Another point worthy of mention: a lot of Americans tend to disregard tech that is not as "sexy" or "in your face". Is traditional engineering not tech anymore?

Another point worthy of mention: a lot of Americans tend to disregard tech that is not as "sexy" or "in your face". Is traditional engineering not tech anymore? I'd definitely add Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW (actually, almost every Euro automaker) to that list; think of how much software / systems engineering goes into their production cars, much less their racing divisions. One of the top engineering schools in Germany, TUM, even offers graduate degrees in automotive software engineering.