National Society of Black Engineers Convention Bringing STEM to Nashville

National Society of Black Engineers Convention Bringing STEM to Nashville

National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is one of the leading organizations that is governed by students in the United States. It is a not-for-profit organization founded back in 1975, and now boasts of more than 30,000 members from over 310 collegiate, pre-collegiate and technical professional/Alumni Chapter from both the U.S. and abroad. Making it by all standards, one of the largest membership organizations for black professionals and students in engineering and STEM-related discipline in the U.S.A. The core mission of the NSBE is “To increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community”.

NSBE will host its 40^th annual convention in Nashville on March 26th to March 30th, 2014. The venue will be at America’s Music City at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and more than 8,000 engineers will be in attendance. This 40^th annual convention will be themed, “NSBE40: Engineering and Leadership in Harmony”. During this time a series of events will take place sponsored by various companies from the Nation’s Fortune 500 companies such as Nissan, Chevron, Intel, The Boeing Company and Facebook among others. In addition to this there will be a 24 hour Hackathon: an event which consist of computer programmers, interfaced designers, project managers and graphic designers who will team up in an intensive short-term team-work software projects. The Hackathon event is powered by Google, and sponsored by Thoughtworks, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Intel Corporation.

The NSBE convention presents life-changing job opportunities for the members to see them through tough economic times. This is because of the fact that the convention will attract over 200 of the nation’s largest employers: for instance Nissan will have its recruiters at the Career Fair who will be on the lookout for prospective employees, pickup resumes, hold several interviews and in some instances hire the attendees right on the spot. Additionally there will be over 60 academic institutions that will pitch up camp at the conventions, such as the Vanderbilt University which will be working with exhibitors at the convention’s Graduate School Fair and College Fair. The University will be on the lookout as well to recruit students who intend to undertake graduate and undergraduate programs respectively.

This year convention will have hundreds of educational, career development and motivational activities, hence taking NSBE steps in the right direction towards its main goal of reaching out to the underrepresented blacks in the engineering discipline and end the imbalance that are currently existing. The NSBE Annual Conventions has been receiving major support from the country’s biggest private sector stakeholders as well as government employers, and the 2014’s convention will be no exception. Intel Corporation has been a consistent and proud sponsor of the NSBE since 1998, and it is also a member of NSBE Board of Corporate Affiliates since the same year. Intel was quoted, “NSBE is Intel’s #1 partner in sustaining its corporate leadership and visibility in the African-American technical community and growing the number of African American students within STEM talent pipeline”.

In testimony to the NSBE achievements in terms of promoting youth leadership, the convention’s lineup of speakers will be Jaylen Bledsoe: a prolific high school student who has achieved what many will only dream of achieving by his young age, he built a $3.5 million worth IT Company. The Annual Convention will also host the gala ceremony for NSBE’s top honors – the NSBE Golden Torch Awards (GTA). Which will recognize individuals and organizations that emulates NSBE’s missions of promoting academic excellence, professional success and show dedication towards improving the black community. Those who will be in attendance in 2014’s Golden Torch honorees are:

• Isaac Atuahene – Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant, Engineering Economy Analysts at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
• Charles A. Stout – Ph.D., P.E. Director of Research and Development at Mueller Industries, Inc from Memphis.
• To view the full listing of 2014’s GTA Winners follow this link.

The March 26 2014, 40^th NSBE Annual Conventions is expected to have attendees exceeding 8,000. This translates to over 9,500 hotel room booked thus generating millions of cash in direct spending to the Indianapolis entrepreneurs in transport, restaurant and accommodation industries. For more information on the 40^th NSBE Annual Convention, you can call (703) 549-2207 or visit their website here.