The IEEE Huntsville Section Educational Activities Committee participated in judging for the 2005 Alabama Council for Technology in Education (ACTE) Technology Fair, held at the Von Braun Center on Wednesday, March 30th. Willie Fitzpatrick, Will Goins, and Frank Parris judged student projects in 5th-10th grade Video Production, 5th-6th grade Multimedia, and 3rd-4th grade Web Page Development from participating schools in the Huntsville area.

IEEE judges Frank Parris, Will Goins, and Willie Fitzpatrick

Most engineers - especially those supporting defense-related projects - know how important PowerPoint skills can be in presenting information. Fortunately for the engineering community, students are mastering desktop applications much earlier than most of us already in industry had the opportunity to. It's incredible to think 5th and 6th graders can now do what used to be the realm of college graduates with months of experience.... but it will only enhance the quality of our future engineering workforce. Our future engineers will be able to more fully focus on technical issues without being "distracted" by also having to learn "chartmanship," at least to the degree most of us have had to.

Will Goins discussing a multimedia project with students at the ACTE Technology Fair

The ACTE Technology Fair was very well organized, with special "Thanks!" to Sylvia Dean, Jones Valley Elementary, ACTE Northwest Region Technology Fair Coordinator, for organizing this year's excellent forum for creative expression from Huntsville area students. It was a pleasure for the IEEE to be able to participate and interact with some of our future technology professionals.

Willie Fitzpatrick views a video production from students at Discovery Middle School