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May 2013     

Career Focus
What Makes a Good STEM Mentor?
Many people succeed without mentors, but for others, mentorship can play an important role not just in career success but also in how satisfied they are in their profession. The effects of mentorship are far-reaching, and it's not only the people being mentored who benefit.
  your career, your life
     
Cogent Communicator
The Urge to Converge
When a designer starts on a new product or an artist begins a new painting, they are doing the same thing: diverging. It's an essential part of the creative process. So how can you avoid the urge to forego this part of process in your own work?
Backscatter
Silicon Valley: After Hours
Don Christiansen recalls the Silicon Valley culture of the 1960s, when Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore launched Fairchild Semiconductor, which itself spawned dozens of spinoffs.
Hidden Job Market Secrets
Be the Employer’s First Choice Candidate
Old job search methods have been superseded by social networking and employee connections as more effective techniques for landing a new job.
IEEE-USA Government Fellowship Program Expands to Include USAID
Beginning in 2014-2015, a U.S. member will serve as a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Engineering & International Development Fellow. Find out how to apply.
 shaping public policy
     
IEEE-USA Opposes H-1B Visa Increases, Agrees with Companies on Green Cards
A leading expert on high-skill immigration and a Microsoft executive testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 22 April in favor of high-skill immigration reform legislation IEEE-USA supports.

 
Holdren Responds to Proposals to Limit Federal Support for Research
In remarks prepared for the AAAS Forum on S&T Policy, OSTP Director John Holdren responded to congressional concerns about federal funding for social science research and proposed legislation impacting NSF's grant making process.
Congress Looks Big Data and Next Generation Computing Challenges
On 24 April, the House Science Subcommittees on Research and Technology held a joint hearing on next generation computing and big data analytics to explore how advances in information technology and data analytics are spurring innovation.
AAAS Analysis Shows Uncertain Future for Federal R&D Spending
Spending cuts forced by sequestration, drove federal R&D spending for Fiscal Year 2013 down to 0.8 percent of GDP—the lowest level seen in 40 years. If sequestration continues, it could drop below 0.8 percent for the first time in a very long time.
     
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Engineering
Hall of Fame
“Advantageously exposed”: Palmer Putnam’s 1.5 MW Wind Turbine, 1941
Supplying electrical power generated from wind to the commercial supply grid has a long history. Although wind power began to make great strides towards industrial scale installations in the late 1970s and 1980s, many of the technical obstacles had been addressed in the 1930s.
World Bytes
Boston
The discovery and apprehension of those responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings demonstrates clearly and sends a strong message to others that advancements in engineering and technology, many by IEEE members, are making it very difficult for perpetrators of harmful acts to escape. 
Tech News Digest
Technology-related news and notable developments.