HP Leader Honored with ASME Foundation’s Inaugural Next Gen Award 

The ASME Foundation recently honored Chandrakant Patel, chief engineer and senior fellow at HP, when he was presented with the ASME Foundation’s inaugural Next Gen Award at a VIP reception held September 29 in San Jose, CA.

The Next Gen Award recognizes contributions by an engineering community leader to empower next-generation engineers to build a more equitable and sustainable future. Patel is an advocate for expanding the role of community colleges in opening new paths of opportunity for skilled technical careers, particularly among the underrepresented in technical fields.

The ASME Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, funds programs in education, workforce development and innovation support aimed at increasing equity in the engineering profession and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Foundation’s Community College Engineering Pathways initiative, of which Patel is a champion, addresses the technical skills gap by providing training, networking and employment resources to community colleges and their students.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the ASME Foundation for contributing to the development of a more diverse, sustainability-minded next generation technical workforce,” says Patel, who began his engineering path at City College of San Francisco before earning advanced engineering degrees. “Filling the employment needs of the tech community, and creating opportunity for more diverse young people, requires exactly the kind of partnerships that ASME’s community college program is facilitating.”   

The backdrop for the award presentation was the ASME Foundation’s “Engineering a Sustainable Future” event, where Bay Area technology companies were briefed on ASME’s workforce development and sustainability programs. These initiatives are funded in part by the Campaign for Next Generation Engineers, ASME’s 5-year, $50 million capital campaign to support its philanthropic work.

“Meeting the surging demand for diverse skilled technical workers, while simultaneously engineering solutions to climate change, are the two critical imperatives that ASME Foundation programs address,” says Stephanie Viola, executive director of the ASME Foundation and managing director of ASME Philanthropy. “With the leadership of Chandrakant Patel and others across the engineering and technology community, we believe a more equitable and sustainable world is not only possible, but within reach.”    

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.