Fall 2018 Newsletter of the Christian Engineering Society

Call for Papers: 2019 Christian Engineering Conference (July 11-13, 2019)

By Randy Schwindt (rschwind@uu.edu)

Abstracts of 200 to 400 words for conference papers and posters are now being accepted for the 2019 Christian Engineering Conference (Dordt College, July 11-13, 2019). Proposals for panel discussions or breakout sessions are also welcome. The deadline for submissions is Dec 31, 2018. Final papers for accepted abstracts will be due April 1, 2019. Here are the Call for Papers and Final Format Guidelines. 

Dordt College Introduction

by Justin Vander Werff (Justin.VanderWerff@dordt.edu)

We are excited to announce that the 2019 Christian Engineering Conference will be hosted by Dordt University’s engineering department on July 11-13. For those of you who are observant and familiar with Dordt, you may notice the name change from “College” to “University,” which is not a typo and will be official by early next summer. For those of you less familiar with Dordt, our beautiful campus is home to a mostly-residential student population of approximately 1500, and it resides in the rural town of Sioux Center, Iowa, which has a permanent population of approximately 7500. We are located about an hour away from the Iowa Great Lakes, one of Iowa’s most popular summer tourist destinations, and about three-and-a-half hours away from the Twin Cities and Des Moines metro areas. Major airlines serve Sioux City and Sioux Falls, which are both approximately 60-70 minutes from our campus.

Our engineering program has been ABET-accredited for almost 30 years, and the engineering major is one of the largest three majors at Dordt, residing among other professional, STEM, and traditional liberal arts majors. At its inception in 1980, our engineering program was founded on the same vision that Dordt’s founders eloquently stated in 1955: “…that all the class work, all of the students' intellectual, emotional, and imaginative activities shall be permeated with the spirit and teaching of Christianity.” One result of this worldview is that Dordt’s engineering department has fully embraced the work of the Christian Engineering Society, and we are excited to take our turn hosting the Christian Engineering Conference. We hope you’ll consider making the trip to the beautiful plains of the upper Midwest to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ who care deeply about doing engineering Christianly and want to continue learning and growing as disciples of Christ who are involved in engineering and technology.

Moderating the CES List of Books and Articles 

by David Che (ched2@asme.org)

Are you a Christian who happens to be an Engineer? Are you an Engineer who is also a Christian? Have you ever thought about integrating the two roles into one? These are tough questions to ask and answer. Fortunately, many Christian engineers and scholars had mulled over the same questions over the years and they are willing to share their thoughts with you! One of the main reasons for CES' existence is to help you think through these issues. In addition to offering bi-annual conferences and making conference papers available online, CES also maintains on its website a rich compilation of books and articles that reflect the integration of engineering and faith. We welcome CES members to contribute articles or suggest new books to be added to this growing body of literature. For more information, please contact our new CES resource curator Dr. David Che.

CES Update on Membership

The officers of the formally organized Christian Engineering Society have determined our membership guidelines, which are posted on the CES website. The guidelines provide for individuals to become members of the society and for institutional membership. We will continue to publish the website and newsletter for anyone interested, even if not an official member. However, we hope you will prayerfully consider joining the society in a formal way to show your commitment and interest to this important subject. In order to encourage this, we have set the membership dues at a very low amount compared to most other professional societies.  We now have two options for you to make the membership purchase.  You can send a check to our treasurer, or you can subscribe via PayPal.  

US citizens can also make a tax-deductible donation to the society, either by sending a check or by using the Pay Pal link on the main page. Questions or comments? Feel free to contact any of the four officers. 

Seeking Engineering and Christianity Activities

If there is a project or activity at your institution/organization that relates engineering with faith, missions and/or service, we’d like to include it in a future CES newsletter. Please contact Ted Song (tsong@jbu.edu) or Steve VanderLeest (Steven.H.VanderLeest at gmail dot com) with a description of the project/activity. Thanks!

Newsletter Sign Up and Article Contributions

This newsletter is a publication of the Christian Engineering Society, distributed no more than once per month. You can sign up to receive an email notification when a new newsletter is available. Ted Song of John Brown University is the moderator and editor of the newsletter. Sometimes email filters will block mass distributions like the newsletter announcement, so be sure you whitelist the address "ces-announce@calvin.edu" to allow the newsletter announcement to get through. 

If you have questions about the newsletter, send an email to Ted at tsong@jbu.edu. Society members are encouraged to submit announcements and contribute articles!  (Editor reserves the right to make the final decision on inclusion of all content.)

Resources & Career Opportunities

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