SME Collaborates With FIRST At the 2001 National Robotics Championship

        SME's National Youth Council Supports Manufacturing Education

    DEARBORN, Mich., March 30 The Society of Manufacturing
Engineers (SME) continues in its second year of successful collaboration with
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) at the 2001
National Robotics Championship on April 5-7, at Walt Disney World's EPCOT,
Orlando, Fla.  This partnership is part of an aggressive national strategy to
address youth awareness of manufacturing, science and technology.

    SME's student initiatives are driven by its National Youth Council and
involve high level executives from all sectors of manufacturing industries.
By forming this Council and establishing partnerships with other groups such
as FIRST, STEPS (Science, Technology & Engineering Preview summer camp for
girls), BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) and others, SME
has made a monumental commitment to maximize investment toward exposing young
people to manufacturing.

    SME has developed a unique approach by aligning related organizations and
programs to maximize exposure of each program and to systematically track
program participants throughout their educational and early work careers.
SME's student programs are focused on ensuring early exposure to math and
sciences and interaction with adult mentors as a means to impact students'
technical career choices.

    To-date, SME has established partnerships with fifteen major organizations
engaged in similar programs.  Through these partnerships, it is SME's intent
to build a national database of student participants to gather data for a
long-term study on the impact of student programs on career choices.

    SME's partnership with FIRST has two components.  A FIRST-SME Partnership
Cardholder Program administered by SME is an annual registration procedure
that helps expand SME's database of youth program participants supporting
their long-term study of individual student's educational and career choices.
The second component encourages SME members to join FIRST teams as mentor
engineers.  Mentors provide student teams with valuable resources,
manufacturing advice, and help create a dynamic environment for brainstorming
ideas while immersing students in the world of engineering.

    Parallel to the FIRST event at EPCOT is the RI/SME Student Robotic
Engineering Challenge being held at Robert Morris College, Pittsburgh, Pa.,
April 7-8.  RI/SME is dedicated to the advancement of the robotics profession,
keeping members up-to-date on the latest technical information and providing
valuable opportunities for education and professional development.