WASHINGTON (12 February 2010) —  IEEE-USA ONLINE VIDEO COMPETITION: According to Nita Patel, IEEE-USA vice president of communications and public awareness, $5,000 in scholarship awards will be given to five undergraduates at three U.S. universities, who entered the organization’s 2010 “How Engineers Make a World of Difference” online video competition: First Prize ($2,000) to Sergio Flores Castro, Miguel Murillo and Carolina Flores of UNLV; Second Prize ($1,500) to Zachary Phillips of LeTourneau University in Long View, Texas; and Third Prize ($1,000) to Carrie Hunter of Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College.

The three video entries were deemed most effective in reinforcing for an 11-to-13-year-old audience how engineers improve quality of life. Entries in the third annual IEEE-USA video competition profiled an engineer or technologies.  

Pensacola Junior College’s Hunter will also receive a $500 scholarship award for the most innovative and effective presentation of a video entry to the “tween” target audience. A representative of the first-prize team from UNLV will be recognized at the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., on 6 March.  

The award-winning entries will also be featured in the first nationwide Web-based gathering of engineering students, an “Engineers Week Blast!” live from Howard University in Washington, D.C., on 18 Feb. from 8-9 p.m. ET, at http://www.ibroadcasts.tv/asce-live-webcast.html

The three-judge video competition panel included: Andrew Quecan, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Stanford University; Suzette Aguilar, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin; and Nate Ball, mechanical engineer and host of PBS’ “Design Squad.”  According to IEEE-USA’s Patel, the video competition was designed to be replicated in IEEE student sections both in and outside of the United States. IEEE-USA will launch its fourth video scholarship competition in September

To view all of this year’s award entries, go to http://www.youtube.com/ieeeusavideo