NASA to Provide Activities for National Engineers Week 2000

John Bluck

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

650/604-5026 or 604-9000

jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE 00-11AR

NASA today will enable students from across the nation to interact
live with astronauts and space station experts during a satellite
teleconference, and next week students can chat with engineers via the
Internet and in person for National Engineers Week, Feb. 20 – 26, 2000.

Students will be able to ‘chat’ via the Internet with eight
engineers during the week. NASA also has organized a teleconference for
students with International Space Station astronauts and ground crew
members today from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. PST. Locally, in the greater San
Francisco Bay Area, NASA engineers will visit middle and high schools next
week and throughout March to talk with students about being engineers.

During the Internet chats, youths will be able to use computers to
direct questions and receive “live” answers from engineers who will
describe their roles in, and contributions to, the space program. The
Internet sessions which will begin on Thursday, Feb. 24, at 8:00 a.m. PST
will take place throughout the week. They are listed on NASA’s Quest
website: http://quest.nasa.gov

“I work as a research engineer and spend most of my time conducting
experiments and studying data to help build better airplanes and space
vehicles,” said Fanny Zuniga, an aerospace engineer at NASA Ames Research
Center, located in California’s Silicon Valley. Zuniga will kick off the
Internet activities on Feb. 22. “My day is never boring. There are always
unexpected and sometimes complicated problems to resolve,” she added.

Details about the space station teleconference, to be broadcast via
satellite, are on NASA’s teleconference web site at
http://www.spacesite.org. Educators may telephone 1-888-584-5040, ext. 155
for more teleconference information.

“We are also sending NASA Ames engineers to talk in San Francisco
Bay Area classrooms, during Engineers Week and through the end of March,”
said NASA Ames Educational Officer Thomas Clausen who is organizing
engineering outreach activities. “We’re extending Engineers’ Week into
March to enable more of our engineers to talk with local students.”

“I am confident that, with interesting hands-on activities and
exciting competitions sponsored at schools and community centers around the
nation, this year’s observance will help to influence a new generation of
young Americans to pursue their study of science and math – the foundation
of a career in engineering,” President Clinton said in a recent message
about National Engineers Week.

First-come, first-served pre-registration via the Internet is
required in order for students to participate in the chat sessions. Other
people can observe the conversations without registering.

National Engineers Week 2000 is sponsored by the National
Engineers Week Committee, Alexandria, VA, and includes participants from
government, industry and other institutions. The National Engineers Week
Internet news site is: http://www.eweek.org/2000/News/

Internet Chat Session Schedule

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 8:00 a.m. PST, through Thursday, Feb. 24
English/Spanish bilingual “forum” with Fanny Zuniga, aerospace engineer,
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. An Internet forum is a chat
room that remains open 24 hours a day to receive queries, but responses to
the typed questions may not be “live.”

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. PST
Chat with Angie Lee, experiment systems manager,
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. PST
Chat with Rick Hashimoto, system safety engineer, Boeing Reusable Space
System Division, Downey, CA

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. PST
Chat with Kim Hubbard, computer engineer, NASA Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, CA

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. PST
Chat with Steven Daugherty, International Space Station thermal control
project engineer, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Thursday, Feb. 24, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. PST
Chat with Aprille Ericsson-Jackson, Ph.D., aerospace engineer,
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Thursday, Feb. 24, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon PST
Chat with Tony Bruins, systems engineer/integrator, NASA Johnson Space
Center, Houston, TX

Friday, Feb. 25, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. PST
Chat with Keith Zimmerman, project lead, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Check Quest website for updates:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/special/eweek00/
or telephone Marc Siegel, 650/604-1518, or Karen Traicoff, 650/604-4066 for
more Quest Internet details.

-end-