CHARLOTTE, NC-Responding to industry requests, the B46 committee has created a simplified "Executive Summary" surface metrology guideline to be included in future standards.

YXLON International (Hamburg, Germany) has won a contract from The Boeing Co. to provide a Digital Imaging X-Ray System, model Y.Multiplex-FR 5500, for use in the Boeing commercial airplanes fabrication division.

WHITE PLAINS, NY-America is facing a crisis in the fields of science, engineering and technology. The U.S. workforce in these fields is on the verge of retiring in record numbers, and education does not prepare enough secondary school students to fill the looming gap. The result is a severe shortage of engineering college graduates, according to speakers at a symposium hosted November 14 to 16, 2005, by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME).

WICHITA, KS-Engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, have approved a three-year contract with The Boeing Co.'s Wichita Integrated Defense Systems.

DENVER-QualMark Corp. announced the acquisition of Massachusetts-based Ling Electronics from SatCon Power Systems Inc., a division of SatCon Technology Corp.

The Association for Operations Management (APICS, Kansas City, MO), acknowledges the recipients of the APICS Corporate Awards of Excellence in three categories: education, innovation and technology partnership.

FKI Logistex (St. Louis) announces the appointments of Glen Chambers as regional director and Paul Swietlinksi as business development manager for the Canadian operations of its North American manufacturing systems unit.

PALO ALTO, CA-Agilent Technologies Inc. announces that it has acquired privately held Molecular Imaging Corp. (Tempe, AZ), a developer and manufacturer of nanotechnology measurement tools. Financial details were not disclosed.

GAITHERSBURG, MD-Starting in 2007, nonprofit organizations-including charities, trade and professional associations, and government agencies-will be eligible to apply for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest presidential honor for quality and organizational performance excellence.

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA-The Metrology Division of Leica Geosystems announces their newest local positioning technology, the Leica T-Scan product, was used for the high-precision surface data capture of a famous artifact retrieved from the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. The historic anchor was the first major relic recovered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, east of Cape Hatteras in the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum (Newport News, VA) is home to hundreds of artifacts and archives from the Monitor.