原创 How we can maybe get some engineers as celebrities?

Celebrities are everywhere, and our society is obsessed with them. Increasingly, the "media" (TV, print, web sites, blogs, you name it) saturates us with breathless news coverage of what they are doing, where they are doing it, with and to whom, and more. Many of these celebrities have no actual accomplishment and are famous mostly for being famous: remind me, what is the actual skill or talent of Paris Hilton, to pick just one name?

And while I don't have a problem with a little entertainment and diversion from the daily grind, this over-the-top celebrity focus and infatuation has, IMO, had one very big negative: there is almost no attention, let alone acknowledgments or accolades, given to those engineers, scientists, technicians, and mechanics who really create value and all the products and advances that society now takes as normal. In fact, society now expect miraculous technology as a "given" and are largely unappreciative of it.

So, what can be done to enhance the stature of engineers? Some suggestions we've heard over the years include engineering-oriented TV shows, for example, and that's not a bad idea. But it's not likely to happen. Nor will we likely see highly publicized scientific, technical, and student-oriented award ceremonies to replace one or more of the endless parade of movie and music we get, but starting with the Intel Science Talent Search would be a good place to start, as would be the FIRST robotics competition, or the Texas Instruments Engibous Competition for university students.

But I have a smaller idea that might be a way to start. I notice that many celebrity entertainers have just one name. No, I don't mean those who have two names, but are called only by their first (examples: Angelina, Britney). I mean those who have adopted a single name as their trademark; think Bono, Pink, Cher, Madonna, and Seal, just to cite a few at random.

Maybe what we need to do is get a few engineers and scientists, with accomplishments which are understandable to the general public ("invented the cellphone"), give them a catchy one-word name, and promote them using that. The name could either be something techno-sounding ("folks, here he is: Parity!") or could just be something which has a little snap to it ("here's Centric").

I know it's a small idea, but maybe such one-word names are part of what we need to raise the visibility and eventually the stature of those who actually make our taken-for-granted technology. It wouldn't cost much to try, and it's in alignment with the fast-moving, short-attention world our potential audience lives in and breathes.

After all, it's all about the brand and marketing it, right? It's not enough recognize our accomplishments to each other at internal events, such as the Embedded Systems Conference; we need to have the pieces it takes to get into the big leagues.

What do you think? What might be some good names? And who might be candidates for celebrity engineers to go with them?

I welcome your suggestions.