Govt. official discusses technological wave

U.S. Under Secretary for Technology at the Department of Commerce Mary Good spoke about women's roles in the engineering field in Towne Building Friday afternoon. Good spoke about her involvement with federal technology programs, specifically, the Technology Administration. That agency works with U.S. industry to improve technology, innovation and productivity. Good discussed the increasing industry presence of China and the absence of a "tolerance for failure" there. "Most businessmen today have failed at least twice," Good said. "We [as Americans] still admire people that fall on their face." She also discussed her work with the partnership for a New Generation Vehicle, better known as the Clean Car Effort. "This, I think, is the first government/industry project that set out to accomplish a social good where industry has totally bought in," Good said. One out of seven Americans are employed in the automobile industry, Good said. This makes keeping up with technology critical. "We made a rule that the cars would have to have three times the efficiency of the average family sedan," she said. "This requires an advance in technology to attain." Good went on to discuss her work with Allied Science, where she presided over the centralized research and technology organizations. Her emphasis was the many different fields in which engineers can be involved. "I can only wish for the students here to have the same opportunities," Good said. But, Good also answered personal questions about balancing career and family. "Look very carefully at the husband you pick," she told the 50 students in attendance. "She combined engineering and economics in her work, and I wanted to hear her views," said Management and Technology junior Sonila Shah. "You have to have an idea of technology to work in the government, and hearing [Good] was an interesting experience." Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington introduced Good as a leader in her field. "There is a freshman Chemistry textbook which has profiles of chemists with strange and interesting lives," Farrington said. "Both Dr. Good and I were profiled -- she was the interesting one and I was the strange one." Good was the first speaker in the "Women in the Public Sphere" lecture series jointly given by the Society of Women Engineers and the Annenberg School of Communications. The series will run through the year with the next event tentatively scheduled for early December.