JETS Update

JETS and NISH representatives and staff gather October 16 to sign the formal partnership document for the competition.

JWOD/JETS National Engineering Design Challenge Kicks Off with Teams from 21 States!

It’s official. While the first annual JWOD/JETS National Engineering Design Challenge has already been announced, on Monday, October 17, JETS and NISH dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on the agreement that formalized their relationship in offering the National Engineering Design Challenge for high school students. The program, which has already attracted participating teams from 21 states for the pilot competition, challenges high school students who are interested in various engineering or related disciplines to design technologies that help people with disabilities enter or advance in the workplace.

NEDC allows students to explore, research, design, and build a working product that will help individuals with disabilities enter and succeed in the work force. Besides gaining valuable knowledge and skills, students will be able to walk away knowing that they have made a difference in someone's life! Forty-eight high school teams representing 17 states—from Florida to California—including Wyoming and Puerto Rico—have signed up to participate in the program's pilot competition.

Currently these talented students are working on round one of the challenge. This round consists of an Internet scavenger hunt on disability awareness, employment issues and how technologies are helping people with severe disabilities, the field of rehabilitation engineering and biomedical engineering. In addition to the scavenger hunt, the teams will also use the engineering design process to solve a problem that helps people with disabilities to join the workforce or be more productive in it. They will also submit a report about their solution. To learn more, click here.

We wish all the teams good luck and are excited to see the results of this exciting endeavor!

Registration Is Open for TEAMS 2006 —
Register Today!

This year, over 14,000 high school students will participate in the TEAMS competition and will work in teams to solve problems about ice cream production, energy efficiency and supply, water systems, and space exploration. To view the complete problem statements for the 2006 TEAMS competition, visit www.jets.org/programs/teams-home.htm.

Registration for the JETS' TEAMS Competition has also begun. Do not forget to check www.jets.org/teams/siteSearch.cfm for the nearest competition site and register today!

JETS Receives Grant to Update its Engineering Preparedness Assessment Tool

The NEAS+ is the only engineering self-assessment tool designed to help students identify and master the academic skills they need to succeed in an engineering or technology program. As a self-assessment tool, the NEAS+ helps students see how math and science correlate to engineering, and determines any additional skills needed by identifying academic strengths and weaknesses. "The NEAS+ does not indicate 'Yes, you should be,' or 'No, you should not be,' an engineer," said Leann Yoder, JETS Executive Director. "Rather," she said, "it helps the student, parent, school counselor, or teacher understand current readiness and aptitude and make appropriate decisions today for success tomorrow. Our goal is to make the NEAS+ even more relevant and helpful to today's prospective engineering and technology students by helping them be more prepared to succeed academically." To read the complete press release click here.