Students and Volunteers Recognized for their Efforts at the FIRST Championship

Students and Volunteers Recognized for their Efforts at the FIRST Championship Students and Volunteers Recognized for their Efforts at the FIRST Championship Students and Volunteers Recognized for their Efforts at the FIRST ChampionshipMembers of the Winning Alliance realize they have just won the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, which was held in St. Louis, Mo., last month. An alliance of four student gruppes from California, Michigan and Texas took top honors as the winners at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship in St. Louis, Mo., late last month. But there were also a number of other winners at the action-packed event, including the 13 parteicipants who were awarded ASME FIRST-Clarke Scholarships and Cynthia Stong, a longtime volunteer with both ASME and the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program, who was honored with a special award recognizing her service as a chief judge for the competition. In this years FRC ch allenge, Aerial Assist, alliances of high school student teams worked together, using the robots they constructed, to score points by catching balls, tossing them over a truss, and placing them into goals. Some 400 student teams took part in the Championship round of the competition. At the end, four teams emerged as the competitions Winning Alliance gruppe 254, The Cheesy Poofs, from San Jose, Calif. Team 469, Las Guerrillas, from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Team 2848, The All Sparks, of Dallas, Texas and Team 74, Team C.H.A.O.S., Holland, Mich. ASME member Julie Bachmann Kulik (right), mentor for second-place alliance Team 1640, attended the FIRST Championship with her husband, Richard, and their daughter, Caitlyn. Taking second place at the FRC Championship were the alliance of Team 1678, Citrus Circuits, Davis, Calif. Team 1114, Simbotics, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Team 1640, Sab-BOT-age, Downingtown, Pa. and Team 5136, Mechapirates, Santa Ynez, Calif. ASME member Julie Bachmann Kulik served as an engineering mentor for the Sab-BOT-age team. This year, ASME recognized 13 graduating seniors with ASME Foundation-ASME Auxiliary FIRST Clarke Scholarships for their contributions to their particular FIRST Robotics teams. The $5,000 scholarships are designated to fund each students first year of study in an ABET-accredited mechanical engineering or mechanical engineering technology program. Winners of the 2014 FIRST-Clarke Scholarships included James Bateman of the Ashbury School in Madison Ala., who will attend Auburn University this fall Fletcher Blue from Hardin Valley Academy, in Knoxville, Tenn., who will attend Johns Hopkins University Joseph Diamond from Metro Early College High School in Columbus, Ohio, who will enroll in Massachusetts Institute of Technology Matthew Gorton of the Early College at Guilford in Greensboro, N.C., who will attend North Carolina State University Brian Hilllenbrand of Veritas School in Newberg,Ore., who will go to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Adeline Longstreth from Francis Parker School in San Diego, Calif., who will attend Georgia Institute of Technology and Derek Moore from Clover High School in Clover, South Carolina, who will study at Clemson University. FRC Volunteer of the Year Award winners Cynthia Stong, ASME senior vice president, and Allen Bancroft. Also receiving FIRST-Clarke Scholarships this year were Alexander Nie of North High School in Phoenix, Ariz., who will enroll at Arizona State University Robert Nogaj from Peoria Notre Dame High School in Peoria, Ill., who will attend the University of Dayton Titus Shumaker from Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., who will go to Kettering University Joshua Smith of Loveland High School in Loveland, Colo., who will study at Colorado State University Marcus Thompson of Topsail High School in Hampstead, N.C., who will enroll at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and Kaia Williams from P alisade High School in Palisade, Colo., who will attend the University of Rochester. Cynthia Stong, who is currently senior vice president of ASMEs Student and Early Career Development Sector, was also honored at this years FIRST Championship. Stong and fellow FIRST volunteer Allen Bancroft, who both serve as co-chief judge advisors for the competition, received the FRC Volunteer of the Year Award at the Championship in St. Louis. As co-chief judge advisors, Stong and Bancroft prepare and train all FRC judge advisors for the programs more than 70 regional competitions, in addition to overseeing more than 100 judges at the FIRST Championship. Stong, who retired from the Boeing Co. after 30 years and lives in New Mexico, began her involvement with FIRST as a judge at a FIRST regional tournament in Seattle 12 years ago. After two years as a judge, she served as judge advisor before becoming the co-chief judge advisor six years ago. I got the outstanding volunteer award for the F IRST Microsoft Seattle Regional in 2009, she said. So I was really surprised to get this award at Championships In addition to her judging duties, Stong also mentors a FIRST Robotics team in Las Cruces, N.M., and is planning to start a new high school team in Alamogordo, N.M., this fall. In addition to the final FIRST Robotics Competition, the FIRST Championship in St. Louis also featured three other events the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship for high school students, the FIRST Lego League World Festival for students age 9-16, and the FIRST Lego League Jr. World Festival Expo for students age 6-9. For the complete list of FIRST Robotics Championship award winners, and information on the other FIRST events in St. Louis, visit www3.usfirst.org.

As Recession Recedes, Time to Look for a New Job

As Recession Recedes, Time to Look for a New JobAs Recession Recedes, Time to Look for a New JobMany professionals are still reeling from the last economic collapse. Career experts say thats no reason to put off looking for the right job.How many professionals have said that any job you hold these days is a good job? Many recession-scarred workers are holding on to their positions for dear life - even when those jobs dont necessarily position them for career growth. But with the economy slowly improving and the jobless rate inching lower, is the time right to start thinking more about whether you are in the right job and less about whether youll lose it?Career experts who spoke with Ladders said theres no time like the present to begin a search for a job that will best leverage your talent and skills, as well as provide opportunities for personal and professional development. Indeed, some experts say we are at the edge of an employees market.U.S. companies are at an interesting cros sroads right now when it comes to strategic workforce planning, said Randy Hain, CEO of Bell Oaks Executive Search. On the one hand, we are recovering slowly from a deep recession where significant downsizing is still having a significant impact on business. On the other hand, we are headed into a talent war the likes of which we have not experienced. Even in this economy, there is a shortage of professionals who bring to the table proven specific industry expertise paired with strategic business intellect. Forward-looking organizations are looking and hiring for these qualities today.All of this is not to say that boom times are just around the corner. Instead, the economy seems to be moving ahead in fits and starts, with unemployment moving downward much more stubbornly than it has after earlier U.S. recessions.A report by the Congressional Budget Office, The Budget and Economic Outlook Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021, states Although recent data indicate that growth may be picking up, the pace of economic recovery thus far has been sluggish in comparison with that of fruchtwein previous postwar recoveries. The CBO estimates that the U.S. unemployment rate will fall to 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and to 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.The recovery may be slow, but it is making progress. And career experts say professionals should use this time to polish up their resumes, grow their networks and strengthen ties with colleagues.Look to new fieldsThe savviest people I know are always considering career moves, said Cheryl Heisler, president of Lawternatives, a career consultancy for lawyers. Even while hiring in the traditional job markets has been incredibly slow, these people have taken to building and nurturing their on-line and personal networks so that when recruiting picks up, they are poised to leap ahead. In spite of, or maybe because of, the fact that there are fewer jobs available now, even as the recovery continues, it is easier to have purely informational conversations about positions, companies and industries. But, of course, any information you gain, when offered up freely in the course of a personal-networking meeting, can grow into much more as market conditions change and the networking relationship builds.Bell Oaks Hain also recommended that professionals start thinking out of the box a bit, broadening their potential job searches to emerging industries such as clean energy.Consider opportunities in new and growing industries, like the new energy field, Hain said. There will be continued career growth in this industry for the foreseeable future given the ongoing push across the country for greener technologies and state-mandated renewable energy quotas. Now is a good time to transfer skills from other industries to the new energy field because it is still largely undiscovered land.Indeed, with the increasing pace of technological and cultural change, many of the most promising areas for the future may not be on professionals radars right now. Potential job seekers should be watchful for areas of disruptive change, such as social networking, when thinking about making their next professional move.The bottom line, experts said, is actively to look for a new job when your current position is not meeting your career expectations and goals, but to always be ready to take advantage of new opportunities.As the saying goes, iron sharpens iron, and you should be continually sharpening your contacts even when youre not looking for a new job, said Deborah Millhouse, president of CEO Inc., a direct-hire placement, temporary staffing and human capital services firm. Network with business leaders and mentors on a regular basis to ensure your connections are strong when it is time to look for a new job.

How Retirement Systems Work

How Retirement Systems WorkHow Retirement Systems WorkA retirement system is an organization that facilitates retirement savings and benefits distribution for government workers. While these systems vary greatly, many of them have defined benefit and defined contribution retirement savings plans and health insurance components. In defined benefit plans, current employees and their employing agencies contribute money to the retirement system. The system uses that money to pay annuities and health insurance costs for current retirees. The system assumes the risk for investment performance. Defined benefit plans are the backbone of many long-standing retirement systems. As time has gone on, retirement systems have added defined contribution options for employees to save additional money for retirement. In many systems, defined contribution options started out as just that options. But they are slowly changing system by system. Diminishing Attractiveness of Government Retirement Und er public pressure, lawmakers have diminished the overall attractiveness of retirement systems in several ways. First, they have forced employees to contribute mora money while holding benefits the same. Much like the concept of governments doing more with less, employees contribute more money for the same retirement payout. Second, lawmakers have shifted risk from employers to employees by making defined contribution plans a greater part of the system while chipping away at defined contribution plans. This gives employees more uncertainty about their standard of living in retirement. Employees can work toward a target annuity in a defined benefit plan, but they cannot do so with certainty in a defined contribution plan. Third, lawmakers have added rules affecting how early a person may retire and how much of retirees health insurance costs are paid by the system. Health insurance is a major cost for retirement systems, so shedding part of that cost is a big benefit to retirement sy stem administrators but not to the people they serve. Fourth, lawmakers have limited the practice of double dipping where retirees work at an organization within the retirement system thus withdrawing from the retirement system and a member employer. Depending on a retirement systems rules, this practice can have dire consequences for the systems sustainability. When Retirement Rules Change Government workers tend to vote in higher proportion than the overall population, so it stands to reason that lawmakers try to appease government workers by grandfathering current employees under old rules. New workers are placed under the less advantageous rules. They dont know they are getting a worse deal than their co-workers until they are already on the job. Some retirement systems make employees contribute to Social Security. Others do not. In order to receive retirement benefits from Social Security, individuals must contribute to it during their working lives. When lawmakers and thei r staffs write enabling statutes for retirement systems, they take into consideration whether or not retirees will have access to Social Security. Examples of Retirement Systems Here are a few examples of retirement systems Most federal government workers participate in the Federal Employees Retirement System. This system began in 1987 to phase out the Civil Service Retirement System. FERS has three components Social Security, Basic Benefit Plan, and Thrift Savings Plan. This plan combines both defined benefit and defined contribution elements. CSRS is a defined benefit plan. When FERS was created, employees could choose to stay with CSRS or go to FERS.States have several retirement systems working for various collections of governmental entities and their employees. Some states have retirement systems specifically for state agencies, public education, city governments, and county governments. For example, Texas has the Employees Retirement System for state employees, Teacher Re tirement System for university and school district employees, Texas Municipal Retirement System for city employees and Texas County District Retirement System for employees in county governments and special districts. Some large cities and counties opt not to participate in state-run retirement systems and set up their own self-funded retirement plans.