Summer 2017 Newsletter of the Christian Engineering Society

CEC 2017 (June 28-30) Highlights (Click here for pictures)

by Justin Vander Werff <Justin.VanderWerff@dordt.edu>

The 2017 Christian Engineering Conference (CEC) was held June 28-30 in Cedarville, Ohio. Close to 70 participants from academia and industry met to challenge each other as brothers and sisters in Christ who want to continue to grow in understanding what it means to be Christ-followers in engineering. Dr. Leslie Wickman, president of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) provided the keynote address along with an invited talk from Dr. Thomas Marshall. A highlight of the conference was the first official business meeting of the Christian Engineering Society (CES). The conference also featured a panel discussion on the interaction of CES with other organizations, a panel discussion on diversity within Christian engineering programs, a poster session including poster displays from industry and academia, and numerous informal discussions with colleagues from industry, public universities, and Christian colleges and universities.

18 papers were presented at the conference, coming from 25 authors affiliated with 14 distinct institutions – one industrial, three secular colleges or universities, and 10 Christian colleges or universities from a wide variety of faith perspectives. Complete proceedings of the 2017 CEC can be found at: http://www.christianengineering.org/publications/cec-proceedings.

As many of us have come to expect, the conference provided a wonderful time of growth, fellowship, and camaraderie. Special thanks are due to everyone involved including Robert Chasnov and Thomas Thompson (Cedarville University, general conference chair and arrangements), Justin Vander Werff and Danielle Wyenberg (Dordt College, program chair and assistant chair), and steering committee members Michael Foster (George Fox University), Melani Plett (Seattle Pacific University), and Steve VanderLeest (DornerWorks, Ltd.). Many thanks are also due to all who helped with paper and abstract reviews, praise and worship, devotions, session moderation, and table hosting, among many others.                

2018 Disaster Shelter Design Competition (April 19-21, 2018) at John Brown University 

by Mark Terrill (MTerrill@jbu.edu)

We will be holding our 7th Annual Disaster Shelter Design Competition at JBU during April 19-21, 2018. We will be updating the website and information over the next couple of weeks, but I wanted to give you all a heads up for planning purposes. The format and testing will be generally the same as we have done previously, but as usual we will be changing the disaster scenario and adjusting some of the scoring criteria to meet scenario conditions. For any who have not attended the event in the past, the website has videos and photos from past years that I think would help understanding the event.  The website is here: http://www.jbu.edu/shelter_contest/

Please let me know if I can answer any questions.  Also, if you know of anyone interested in this type of event, please pass this information along.

Need a Moderator for CES List of Books and Articles 

The society website has a section identifying books and articles relevant to our members, i.e., focusing on the connection between Christian faith and the discipline of engineering. We are in need of a new curator for this site. If you have been involved with the society and/or conference in the past, please consider volunteering for this important role. The page you would moderate is located here:

http://www.christianengineering.org/resources-career-opportunities/relevant-books-and-articles.  

Please contact any society officer (http://www.christianengineering.org/home/officers) to indicate your interest.

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.

The first business meeting of the society will be held during the Christian Engineering Conference.  The meeting will be open to all, but only members will be allowed to vote.

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 Signup 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

For resources and career opportunities, click here.