Does an Engineering Career Appeal to You?

Amazingly, some of the engineers who designed America's great projects were largely self-taught. Most engineers, however, must commit to years of rigorous schooling before embarking on an engineering career. Below are some resources and organizations that can help aspiring engineers start down that path. Also, check the Bibliographies page for books about the projects covered in the 'Great Projects' programs.

Bibliographies

Further reading about the 'Great Projects'

MINI BIOS

Frank T. Crowe

Frank Crowe, chief engineer for the Hoover Dam, studied engineering at the University of Maine. He was so inspired by a lecture about dam-building that he signed up as an engineer for the federal Reclamation Service. He fell in love with the West and spent most of his life on the sites of rising dams.

Thomas Edison

One of the world's most prolific inventors, Edison received just three months of formal schooling as a boy. At 13, he took a job as a newsboy and spent much of his time reading scientific and technical books. "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration," was a saying that Edison coined.

Fred Salvucci

As a kid growing up in Boston, Fred Salvucci heard about construction all the time — his dad was a master bricklayer and a major masonry contractor. Salvucci did especially well in high school and was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a preeminent engineering school. Boston's "Big Dig" would become his preoccupation.