Workplace Buzz: Today’s Headlines

Broader Outreach Efforts Required
We have witnessed amazing technological advances over the past 150 years largely due to men who created solutions by exercising and expanding their intellects. Imagine how these solutions would have differed if women had participated in their creations. Today, there are many women and men in our country from academe, industry and government who are very interested in seeing how a demographic shift in engineering would influence engineered solutions and public policy. For this to occur, women need to achieve a critical mass within engineering populations, requiring a doubling of current engineering representation to about 30 percent. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Jetpacks in ‘08?
8 Big Ideas to Watch in ’08: Sir Richard will help fund U.S. entrepreneurs, jetpacks will finally fly, and GPS devices will show the cheapest gas nearby - plus much more! Fortune Small Business

Job Cuts at Dow Chemical
Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will shut a number of plants and eliminate about 1,000 jobs to cut costs and direct capital toward businesses with better growth prospects, the largest U.S. chemical maker said on Tuesday. Dow said it would incur a related charge of $500 million to $600 million, including severance costs and asset write-downs. The plant shutdowns and job cuts will generate annual savings of about $180 million, the company said. Reuters