In the 21st century, African-American students and employees will be bombarded with new, rapidly developing technologies that will profoundly affect and transform our lives and society. The new opportunities will be primarily concentrated in, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, or in the convergence of all three. These industries will continue to seek and attract highly educated, trained and motivated individuals who are focused on developing technologies and advances to better life as we know it and produce machines, materials and medicines atom by atom. The integration and synergy of multiple technologies will continue to give rise to new and exciting technological markets. These technologies will open opportunities for individuals in other areas like philosophy, sociology, political science and psychology as they are introduced into our

Engineers in the 21st century will have numerous opportunities but will have to seek possible commonalities between fields instead of focusing on the specifics of one technical area. Due to rapidly changing technologies, many individuals will change jobs three or four times in their career. Students of today must seek a very broad base education and training, and an understanding of the basic science and physics of developing technologies. At the end of the 20th century, new graduates were accustomed to multiple internships and job offers, and ever increasing salary offers. New graduates of the 21st century are experiencing the aftershock of the technological market meltdown and simultaneous recession. Thus, students are faced with competing for fewer jobs along with fierce competition from recent graduates and experienced unemployed individuals.

The nation's economic slowdown has had a dramatic impact on African Americans who were hired in record numbers during the economic boom of the 90s and are affected disproportionately by the downturn. According to the Labor Department, African-American unemployment was about 7.6% at the end of 2002 and no indicators point to the situation reversing soon. Career opportunities in the 21st century, short- and long- term, will be available for those who constantly upgrade their skills to get ahead of the coming revolution of technology trends.

The Here and Now!

When the economy slows down, jobs dry up and competition becomes fierce for every job and internship. Students must realize that today is different from days of the recent past where jobs were plentiful. Extra energy and effort must be placed on preparing for and locating a job. In the here and now, students must work to differentiate themselves from others. Reading trade and industry magazines, and enrolling in technical elective courses in novel subject areas are great schemes to place oneself ahead of the pack. Seeking and obtaining internships and co-ops have been and continue to be a way to get noticed by recruiters.

Derrick Scott, (left) president of the National Association of Minority Engineering Program Administrators and director of the Minority Engineering Program Office of the University of Michigan College of Engineering, states, "Across the nation, an entire generation of engineers is retiring, and the public and private sector will be looking hard for people to replace them. To really be prepared, students should make sure they take advantage of internship and co-op job opportunities. That hands-on experience boosts the chances that their resume will be looked at-and it helps them connect academically when they come back to the classroom."

In this sluggish economy, salaries are actually contracting or flat at best. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), salaries for chemical and mechanical engineering entry-level hires were slightly up from 2001 while chemical and electrical engineering hires were down. All indicators are that salaries in 2003 will be constant or lower than 2002. So, students must now remain focused and positive.

The Coming Revolution!

Students and new hires have to realize one of their important tasks, if they have a job, is to keep it and be prepared for the ever-changing landscape of technology. We have to practically recreate ourselves everyday because the skills of today may be obsolete tomorrow, for we know technology is changing at a rapid pace. Now, there are several trends that students must prepare to conquer during the 21st century and they're described as follows.

Nanotechnology is any technology producing some specific control at a substantially sub-micron scale. All products, including human beings, are made from atoms and by changing how these atoms are arranged, a product can be altered or changed. The atoms in coal can be re-arranged to produce diamonds, the atoms in sand can be altered to produce computer chips and doctors are looking at altering human DNA, or the genetic code, to permanently correct human defects or disease in order to produce a different human being. The word nanotechnology is commonly used to describe any process, research or manufacturing that occurs where the characteristic dimensions are less than about 1,000 nanometers. Nanotechology will allow scientists, engineers and researcher to do primarily three things, which are place essentially every atom in the right location to get a novel product or output, produce almost any structure uniform with the laws of physics that we can specify in molecular detail and reduce manufacturing costs close to the cost of the required raw materials and energy.

Biotechnology is an applied science that is focused on capturing the natural biological capabilities of microbial plant and animal cells for the benefit of mankind. In essence, biotechnology is the use of living organisms to develop foods, medicines, and other useful products, coupling scientific and engineering principles with commercial considerations to develop and improve products and processes. According to the Department of Labor, the biotechnology industry has shown a strong increase in product sales over the past twelve years. In 1986, biotechnology product sales totaled $6 million. In 1996, this figure was up to $10.6 billion. Conservative estimates had predicted sales of $60 billion by the year 2000. Furthermore, in 1985, there were about 400 biotech companies nationwide and in 2000, there were 1,300 biomedical companies alone, according to BioWorld Today. As you can see, biotechnology is a growth industry no student can afford to ignore. Biotechnology continues to grow and will need well-trained engineers for the near future.

According to Danny Marsh, director of College Relations for Johnson and Johnson, "Recruiting in Johnson and Johnson has many faces because the company is comprised of three business segments - Consumer Products, Medical Device & Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals, each segment having different strategies for college recruiting. All of our business segments hire engineers, however, our fastest growing opportunity exists in the Medical Device & Diagnostic business. Within MD&D, we look to hire primarily mechanical and bio-medical engineers for R&D, Process Excellence (Six Sigma), Manufacturing and Project Management."

Information Technology (IT) entails all aspects of computing, data storage and communications. IT people solve technical, organizational and management problems involving information - collecting information, storing it, using it and retrieving it from storage. Information technology was the driving force in the late 20th century as just about everyone purchased cellular phones, installed digital subscriber lines (DSL) or cable modems to gain high speed Internet access. The World Wide Web became a household name as even grandmothers were performing transactions or sending e-mail across the Internet. With the Internet alone, society was able to see one of the benefits of information technology. At the beginning of the 21st century, nearly one billion users were able to access the Internet simultaneously, regardless of language and physical limitations. Information technology will continue to transform our lives and our world.

According to Dr. Marcus Shute (left) of Shute Enterprises, while all of these areas are powerful independently, the convergence of them give rise to novel and unexpected research, markets and career opportunities. He says the convergence will occur at the nanoscale production of new biotechnology and information technology products. "It has been well documented that the vast majority of career opportunities in this new millennium will be technology-related. There is a shortage of people pursuing technology-related careers, especially minorities. In the next few years, more than half of U.S. workers will be employed by industries that either produce or are intensive users of information technology," said Shute. "Information technology is a driving force in our economy and has changed the way we work, play and live. Our desire for ‘better, stronger, smarter, faster, smaller and cheaper' has created opportunities in the areas of nanotechnology, specifically nanomaterials and nanoengineering-working with matter on the atomic level to create new materials and devices. Recent world events have also fueled research in biotechnology and biomaterials, in the government and private sector, to counter the threat of bioterrorism." Shute added, "the synergy between the areas of information technology, nanotechnology and biotechnology is incredible-such as artificial limbs, systems and devices that mimic efficient bioprocesses using Bio-Micro/Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (Bio-MEMS and Bio-NEMS) technology; the advent of smaller, cheaper, and faster chips using plastics and other nanoprocesses for computing devices. Career opportunities and rewards seem endless for those who have expertise that span these areas."

The individuals who continue to train and learn will always be employable. Those who do not properly prepare for the future are those who will have the most problems. As Malcolm X stated, "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today." These three technological areas and their convergence will influence mankind's working habits, economic activity and human interactions. Well-educated, trained and diverse engineers are needed to move these areas and this country ahead in the 21st century.

Dr. Calvin Mackie is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Tulane University.