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09.07

WISE: Engineering the Future

By Sharon C. Richardson

The Washington Internships for Students of Engineering, (WISE) a ten-week summer internship program, cosponsored by IEEE and IEEE-USA along with other associations, gives IEEE student members “a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Approximately 15 outstanding, third-year engineering students entering their final year of undergraduate study are selected each year in a nation-wide competition to spend the summer in Washington, D.C. The students learn how government officials make decisions on complex technological issues and how engineers can contribute to the legislative and regulatory public policy decisions. WISE interns spend much of their time in group meetings with policy-makers, and researching and writing technology policy papers, before retiring for the day on the George Washington University campus.

Each sponsoring Association provides space for the interns to work, computers, phone, internet access and meeting space. In addition, a Faculty-Member-in-Residence (FMR), also called the Senior Science and Technology Public Policy Advisor to Engineering Students, supports the WISE students during their internship. The advisor instructs them on the basics of good policy research; writing and analysis; and organizing regular visits and discussion sessions with congressional policy-makers, regulatory agencies and research institutes. The FMR also outlines the purposes of and helps the students prepare questions for these meetings.

WISE interns also have access to a staff of knowledgeable lobbyists and engineers who can help them in their area of engineering study, with directions for reports, and in connecting to volunteer members who are experts in different areas of technology policy and engineering. The WISE reports, or Journals of Engineering and Public Policy, can be viewed at www.wise-intern.org/journal. From time to time policy-makers on Capitol Hill have referenced these reports.

This year, the participating associations included: IEEE/IEEE-USA; the American Association of Engineering Societies; the American Institute of Chemical Engineering; the American Nuclear Society; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating,
and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) the American Society of Mechanical Engineering; the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International; the American Society of Engineers International; and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

WISE staff representatives have been working hard lobbying for funding for the program that ranks as one of the best internships in the United States, according to The Princeton Review. The WISE interns represent 135 colleges and universities. This year, ASHRAE and ASTM International joined WISE, making it possible to keep the internship alive for another year.

The IEEE recognizes the tremendous impact that these interns have on its membership and the engineering field. Dr. Bjong Wolf Yeigh, Dean of Engineering and Aviation at Saint Louis University was the 1997-98 WISE Faculty-Member-in-Residence and formally Assistant Provost for Science and Technology at Yale University. Yeigh was also a WISE student. “For the past twenty plus years, WISE has made a lasting impact on students, faculty and sponsors while influencing public policy debates. The program truly forged partnerships between engineering and public policy. The graduates of WISE continue to play leadership roles in public policy in this technology-driven 21st century. In addition to making life-long friendships with student leaders, I have personally benefited from participating in WISE, as it prepared me to serve in leadership roles in engineering and academia,” said Yeigh.

Several engineering societies collaborated to found WISE in 1980. “It is IEEE-USA’s hope that the WISE alumni will take advantage of their experience, and make use of understanding public-policy to help educate other engineers, to be leaders of their profession, and to make sure that engineering has a voice in the public policy process,” said IEEE-USA Managing Director Chris Brantley. If you are interested in becoming a WISE intern, go to www.wise-intern.org/apply.

Sharon Richardson is staff assistant for communications at IEEE-USA, and editorial assistant for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.