Capitol Hill event to focus on growth and retention

Reston, Va. - The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce that it will co-sponsor the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Joint Societies Capitol Hill Reception at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13. The event will be held in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Room, room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street SW, Washington, D.C., 20515.

The STEM Joint Societies Reception highlights current developments in STEM education and policy. This year's event will focus on understanding the motivations and job aspirations of current students enrolled in engineering programs throughout the United States, and what academia, the government, and industry must do to retain those students in engineering fields, while growing the next generation of the engineering workforce.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Annalisa Weigel, Charles Stark Draper Career Development Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and principal investigator of the "Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes." Dr. Weigel will unveil the study and discuss its conclusions in her keynote address. She will be introduced by the Honorable Vernon J. Ehlers (Mich.-3rd), chairman of the Congressional STEM Education Caucus.

Dave Thompson, AIAA president, stated: "Studies such as the 'Survey of Aerospace Student Attitudes' provide the aerospace community with keen insight into the attitudes and aspirations of their current students who will form tomorrow's engineering workforce. Discussing the conclusions of studies such as this one is the necessary first step to allow academia, government, and industry to craft the necessary policies, at all levels of decision making, to ensure that prospective students are attracted to engineering disciplines, current students stay engaged, and graduates enter the engineering workforce and help keep it strong and vibrant."

The event will also feature a "Poster Session" beginning at 6:45 p.m., at which STEM organizations can showcase their outreach efforts to strengthen STEM education.

The STEM Joint Societies Reception is jointly sponsored by AIAA and the Washington, D.C. sections of the Acoustical Society of America, the Audio Engineering Society, the Optical Society of America, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and Women in Aerospace.

Provided by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics