Since its founding in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Engineers Week, a consortium of more than 100 engineering, scientific, and education societies, and major corporations, has helped increase public awareness and appreciation of technology and the engineering profession. Thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers, and leaders in government and business participate each year.

National Engineer's Week takes place every year at the time of George Washington's birthday. The nation's first president had the background of an engineer and land surveyor and established the first call for an engineering school, which led to the founding of West Point. In 2004, National Engineer's Week will be held February 22-27. The purpose of the week is to help increase public understanding of the profession.

Engineering has been called the "invisible profession" or the "stealth profession" because most people have no clue what engineers do. This is unfortunate, because everything in society is linked to engineering.

A 1998 poll indicated 61% of adults felt "not very well" or "not at all well" informed about engineering. If you surf your way through this site and our links, you'll know way more about engineers and engineering than most adults. You might even decide that you want to become an engineer.

So what is engineering? A really broad but short definition of engineering is:

Engineering is the application of math and science to create something of value from our natural resources.

There are other definitions of engineering if you want to see what others through history have thought. You can find more information on our links page.