The 2006 National Technical Association Conference begins today at Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. The conference will bring together four major components of the organization - technical paper presentation sessions, personal and professional workshops, award recognition ceremonies, and the Technical Career & Opportunity Fair - and mark the 80th anniversary of NTA, the nation's oldest professional technical association of minority scientists and engineers.
Tutorials and session presenters at the conference, include Michael A. Chapman, P.E. head, data acquisition & data quality, NASA Langley Research Center; Ernest LeVert, P.E. senior engineer, Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control; Dr. William Lupton, chair, Computer Science department, Morgan State University; Dr. Ronald E. Mickens, professor, Physics department, Clark Atlanta University; Herbert W. Massie, Jr., technical specialist, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board; and Hattie Carwell, health physicist, U.S. Department of Energy.
Wednesday covers a full day of tours at Argonne National Laboratory, architectural landmarks in Chicago, and the Museum of Science and Industry. Dr. Thomas Windham, senior advisor, Science and Engineering Workforce at the National Science Foundation, will keynote the opening plenary session.
Thursday will be the first full day of the conference, beginning with a ribbon cutting ceremony as the Technical Career and Opportunity Fair opens. The rest of the day will include technical paper presentations and sessions covering everyday ISO applications, techniques to further your career, privacy and the Patriot Act, and strategies for successful retirement.
Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The History Makers, will present the Charles S. Duke Lecture at the membership luncheon. Charles S. Duke, the first African American to receive an engineering degree from Harvard University, founded the National Technical Association in 1925.
On Friday, there will be more technical paper presentations and sessions on enhancing student professional development within research and technical fields, workspace and work style, geographical information system applications, contract and proposal development, and science and technical careers in public service.
For the conference's last full day, Joseph Fuller, Jr., president and CEO, Futron Corporation and Garry A. Harris, president, HTS Enterprise, LLC will discuss technical entrepreneurship.
For more information about the conference, please visit the conference website http://www.ntaonline.org/
