislation
would cap loan interest benefits at $10,000 per person.
The House version of the bill (H.R. 1547) was introduced by Reps. Frank Wolf
(R-VA), Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI). The Senate bill (S.
765) was introduced by Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Richard Durbin (D-IL).
THE DESIGN PROFESSIONS' 21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
By Ralph Peterson, P.E.
Chairman and CEO, CH2M HILL
Leadership is a topic on which our profession needs to spend a lot more quality
time and energy. In fact, there have been times when I have wondered if our
profession may have forgotten how to lead. An ENR editorial published in 2004
really resonated with me. That editorial contained this insightful admonition:
"It is time for design firms to break out of the mold they’ve made and redefine
themselves not simply as architects or engineers, but as problem-solvers and
solution-finders. To do otherwise risks being lumped in with the rest of the
commodities on the auction block."
There are many transformational forces that are shaping and reshaping the
geopolitical marketplace in which we operate, and I believe five bear watching.
I realize that many readers have U.S.-only practices so some of these global
issues may seem only marginally relevant. But if you think you can "stay at
home" and avoid being affected by these forces, you’d better think again.
Read the complete article in the
May Engineering Times.
MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next week's
edition of the Friday Update!
National Competition Champion Crowned!
The 2005 MATHCOUNTS National Competition finals were hosted by General Motors in
Detroit, Michigan last Friday. It was a tight competition and all of the
competitors were faced with difficult problems to tackle. Here are some of the
problems the Mathletes successfully answered under incredible pressure and time
constraints. (Please see the MATHCOUNTS Web site for competition results.)
Sprint #13: What is the median of the distinct positive values of all of the
fractions less than or equal to 1 with positive integer denominators less than
or equal to 5? Express your answer as a common fraction.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sprint #21: Let (a ´ b ´ c) ¸ (a + b + c) = 341 be an equation where a, b and c
are consecutive positive integers. What is the least possible value of a?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Target #1: Jax bought exactly enough trees to plant eight equal rows. Then one
tree died and couldn’t be planted, but he still had enough trees left to plant
exactly nine equal rows. After that, a tree was stolen, but he still had enough
trees left to plant exactly ten equal rows. If he bought the least number of
trees satisfying these three conditions, how many trees did he buy?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team #4: If two distinct members of the set {2, 4, 10, 12, 15, 20, 50} are
randomly selected and multiplied, what is the probability that the product is a
multiple of 100? Express your answer as a common fraction.
Answer to last week's JETS Challenge problem:
48 Layers
If you want to see last week's problem again, click
http://www.jets.org/latestnews/Challenge%2020%20—%20The%20%20Challenge%20of%20the%20Folded%20Flag.pdf
Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@rmci.net
Web Site: www.Idahospe.org
Idaho
Society of Professional Engineers
