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What is a Cybersecurity Engineer?

The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) defines cybersecurity as the practice of guaranteeing information's confidentiality, integrity, and availability, as well as the art of preventing illegal access to networks, devices, and data. Cybersecurity, expressed simply, is the safeguarding of computer networks and data systems.

Cybersecurity engineers, sometimes also called information security engineers, are responsible for preventing interruptions, cyberattacks, and breaches. Cybersecurity engineers are typically engaged by businesses dealing with huge volumes of sensitive data; a variety of industries demand their skill set. The need for cybersecurity has grown since the world of today depends more and more on cloud software and is driven by data. Considering they are the ones in charge of creating and executing well-thought-out security protocols and solutions, cybersecurity engineers hold a significant position in the engineering industry. But in order to be eligible to work as an entry-level cybersecurity engineer, you need to have some required skills. A wide range of testing tool expertise and a good critical thinking ability are prerequisites for cybersecurity engineers since they must foresee any risks and data breaches and determine the best course of action to address them. Furthermore, cybersecurity engineers must have technical and soft skills in addition to a degree in a computer-related subject.

If interested, to learn more about cybersecurity career, please visit: https://www.cisa.gov/careers.

 

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African American Pioneers in Engineering You Should Know About

February is African American History Month. As such, it is the perfect opportunity to highlight the engineering achievements of African Americans who, although they have contended with racism, societal inequality, and discrimination, worked hard to overcome obstacles and accomplished great things in the field of engineering.

1. Walter Brathwaite, an American engineer who was born in Jamaica, was hired by Boeing in 1966. As Senior Engineer, he led the team that invented CAD systems for design of commercial Boeing aircrafts. Over the years, Brathwaite rose through the ranks, eventually becoming President of Boeing Africa. When he retired in 2003, he was the highest ranking African American executive of the company.

2. Howard P. Grant graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1948, making him the first African American to graduate from the Berkeley College of Engineering. That same year, Grant also became the first known Black member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He subsequently became the first African American civil engineer for the City and County of San Francisco and the second African American civil engineer to be licensed by California. He worked for the San Francisco water department until 1984, and also held the position of president and treasurer of the California Society of Professional Engineers.

3. George Biddle Kelley graduated from Cornell University's College of Civil Engineering in 1908. He went on to become the first African American engineer registered in the State of New York. He was hired by the New York Engineering Department, where he worked on the Barge Canal, a collection of state waterways, during the 1920s.

4. Elijah McCoy was born in Canada in 1844 to runaway slaves who had escaped Kentucky through the Underground Railroad. At the age of 15, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland for an apprenticeship. There he became certified in mechanical engineering. Upon leaving Scotland, he moved to Michigan, where his family was now living. After being unable to find engineering work in Michigan because of his race, he found work as a fireman with the Michigan Central Railroad. Part of his duties included oiling the steam engine parts. Soon, McCoy had invented an automatic engine lubricator, which meant that trains were no longer required to stop for lubrication, and lubrication could now occur while the trains were moving. As news of the invention spread, many inventors attempted to create their own version of the automatic lubricator. However, it was soon discovered that McCoy’s invention was superior. It is said that railway engineers began requesting “the real McCoy” lubricator. McCoy filed a total of almost 60 patents, including designs for an ironing board, a lawn sprinkler, and other machines.

 

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Happy National Metric Week

Did you know that the metric system began during the Age of Enlightenment?

In Europe, the metric system became the normal standard measurement and later was adopted across the world with the exception of the United States (US), Liberia, and Myanmar. Today, the US remains the only country to use the imperial system. The US didn’t adopt the metric system because, during the Industrial Revolution, the main source of income was manufacturing plants; adopting the metric system would have cost the US time and money. Even in today’s society, money is the main topic of discussion as to why the US won’t change to the metric system. Although the metric system is not used in the US, it plays a major part in the US engineering industry, which utilizes the metric system due to its compatibility with all types of measurements and accuracy over the imperial system. For example, engineers utilize the metric system when creating computer-aided design (CAD).

Many considered Gabriel Mouton, a French abbot and scientist, to be the father of the metric system. Mouton was born in 1618 in Lyon, France, he spent his whole life and later died in 1694. Mouton was incredibly involved with his church, but also spent his personal time studying mathematics and astronomy. In the field of natural and practical measurement, Mouton was a pioneer; he started by examining how latitude affects a pendulum's length with a one beat per second frequency. The length of the terrestrial meridian, which was to be used as the universal unit of length, was the length that he then proposed to infer from these changes.

The metric system has many advantages, but is not without its disadvantages. Some advantages consist of the metric system being consistently based on decimal numbers; since it’s based on multiples of ten, you can simply move the decimal point so any measurements that are given in one metric unit such as a kilogram can be converted to another metric unit such as a gram. In addition, the metric system works well with percentages and is a one sort of unit for weight, which makes it easier to get more accurate measurements. However, the disadvantage of the metric system is that it’s not well suited for working with fractions, so basically one size does not fit all. When it comes to measuring fractions, the numbers can be off. For example, 2/6 meter is approximately equivalent to 333 millimeters and 2/3 kilogram is approximately equal to 666 grams.

 

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International Women’s Day

Today, March 8th is International Women’s Day, a global holiday that uplift the voices of women worldwide and celebrates the impacts they have made throughout history. Whether the impacts were made culturally or historically, today is a beautiful day to highlight some engineering heroes’ achievements who paved the way for the female engineers of today.

Even with gender and/or racial inequality, the following women made history in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA):

  • Mary Jackson was born in 1921 in Hampton, Virginia. She was an African-American NASA engineer who made it possible for America’s first men to travel to space. She was known as a human computer who, behind the scenes, calculated the orbital trajectories. Aside from engineering, she was passionate about advocating for women and minorities in the engineering field, so after working 30 years with NASA, she retired in 1985 and shifted careers to focus on becoming an equal opportunity specialist to help women and minorities.
  • Dorothy Vaughan was born in 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the first African-American supervisor for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). She advocated for her employees by making sure they received promotions and pay raises. After segregation ended in 1985, that is when NACA became NASA and Vaughan became a programmer for a new division that was created, named Analysis and Computation. While working in this division, her group worked behind the scenes and played a major part in the success of a satellite-launching rocket called Scout. Vaughan retired in 1971.
  • Katherine Johnson was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She was a pioneer in mathematics that landed her a job at NASA as a Trajectory Analysis for Alan Shepard’s mission in 1961, and then for John Glenn's orbital mission in 1962. While working for NASA, she was the behind-the-scenes math genius that made many missions like space shuttle, Earth Resources Satellite, and Apollo’s Lunar Lander successful. Thanks to her achievements, she received the highest civilian honor in the United States: the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Johnson retired in 1987.
  • Kalpana Chawla was born March 17, 1962, in Karnal, India. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in India, and later on moved to the United States to continue her education and received a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. After being naturalized in the United States, she became an astronaut, engineer, and the first woman of Indian descent to go to space. Chawla lost her life during a mission, but her legacy continues to live through her work. Her research helped other astronauts understand health and safety during spaceflight. She continues to be an inspiration for many immigrants who are chasing the American dream.

For more information about women who made history in NASA, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/

 

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National Engineer’s Week

This week is National Engineers Week!

This week-long event recognizes engineers as a central asset to our world and celebrates their “positive contributions to quality of life,” according to the National Society of Engineers.

Engineers created structures like the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, and even the Great Wall of China! Without engineers, these massive and impressive feats would have never come to be.

Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, National Engineers Week has coincided for over 50 years with the week of President George Washington’s birthday (February 22nd) to pay homage to the nation’s first engineer. Washington was introduced to engineering at an early age, often partaking in land surveying opportunities and ultimately going on to design a country estate on a plantation he’d inherited — Mount Vernon.

Each year, DiscoverE (http://www.discovere.org/), an organization focused on supporting and promoting growth of the engineering and technology communities, encourages children to explore the STEM community through interactive lessons, child-friendly activities, and involvement with their own local engineering communities.

Across the nation in cities like Port Jefferson, NY; Raleigh, NC; and Los Angeles, CA, DiscoverE hosts a series of workshops and presentations to promote the importance of engineering. Children are able to meet and speak with veteran engineers, participate in fun, educational activities, and learn about the global scale of engineered contributions.

For more information on upcoming STEM events sponsored by DiscoverE, visit http://www.discovere.org.