Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future Cities Finals

Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future Cities Finals Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future Cities Finals Alabama Students Win ASME Award at the Future City FinalsASME President-Elect J. Robert Sims (far left), ASME Past President Marc Goldsmith (second from left) and ASME President Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb (far right) with the team from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, winners of the ASME Best Futuristic City Award.A team of middle-school students from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language in Huntsville, Ala., were awarded the ASME Best Futuristic City Award at the Future City Competition National Finals, which was during Engineers Week last month in Washington, D.C. ASME President-Elect J. Robert Sims (far left), ASME Past President Marc Goldsmith (second from left) and ASME President Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb (far right) with the team from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, winners of the ASME Best Futuristic City Award.The an nual Future City Competition challenges sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, working with a teacher and an engineering mentor, to devise, design and build cities of the future. Using SimCity software to plan their cities, the students then build tabletop scale models of their concepts using recycled materials and present their ideas before a panel of judges at regional Future City Competitions held in January. Winners of the regional contests then advance to the National Finals in February.The ASME Best Futuristic City Award recognizes the use of futuristic engineering concepts into citys communications, energy, or transportation systems. The students from the Academy for Science and Foreign Language, who named their team the Geeksters, won the ASME award for their Future City entry Facil Mudando (Spanish for easy moving), where the communitys residents are shuttled around on high-speed monorails and freight is shipped using dirigibles or underground tube systems.For more informatio n on the Future City Competition, or to view the complete list of winners, visit http//futurecity.org/awards.

Here are the Top 50 companies in America for new dads

Here are the Top 50 companies in America for new dadsHere are the Top 50 companies in America for new dadsBeing a new dad is stressful enough. Suddenly, every hour of your life is dedicated to keeping a helpless little human alive. Compounding that stress is the fact that you may not have enough hours to do this. Workplaces in America are notoriously unerleichterungive of fathers, discouraging them from taking paternal leave or taking their share of childcare duties. Dads complain that workplaces still expect them to put their jobs ahead of their children. But there are some companies who are doing it right.Fatherlys 2018 list of the best workplaces for new dads is a model of how other companies should be doing it.Surveying U.S. companies with more than 1,000 employees, Fatherly analyzed thirteen different policies to determine its list, including weeks of paid leave, the availability of parents support group, fertility aid, adoption expenses, flextime, onsite childcare, childcare su bsidy, backup childcare, sick days, student loan assistance, bereavement leave, ramp-back time, and elder care planning. The tech sector continues to be a pioneer for supporting working fathers. Out of the top 50 places surveyed, 40% of them were tech companies.The best workplaces helped working fathers at every stage of their life - as they raised toddlers and as they helped their aging parents. The top-ranked company, American Express, not only has an exceptional leave offering, but a program designed to encourage new fathers to take advantage of it and other programs intended to provide additional assistance, Fatherlys editor-in-chief Andrew Burmon told Ladders. Theres no shock here The companies that provide the best working environments for new parents are the companies that take great pains to do so.1. American ExpressBeyond offering 20 weeks of paid parental leave (The U.S. government still only offers you a grand total of 0), American Express is there to help you before the baby is even there with family planning assistance. Amex offers would-be parents a maximum benefit of $35,000 to finance fertility treatments, surrogacy, and adoption. Parents can take advantage of that perk twice, Fatherly reports.2. LenovoLenovo offers fathers eight weeks of paid paternity leave, but where it shines is in its flexibility. Where Lenovo really sets itself apart is in providing its employees with flex time and flexible leave to handle any sort of family emergency (as well as backup childcare through Bright Horizons), Fatherly reports.3. SpotifyWith a generous six-month parental leave policy for employees, Spotify sets itself apart for recognizing what studies already know when Dads are an active presence in their babys life, they are better fathers later in their life.4. EtsyHeadquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Etsy offers all full-time employees 26 weeks of paid parental leave. Although it lacks on-site childcare, it does provide assistance programs for adopting pa rents and parents of special needs children, in addition to unlimited sick leave for you to use if your child gets the flu.5. TwitterBeyond its 20 weeks of paid parental leave, the social media giant wants to hook up its employees with a parent discount. When new parents return to work, they are eligible to join a group called Twitter Parents, which provides support to all parents in the company and works with many partners to provide discount rates on goods and services specifically for moms and dads, Fatherly reports.6. Unilever North AmericaUnilever offers fewer weeks of paid parental leave than its contemporaries on this list with a total of eight weeks of paid parental leave. But it does excel at other benefits The company reimburses would-be parents for adoption-related expenses up to $7,000 per year and offers onsite childcare and backup dependent care, a massive boon to those with little ones, Fatherly reports.7. IBMDads, partners, and adoptive parents get up to 12 weeks of paid leave that they can use in their childs first year.8. NetflixThe video streaming company offers a whopping 52 weeks of paid parental leave that parents can use at their discretion. But how many employees are taking advantage of this policy? We dont know. Its worth noting that Netflix does not offer statistics on how many people take advantage of its full offering, which is the sole reason that the company does not currently top out this list, Fatherly reports.9. DeloitteThe company recognizes that every family structure is different, and its 16 weeks of paid leave are purposefully gender- and generation-neutral. Any eligible professional may use the program to bond with a child through birth or adoption or to care for a spouse/domestic partner, parent, child and/or sibling with a serious health condition, the company states.The program has been popular with employees. I dont have children but I do have aging parents and I am very happy to see that included as an option for the future if needed, one employee shared.10. Bank of AmericaBeyond childcare subsidy, the company offers its 16 weeks ofpaid parental leave to both full-time and part-time working fathers. According to the company, an unusually high 96% of eligible male employees who welcome a new child take advantage of this benefit, which clearly speaks to a healthy work culture, Fatherly reports.- - - When parents do not have to worry about caring for their children, they can focus more on their jobs. Beyond the top 10 places, the rest of the best workplaces also shared characteristics of a healthy work culture they were more likely to offer generous paid leave, childcare subsidy, flextime, support groups, and bereavement time.The top-rated companies tend to have policies and cultures that recognize the importance of parental leave and the importance of supporting fathers as they come back into work and over the course of their childrens lives, Vicki Shabo, Vice President for Workplace Policies a nd Strategies at the National Partnership for Women Families, told Ladders. Although it is heartening and encouraging to see that these companies have adopted some best practices in supporting fathers at work, Im continually reminded that creating supportive workplace policies and culture needs to happen on a much larger scale.Here is Fatherlys complete 2018 list of the best workplaces for new dadsAmerican Express2017 Rank 3Number of Employees 20,000 in the United States, 32,000 globallyLenovo2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 4,338 in the United States, 50,000 globallySpotify2017 Rank 4Number of Employees 3,000Etsy2017 Rank 2Full-Time Employees 1,043Twitter2017 Rank 6Full-Time Employees 3,300Unilever North America2017 Rank n/aFull-Time Employees 7,851IBM2017 Rank 40Full-Time Employees 366,000Netflix2017 Rank 1Full-time employees 4,000Deloitte2017 Rank 10Full-Time Employees 55,608Bank of America2017 Rank 8Full-Time Employees 200,00Square, Inc.2017 Rank 11Full-Time Employees 2,438Lyft 2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 2,600Pinterest2017 Rank 12Number of Employees 1,200Patagonia2017 Rank 9Number of Employees 1,550CA Technologies2017 Rank 14Number of Employees 5,675LinkedIn2017 Rank 37Number of Employees 11,800VMware2017 Rank 7Number of Employees 12,267NVIDIA2017 Rank 15Number of Employees 6,519NBA2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 1,500 globallyGenentech2017 Rank 22Number of Employees 15,000Microsoft2017 Rank 17Number of Employees 124,293 globallyeBay2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 14,100facebook inc2017 Rank 5Number of Employees 37,666Airbnb2017 Rank 19Number of Employees 4,000+IKEA U.S.2017 Rank 45Number of Employees 18,838Johnson Johnson2017 Rank 21Number of Employees 134,000Prudential Financial2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 17,413Akamai Technologies2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 3,500 in the United States, 7,650 globallyHorizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 5,570Boston Scientific2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 14,142 in the U nited States, 29,000 globallyBASF2017 Rank 23Number of Employees 18,200Google2017 Rank 32Number of Employees 72,000The PNC Financial Services Group2017 Rank n/aFull-Time Employees 53,000Ultimate Software2017 Rank n/aFull-Time Employees 4,200Mastercard2017 Rank 24Full-Time Employees 13,400Paypal2017 Rank 31Full-Time Employees 18,700Zillow Group2017 Rank 27Number of Employees 3,250SP Global2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 5,462 in the United StatesCooley LLP2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 1,770State Street Corporation2017 Rank 26Capital One2017 Rank 20Number of Employees 42,600 full-time, 1,100 part-timeOppenheimerFunds2017 Rank 48Number of Employees 1,956Lexmark International, Inc.2017 Rank n/aNumber of Employees 2,220Intel Cooperation2017 Rank 30Number of Employees 50,682 full-time3M2017 Rank 28Number of Employees 36,364RSM2017 Rank n/aFull-time Employees 9,550+Bain Company2017 Rank 33Number of Employees 8,000Booz Allen Hamilton2017 Rank n/aFull-Time Employees 24,750Dow Jones Com pany2017 Rank n/aFull-time employees 2,819Vanguard2017 Rank 41Full-time employees 15,745

Social Media Secrets for Small Business

Social Media Secrets for Small BusinessSocial Media Secrets for Small BusinessSocial Media Secrets for Small Business Charney, Social Media Engagement ManagerContrary to popular belief, not every big company is putting big bucks into spreading their brand and employer message via social media at work. Most corporate social media functions have limited headcount, time and resources dedicated to social networks, demanding low-cost, innovative approaches for attracting and driving social media engagement,both current and potential.That means the social mediaplaying field for geschftslebenes has been leveled.Small business recruitment strategiesactually have a leg up when it comes to realizing the power (and profit) of social media. Breaking through the buzz doesnt require a huge investment in manpower, tools or technologies. It takes dedication, creativity and experimentation to formulate and deliver the right message to the right targets on the right platforms in other absoluts, it req uires a solid small business marketing strategy.While theres no secret formula for success, there are secrets that every small business owner should know when it comes to crafting a social media strategy.Here are eight social media secrets designed to give you a head start on the competition and capitalize on the conversation about your brand, business and bottom line.Fax machines send the wrong message Nothing makes your business appear behind the times more than advertising your fax number throughout your elektronischer brief signatures, hypertext markup language newsletters, home pages and business cards. Ask yourself when was the last time you likely received an unsolicited fax which led directly to sales? More than likely,its back when you were jamming to an eight-track tape.Secret Exchange the prime real estate your fax number now takes up and replace it with links to your social profiles.Doing soinstantly brands your business, signaling your willingness to engage with your cu stomers and candidates.Besides, in the off chance someone needs your fax number, theyll know where to find you to ask.What the Hashtag?Its a good idea not to jump into the Twitter conversation right away its challenging to know which conversations you should follow when youre starting out.Even harder is cracking the hashtag code.WTHashtag.com solves both problems with one easy to use website thats free (and you dont even have to register).Simply enter any hashtag into the search bar, and within seconds it displays top users, definitions, usage statistics and related resources. The best part, though, is its transcription service.It easily captures a word processing-friendly transcript of all tweets using that hashtag over a user-defined period of time so you can read (and report) without constantly monitoring your feed. Why do that? Because youve got more important things to do.Hint For small business owners, popular hashtags include smbiz, smallbiz and startup.Blast Follow Once youv e found out which hashtags youre fruchtwein interested in, enter them into BlastFollow.com to automatically generate a list of all accounts referencing them.Put in your Twitter credentials, click blast, and youll start following all those users en masse.You Dont Have To Pay To Measure ROI A growing number of corporations are using increasingly sophisticated tracking tools to monitor and measure the success of their social media efforts, paying a premium for advanced analytics, reporting and analysis.While these technologies make sense for Fortune 500 Companies, your small business can generate more than enough data using free tools to maximize the influence and impact of your social media efforts.When it comes to making friends on Facebookand YouTube, both channels provide self-generated reports for channel and fan page activity, respectively this simplyrequires opting in on your businessaccount to see analytics that are easy to understand and interpret. For Twitter, Twitter Analyze r is just one of many free options that provides advanced and accurate analytics. Its a goldmine of actionable data, tracking unique readers, reach, retweet trends and most tweeted topics among its many reporting capabilities.When it comes to measuring your blog, Google Analytics remains the gold standard for its insights and interface.Pipl.com This deep web people search engine can help fill in the blanks about almost anyone.If you have a name, phone number, e-mail address or even a social networks username, this free tool will return all available online data within seconds, from public records to social profiles.E-Mail Still Matters Even with the rise in social media, most of your customers and clients, both current and prospective, likely still rely predominantly on email for communication. But for your message to break through todays increasingly crowded inbox, you need more than a clever subject line.For email marketing, check out Mail Chimp, which allows you to create, distri bute and track customized HTML newsletter campaigns that can help small businesses make a big impact.Their forever free plan lets you send up to 6,000 e-mails to up to 1,000 subscribers a month if you need more, their pay for performance model guarantees you get what you pay for.Case Studies Are Learning Experiences Social medias all about transparency, which means that many companies make valuable information about their social media objectives and strategy publically available.Reading case studies not only highlights real-life examples of social media initiatives that really work, but more importantly, what doesnt.Two of the most comprehensive sites for social media best (and worst) practices are the Social Media Business Council and SmartBrief on Social Media, with new cases delivered daily to your inbox.Finally, there are no secrets in social mediaand thats the point.But you didnt hear that from us.