​Founded in 1885 at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society (TBP) offers several benefits for college and university engineering students. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, TBP sponsors scholarships, fellowships, and other programs.

The organization also confers several professional advantages. A job fair at the annual convention and online employment listings provide access to leading engineering firms. Members also receive a 20 percent discount on preparation material for the FE/EIT and PE exams and participation in virtual presentations by other TBP members. The society also provides discounts on Dell and HP products.

Each year, TBP presents 250 scholarships to seniors for $2,000 for two semesters or $1,000 for one. Criteria for the awards include academic achievement, volunteer activities, and contributions to the field. In addition, TBP gives out as many as 32 fellowships for a year of graduate study. Having as few restrictions as possible, students who enhance the profession in some way become eligible for $10,000 fellowships.

Other TBP programs include the Distinguished Alumnus and other awards. The society also has created Engineering Futures, an initiative that develops members in non-technical skills. Finally, TBP sponsors K-12 MindSET, which emphasizes student, parent, and teacher development in STEM subjects and metrics for periodic evaluations.

​The Project Management Institute aims to improve project management. One of its many activities is providing professionals with a pathway to becoming certified through its Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.

PMP Certification demonstrates that the professional has expertise in managing processes, people, and businesses during projects. However, to receive this certification, the person must meet certain criteria, in addition to passing the PMP 180-question exam. Project leaders created the exam while keeping other project leaders in mind, and structured it in a way that each question on the exam is applicable to real-world scenarios.

The certification lets employers and clients know that the professional has expertise in motivating teams throughout the entire process. It also indicates that the project manager is skilled in using diverse methods for finding best practices for each project. Finally, it also demonstrates that they can highlight project successes and impact.


Certification is accomplished in three steps: studying, applying for certification, and sitting for the exam. Those preparing for the exam have access to PMP resources, and the test is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. For more information on PMP Certification, please visit www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp.