Engineers Black Book Download
Ozie Melzer
In honor of Black History Month, we would like to recognize a number of Black engineers and academics whose contributions to the world of engineering and design have shaped the way we think, work, create, and consider design innovation. From CAD/CAM and gaming, to advancements in environmental sustainability, and the first Black UC Berkeley College of Engineering graduate, here is a short list of the engineers whose work our students at the Jacobs Institute have to thank for making it possible.
Jerry Lawson was a pioneer in the gaming industry, whose contributions to the industry paved the way for future video game development. He is the creator of the first video game console that accommodates interchangeable cartridges, with the use of the new processor he invented, the Fairchild 8. Born in Queens, NY in 1940, Lawson showed an interest in electronics from an early age, repairing televisions to earn extra spending money. Lawson moved to Silicon Valley in the 1970s, becoming one of the only Black members of the Homebrew Computer Club, alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Lilia A. Abron is the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D in chemical engineering, whose research focused on the environmental movement and removal of pesticides from water. As the founder of PEER CP, she is the first African American to found an environmental engineering firm. PEER is an engineering consulting firm that specializes in sustainable solutions, from water infrastructure programming to community cleanups.
Braithwaite and his team at Boeing are the developers of CAD/CAM, computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing systems that are now widely used for product design. CAD/CAM revolutionized the design industry, allowing for designers to move from pen and paper drafting to software. Braithwaite was born in Jamaica in 1945, and earned an engineering degree in 1966. He began his career at Boeing in the same year, and was the senior engineer responsible for the development of CAD/CAM in commercial airline design in 1975. He worked with Boeing for 36 years, becoming the highest-ranking Black executive and president of Boeing Africa.
White men constitute about one-half of scientists andengineers employed in S&E occupations. In all racial and ethnicgroups, more men than women work in S&E occupations.Together, Asian and underrepresented minority womencomprise about 1 in 10 persons employed in S&E occupations.
Engineering occupations are some of the highest-paying and most prestigious in the US labor market, but they are also some of the least diverse. Mission Not Accomplished: Unequal Opportunities and Outcomes for Black and Latinx Engineers finds that of the nearly 1.7 million prime-age engineering workers in the United States in 2019, 81% were either White or Asian/Asian American, and 84% were men. A mere 3% of engineers working in the field in 2019 were either Black/African American or Latinx women.
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The artwork, conceived by Diemut Strebe, an artist-in-residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology, in collaboration with Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and his group, and MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology artist-in-residence Diemut Strebe, features a 16.78-carat natural yellow diamond from LJ West Diamonds, estimated to be worth $2 million, which the team coated with the new, ultrablack CNT material. The effect is arresting: The gem, normally brilliantly faceted, appears as a flat, black void.
Wardle says the CNT material, aside from making an artistic statement, may also be of practical use, for instance in optical blinders that reduce unwanted glare, to help space telescopes spot orbiting exoplanets.
Cui found that if he soaked aluminum foil in saltwater, he could remove the oxide layer. He then transferred the foil to an oxygen-free environment to prevent reoxidation, and finally, placed the etched aluminum in an oven, where the group carried out techniques to grow carbon nanotubes via a process called chemical vapor deposition.
Cui measured the amount of light reflected by the material, not just from directly overhead, but also from every other possible angle. The results showed that the material absorbed at least 99.995 percent of incoming light, from every angle. In other words, it reflected 10 times less light than all other superblack materials, including Vantablack. If the material contained bumps or ridges, or features of any kind, no matter what angle it was viewed from, these features would be invisible, obscured in a void of black.
*An earlier version of this story stated that the new material captures more than 99.96 percent of incoming light. That number has been updated to be more precise; the material absorbs at least 99.995 of incoming light.
New York Times reporter Natalie Angier spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new material with carbon nanotubes that captures at least 99.995 percent of incoming light. In an exhibit at the New York Stock Exchange, the material was used to cloak a 16.78-carat diamond, which makes the diamond appear to disappear.
Motherboard reporter Becky Ferreira writes about how MIT researchers have created the darkest material ever developed using carbon nanotubes. This is a proper unexpected scientific discovery," explains Prof. Brian Wardle. "I think a much blacker material can be engineered given things like morphology of the carbon nanotubes that we know how to control."
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had its first African-American graduate, Robert R. Taylor, in 1892. It was only 25 years later, in 1917, that the university gave its first civil engineering diploma to an African-American. For quite a while throughout history, engineering was almost entirely the domain of white men.
Although Caucasian males still dominate the profession in the U.S. (only 5 percent of engineers are African-American, only 13.4 percent are women of any race, according to one 2011 report), it's important to recognize the significant legacies that Black men and women have created in the field [source: Koebler].
Let's start with one of the early pioneers of a small feat of engineering that's arguably the most important invention of the 20th century. You know it as CAD and we have Walt Braithwaite to thank for it.
Born in Jamaica, Braithwaite received a degree in engineering in 1966 and joined up with Boeing the same year. Just as commercial flying was taking off, Braithwaite began flying up the ladder, leading and developing some of the most important aircraft and systems [source: Large].
Braithwaite's team developed computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems for Boeing, which led the way for airplanes and, eventually, many other products designed entirely through software. (Goodbye pen and paper drafting!) Braithwaite also became the highest-ranking Black executive at Boeing when he was named president of Boeing Africa in 2000. After 36 years with the aircraft titan, he retired in 2003.
If we're talking trailblazers, we should probably get our vernacular right: These engineers are more likely to carefully plan and execute a well-designed trail than to light a fire to make their way through. Howard Grant is a terrific example of an engineer who systematically built a stellar reputation through his groundbreaking career and myriad professional activities.
You all know the story: Lowly intern at massively wealthy company moves up the ladder to become CEO of said company. Or perhaps you don't know the story because it never really happens, minus a few dream sequences in movies. But Ursula Burns did just that, and became the first African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company to boot.
In 1908, George Biddle Kelley graduated from Cornell University's College of Civil Engineering. He became the first African-American engineer registered in the state of New York. Among other endeavors, he was employed by the New York Engineering Department, where he worked on the Barge Canal, a collection of state waterways, during the 1920s. His legacy remains through the George Biddle Kelley scholarship, which aims to mentor and provide educational funds for socioeconomically disadvantaged males in upstate New York [source: George Biddle Kelley Foundation].
The accomplished engineer dedicated to furthering education in young people has another important credit to his name: He was a founding member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the oldest Black Greek fraternal organization. According to the organization, he was also instrumental in creating the "handshake and ritual" that identifies fraternity brothers [source: Alpha Phi Alpha].
Ready to meet another patent holder and pioneer? William Hunter Dammond was the first African American graduate of the Western University of Pennsylvania (which later became the University of Pittsburgh). Dammond graduated with honors from the university in 1893, with a degree in civil engineering [source: Barksdale-Hall].
After assorted professional adventures, Dammond moved to Michigan to work as a bridge engineer. Once there, he hit his stride, inventing an electrical signaling system for railway engineers to recognize the approach of another train and receiving a patent for it [source: U.S. Patent 747,949]. In 1906, he was issued another patent for a "safety system" for railway operation [source: U.S. Patent 823,513].
Aerospace engineer Dr. Aprille Ericsson has held numerous positions during her near-30-year career with NASA. For more than 10 years she was a senior deputy instrument manager for NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite program, where she worked on mapping instruments for future lunar explorations. In other words, Ericsson had one of the coolest jobs in the universe. Currently, she is the new business lead for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Instrument Systems and Technology Division, where she fosters government, academic and industry partnerships.
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