A couple of years ago, I wrote and article for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Magazine in which I outlined the issues regarding where the "new blood" of embedded engineers are coming from.  In that article, I summarized the views of many of us who represent the old hands at real-time and embedded systems.  Namely, students coming out of many university programs are not sufficiently trained in real-time and embedded systems issues.

http://www.todaysengineer.org/2008/Feb/help-wanted.asp

In fact, noted embedded systems columnist Jack Ganssle did a little further research by examining the programs of several large universities and found that it's now possible to get a degree in computer science with only one or two classes that involve any programming at all.  He wrote about his findings in Embedded.com magazine and we've have many discussions since regarding this sad state of affairs.

I feel that this lack of training represents a significant threat to the US economy and innovation as we try to become more "green" and regain some of the economic stature that the US has enjoyed in the past.  That article was widely received and I got thousands of responses from all over the world.  As it turns out, that original article became the number three top web-hit grossing article for the magazine over the past two years.

So, when IEEE contacted me back in October and asked if I would write a follow-up article, I was more than pleased for the opportunity.  The follow-up article came out in the April IEEE-USA Today's Engineer entitled "Save an Engineer, Save the World".  The article was also abstracted and was made the feature article for the new IEEE-USA in Action magazine.

http://www.todaysengineer.org/IA/2010/innovation.asp

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieeeusa/ieeeusa_0410/#/4/OnePage

In this follow-up, I respond to many of the messages that I received over the past two years from the original article and add a plea for those of us in the industry to take the time to help mentor students and get them interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects.  I feel that the US is continuing to slip into a "we can't do that -- it's too hard" mentality where we will be at the mercy of innovations from Europe and Asia.

Embedded systems are a part of nearly everyone's day-to-day lives.  From our cell phones, to our cars to our MP3 players and television sets, embedded systems are everywhere.  And, as the graying of the existing embedded talent pool continues to progress, we need to identify and train the next generation in the techniques that we know work and help them differentiate between computer system theory and the harsh realities of resource-constrained, deadline-driven computing.

Between programs like US FIRST and BEST Robotics, Connect a Million Minds and others, each of us have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students.  With most schools systems finding themselves in a severe funding crunch that forces them to cut back on teachers and programs, it is imperative that we, as engineers, step in an make a difference by volunteering our time to educate future engineers and scientists in the best practices that we've learned over the decades.  That engineer you help create might just save the world by inventing a solution to one of the many problems facing society today.

Mike