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01.12

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On "Engineering Hall of Fame: Henry Ford, Electrical Engineer (December 2011) "

I enjoy these historical articles. This one taught me things about Henry Ford and Thomas Edison that I didn't know.

Joe Loughry
IEEE Student Member
Centennial, Colo.

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On "A Brief History of the U.S. Federal Government and Innovation (Part II)" (July 2011)

It is great to have such an integrated history of what many of us remember only in limited segments from direct experience.

Thomas Hutchison
IEEE Life Member
Leesburg, Va.

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On "Career Focus: Systems Engineering" (November 2011)

In 1963, USNA taught the first-anywhere course in Systems Engineering. It tied together and made relevant all of the previous courses in science, engineering, math and even history, languages and English.

I've used that knowledge ever since.

It should be part of the curriculum for every engineering discipline. We need to have some engineers become leaders.

Joseph Dimmick
IEEE Senior Member
Odenton, MD

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I teach a capstone project course for EE and CompE majors. I am a retired system engineer. This article entirely captures the state of system engineering as I have experienced it.

I would like to use this material in my course next semester.

Andy Dozier
IEEE Member
Louisville, KY

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On "20 Years of Pension Improvements" (November 2011)

Great info about "Sock it to ya" by employers. As always, George has done a masterful job of finding and presenting info all employees, not just engineers, ought to know and be prepared to deal with during their working life.

Roger Madden
IEEE Life Senior Member
Tallahassee, FL

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On "Cover Letters: Too Much “I” Doesn’t Leave Room for Me" (November 2011)

I am dismayed at the description that a hiring manager has no time allocated for hiring. Hiring should be one of a manager's most important activities; if you hire a person who is not the "best," you are making the whole team weak.

I was once a Director of Advanced Technology at a very big telecommunications company and I set aside more than 50 percent of my time for hiring. I recognize that people are key assets, and I did my due diligence before hiring. I made it abundantly clear to my management team that an individual contributor's progress is the sole responsibility of the hiring manager; so please spend time in hiring the "best" guy. It is as important as the next technical breakthrough of the organization.

I had a great success in retaining the talent during the turmoil of the telecom bust.

Utpal Chakrabarti
IEEE Member
Allentown, PA

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