Each year, outstanding engineering students are selected to spend nine weeks in Washington, D.C., learning about the public policy process, including how government officials make decisions on complex technological issues and how engineers can contribute to legislative and regulatory public policy decisions.  The WISE Program is ranked as one of the best Internship opportunities in the U.S. by the Princeton Review.

WISE Alumni Now Linked In
Thanks to 2000 WISE Alumni Jon Horek, who established a  community to help WISE program alumni stay in touch.

Welcome 2012 Faculty-Member-in-Residence (FMR) William Behn

William "Bill" Behn of Los Altos, CA, has graduate training in engineering and economics from Stanford University. He was selected by IEEE-USA both as a Congressional Fellow (2007), and Engineering and Diplomacy Fellow (2008).

While serving as a Congressional Fellow, Bill worked on the professional staff of the House Science and Technology Committee where he led reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and oversight of Bayh-Dole legislation (intellectual property, with a focus on government, university, and industry collaboration).

While serving as a Diplomacy Fellow, Bill was Senior Science Advisor for the U.S. State Department, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs where he led negotiations on a regional science and technology agreement between the U.S. and the ten ASEAN nations.  He also co-led a new energy and climate initiative in East Asia for clean, affordable cookstoves for large scale deployment.

Bill has also served as a health care policy consultant for the RAND Corporation, and co-founded a public policy firm. He has broad experience in the ICT industry at Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett-Packard, working in R&D, planning and launching new business startups, and negotiation and management of complex business and technology alliances.  He has bar admission to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Summer 2012 application period is now closed. We are in the process of selecting this year's participants and will announce their names in February.

The 2011 WISE Students

(l. to r. up the steps)  Ashley Vincent, David Freese, Marc Canellas (blue/white striped tie), Julian Leland (bandana), Mikkel VandeBergh, Max Micali (green tie),Lauren Boldon (long hair), Martha Hay, Eric Davied (blue shirt, tie), Jolene Wang (long hair), Anita Luong (white jacket), Whitney Davis, Minjoo Lee (red shirt) on the steps of the Jefferson Building ofthe Library of Congress.

The 2011 WISE Interns presented their papers on Thursday, August 4th in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building Room. A big thank you to Prof. Sandy Yeigh (SUNYIT), the 2011 Faculty-Member-in Residence, for a successful WISE summer!

WISE Video on IEEEtv
IEEEtv prepared a five minute video, featuring the 2008 participants of the WISE program. The video offers a program overview and feedback from Interns on the WISE experience.

Calling All WISE Alumni!

We need your input to help WISE develop proposals for new sponsors and funding sources.  Tell us how the WISE experience affected your career, what you learned from WISE and how you have used that knowledge and experience in your work, in your professional activities, and in your personal life.  Use the Alumni update report form or send your email directly to Chris Brantley.  Testimonials are especially welcome and will be posted at the WISE website to help attract and inspire future WISE applicants.

The WISE Alumni Bulletin Board can help you keep in touch with your colleagues from the WISE program. Let us know where you are in your career. Send your input to Chris Brantley, c.brantley@ieee.org.

WISE Interns Experience 'The Hill' Firsthand  - A Today's Engineer article on the WISE program

WISE Alumni Hail from 147 Colleges and Universities

The more than 400 alumni of the WISE program come from a wide variety of colleges and universities -- from national engineering universities like M.I.T. and Stanford to smaller schools such as Cedarville College, Calvin College and the Tuskegee Institute.  The wide distribution of students reflects the diversity of the program, one of the things that makes WISE a unique experience.

WISE Webmaster: Chris Brantley, c.brantley@ieee.org
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Users are encouraged to link to this page and are permitted to copy and make use of its contents for the exclusive purposes of publicizing the WISE program. The WISE home page is hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) for the benefit of the WISE sponsoring societies.