Engineering was a focus of the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s first Manufacturers’ Council meeting of 2024.

The featured speaker at the January 17 event at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa was Dr. Tim McNiff, executive director of Engineering Tomorrow, a national nonprofit dedicated to creating a pipeline of future engineers in the United States.

“This country has a dearth of engineers,” McNiff told a crowd of about 35. “We need to build that pipeline larger and more efficient than it is today. What I love about it, being a former school superintendent for 32 years, is that the focus is on high school kids.

“…The high schools are not positioned, for multiple reasons, to build or scale kids to go to college to start that journey.”

Engineering Tomorrow is a virtual program that is free to schools, teachers and students. It delivers labs in all 50 U.S. states and has partnerships in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ghana and Rwanda.

The nonprofit intentionally tries to reach young women, as well as students in disadvantaged areas. Only 19% of the engineers in the United States are women, McNiff said.

“The key here is to get the kids’ hands dirty,” he said. “Let them have fun. And let them also appreciate what I believe are some of the unique things about engineering.”

Funded mostly by a large equity group, Engineering Tomorrow is trying to build up corporate and foundational sponsorships to expand its reach.

McNiff spoke last month at Tulsa manufacturer Greenheck Group, the Wisconsin-based supplier of air movement equipment that is helping fund Engineering Tomorrow in the Midwest.

Engineering Tomorrow already is in 16 high schools and one middle school in the Tulsa region.

“Everything I want to share with you today has been created and been delivered by professional engineers,” McNiff said. “We have a cadre of 78 college students in colleges at the best universities in the country who are helping deliver that message along with the professionals. The dynamics of bringing those young people to the high school level, it’s awesome.”

Sponsored by Sand Springs-based Webco Industries, the event also featured overviews from Webco and Tulsa Ports.

More information on Engineering Tomorrow can be found here.