Iowa State will celebrate National Engineers Week by giving students the opportunity to learn about everything from terrorism prevention to the history of women in engineering.

Vance Coffman, ISU alumnus and president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., will discuss uses of his company’s technology in the apprehension of two people related to the sniper shootings that occurred in the Washington, D.C. area this fall, and new technology applications in homeland security in a speech Thursday. His lecture will begin at 10:30 a.m. in Howe Hall.

While Iowa State holds its own Engineers Week each fall, Coffman’s lecture is the highlight of several activities taking place on campus during the national event, said Pam Reinig, director of engineering communications and marketing. “[Coffman] is the honorary chair of National Engineers Week, so we are lucky to have him,” Reinig said.

Coffman graduated from Iowa State in 1967 with a degree in aerospace engineering and became CEO of Lockheed Martin in 1998, Reinig said.

Also as part of Engineers Week, a traveling exhibit entitled “Petticoats and Slide Rules: A History of Women Engineers” will officially open Monday night in Parks Library, said Tanya Zanish-Belcher, head of special collections for the library.

“We’re the first to get the exhibit,” said Zanish-Belcher. She said the exhibit was organized in the fall of 2002 at Wayne State University in Detroit and is beginning its tour this spring.

“We wanted to have it here for E-Week, for Women’s History Month, for Veishea and for Alumni Days in May,” she said.

Zanish-Belcher said the most intriguing parts of the exhibit in the library lobby are portions of a personal diary of a female engineering student. There is also some material in the exhibit from Iowa State, she said.

A reception introducing the exhibit will be held in the library’s Fireplace Reading Room Monday at 5:30 p.m.

James Melsa, dean of the College of Engineering, said National Engineers Week is also a time when Iowa State and the University of Iowa work together to highlight their combined accomplishments and research activities in the area of engineering. “We find out how we can help each other,” he said.

Melsa said the University of Iowa’s engineering college, while about one-fourth the size of Iowa State’s, has strong programs in hydrology and biomedical engineering that complement the strength of Iowa State’s.

“This is the eighth year we’ve done this,” Melsa said. “It’s a good thing for the state.”

Melsa and P. Barry Butler, dean of the College of Engineering at U of I, will host a breakfast for legislators this week and speak around the state throughout February and March about research initiatives at the two schools, Melsa said.

On Wednesday, Howe Hall will host high school students from across the state as they learn about engineering in an annual tower-building contest, Reinig said. “The students will try to build towers as tall as they can using dry spaghetti noodles and gumdrops,” she said. The event will be broadcast across the state using the Iowa Communications Network, she said.