Two weeks before the debut of his latest show, CSI: Cyber, executive producer Anthony Zuiker was taking a meeting at the White House with former Google executive and current Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith.  The discussion: how to bring engineering to entertainment.  Hours before their meeting, Zuiker, MacGyver creator Lee Zlotoff, Madam Secretary producer Lori McCreary and more were on hand for the official launch of the National Academy of Engineering's Next MacGyver contest, which asks writers to submit ideas for TV shows about a female engineer, with the ultimate goal being to have one of the ideas hit the small screen.  They want to, as Zuiker says, do what CSI did for sciences but for engineering.  Before CSI launched in 2000 — an spurred several spin-offs — applications for jobs in the field were trickling in, Zuiker says. We're talking five per year. Now, "they get 10,000 applications in the Las Vegas branch alone."  They call it the CSI Effect.  "If we can bottle that magic and turn that over to raising awareness for engineers, it'd be a huge plus," he told Mashable. "TV can be very powerful."  Zlotoff knows this to be true. He's been leveraging the love for his former show over the years to encourage young people to pursue science, technology, engineering and math through his MacGyver Foundation.  His involvement with the contest was motivated by his desire to do the same but specifically for young women.  "Let's face it, women are half the population of this planet, and, if we're going to survive as a civilization, we're going to need the very best minds— male and female — to help us solve the challenges of food, water, energy and waste management for a globalpopulation that fast on its way to being 9 billion people," he told Mashable. "Creating a TV show with a model of a woman capable of doing that, can only help to inspire young people to take on those challenges, don't you think?"  A good picture of what they aim to do could be found in CSI: Cyber, where Oscar-winner Patricia Arquette plays a cyber psychologist. "She's a behavioralist at the highest level fighting cyber crime — that's a wonderful message for women who watch the show," Zuiker says.  For the ideas, which can be submitted here, both producers say they're open to stories about engineers in all specialties, from bio tech to robotics to the environment because they'd like to take advantage of the versatility of the field.  "When you think of the totality of being able to do shows that deal with forensic science or even law enforcement, there's maybe 10, 15, or 20 ways to go. With CSI, maybe 5 or 6 ways to go. With engineering, there's probably 200 categories of engineers," Zuiker says. "I think the scope of the possibilities is something."  More information can be found on The Next Macgyver website.  CSI: Cyber airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.  Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
'CSI: Cyber' ep Anthony Zuiker opens up about 'The Next MacGyver' contest, which aims to gather ideas for a female engineer-led show.