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How bad is it in the US? 4

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corus

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Nov 6, 2002
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In today's Guardian it is reported that engineers and scientists are being sent to movie school in order that their ilk can be portrayed in a more flattering manner to offset the dramatic decline in the number of students entering the profession in the US.

Will we see remakes of famous movies such as 'Bridge designed over the river Kwai' and 'Titanic' - a story of romance, love, and brittle fracture under impact loading?

corus
 
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you're right monkeydog, (okay, i'll date myself too)
but other screen shots of "dad at the office, answering the phone call from home" he could've been an accountant, or a lawyer ...

btw, i like dilbert ... i've lived most of the earlier cartoons ... mostly as dilbert, sometimes as the boss !?
 
what about jimmy stewart in "no highway in the sky" ?

actaully there's a renaissance guy for you, no i mean neville shute ... design engineer on aero engines, owned his own airplane company (Airspeed), designed his own planes, then wrote stories about engineering and other things ...
 
While looking for other TV engineer roles, I came across the following article: The CSI Effect. Of particular note is the following quote from that article, "Meanwhile, university forensics programs are seeing a greater influx of students than ever before.". If there is a cause-effect relationship, as indicated in this article: 'CSI' Spurs Forensic Academics, then it makes perfect sense that "glamorizing" engineering professionials in TV and movies may spur interest in engineering careers.

I'm still not sure if it's a good idea, but I think I understand the objective and motivation.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
Calvin's dad (Calvin and Hobbes comic strip) is a patent attorney, leading me to believe that he's an ME with a JD.

Powers Boothe plays a dam engineer in the "Emerald Forest." Damn him!

Perhaps the most intriguing engineer portrayal I can recall is in the movie "Scorcerer." I cannot recall the actor's name, but his "role" is that of a Project Engineer - he's got a couple of scenes, one where he explains what the outlaws, led by Roy Scheider, must do (deliver nitro glycerine to an oilfield fire) and later when he cuts a check...
 
On the other hand, Hollywood portrays scientists as either absent-minded professors or madmen trying to take over the world. So engineers could have it worse...

Jim Treglio
Molecular Metallurgy, Inc.
 
For the people that has kids, Kim Possible’s (Disney) father is a rocket scientist, that can come close to an Aeronautical Engineer.

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane
 
Space Cowboys - at least on of them was an engineer that I can remember (the one who had to memorize the eye exam, can't remember the actor's name). For that matter, seems like Clint Eastwood was also an engineer type. None of the ones in that movie were the typical geek portrayal.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.
 
Of course Hollywood wouldn't poke fun at scientist like in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". Or would they? I think its a communist plot. Maybe we can reanimate McCarthy.

Holy Cow Batman. Dr Freeze is on the loose again. Another mad scientist.

Dr. Frankenstein, if you don't call that engineering what is it.

George Jetson worked at Spacely's Sprockets. Not sure if he was an engineer but its close enough.

Grandpa Munster was another mad scientist.

I know Hollywood would never pull the wool over the public's eyes but there has been a female impersonator on television and in the movies for 50 YEARS. Not a supporting actor/actress but the STAR. But of course you know whom I'm talking about. This STAR gave birth on television even though the STAR was a male.


Of course everybody knows its eissaL.

Hollywood at its finest.
 
I don't think that being portrayed as a womanizer is a positive image for an engineer or for any man. Don't get sucked in by the "Hollywood" view of maleness.
 
How about Office Space? Weren't they software engineers? And the stapler guy... hmmm... what was he...?

Ocean's 11 had some computer hacking, as well as Mission Impossible.
 
Besides Fred McMurray's My Three Sons, he was also in a movie about tunneling in NYC - sorry - it was one I saw too many years ago and don't have the name. Good movie, though - collapsing tunnel situation.
[cheers]
 
There was an engineer which saved the lives of the crew several time Montgomery Scott or as he is better known as Scotty on the original Star Trek.
 
BigH,
That was Sylvester Stalone in the tunnel movie.
Also, on USA network “The 4400” has a geeky type of guy (portrays and an engineer) that is slowly morphing as un-geeky to a romantic relationship with the good looking female cop on the show.
 
Wasn't Jerry Lewis in the Nutty Professor a Chemist?

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
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