Let's just be thankful for "Sexiest Engineer" Veronica Davis!

A study by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) found that the rate of science and engineering education among African American, Native American and Latino students has been petering out in recent years. The numbers are pretty depressing. Of African Americans earning bachelor's degrees in engineering in 1995, 3.3% were in engineering; ten years later, that number had fallen to 2.5%. Native Americans comprise 0.4% of national engineering faculty. And while the Latin-American community grows rapidly, the attainment gap between Latinos and their white peers is widening. (Bonus round: women make up only about a fifth of engineering grads, which is a shame, considering the wacky projects they come up with.)

There are a few different factors at play here: overwhelmingly white-male faculties, and the existing education gap in our secondary school system. But above all else, this seems to be indicative of science and engineering education across America. "When asked in a poll what they think engineers do, students' responses ranged from 'operates machinery' to 'drives a train.' Only 4% responded that engineering requires math skills." Um, yikes.

Yes, some of us are earning engineering degrees, but not many. In 2004, the U.S. graduated 70,000 engineers -- while China had 500,000 and India and Europe each had 200,000. This is pretty damning evidence, considering engineering is far and away one of the fastest-growing industries in the country and the world, and will probably only grow more over the next few years if we keep pumping money into alternative energy and other eco-friendly technology.

At the University of Minnesota, eight out of ten on-campus recruiters is looking for a computer science/engineering student. Plus, it turns out Silicon Valley isn't really full of drop-out wunderkinds: a recent study by researchers at Duke and Harvard found that the fine people crafting the Web future for us are overwhelmingly college-educated.

But if there is one industry in need of more people of color and women, it's engineering, the traditional realm of more maler, whiter, geekier Americans (no offense, guys). So here's to hoping this trend reverses before those numbers get any lower.