Copyright © 2003 World Expertise LLC – All rights reserved
A periodic electronic newsletter for engineering education leaders,
edited by Russel C. Jones, Ph.D., P.E., with Bethany S. Oberst, Ph.D.
5 – Employment
6 – Journals
7 – Meeting
8 –Editorial
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The role of Islam in Saudi Arabian universities is debated –
Daniel Del Castillo has written a substantial article on Saudi Arabian
universities for the Chronicle of Higher
Education, focused on the growing concern inside and outside of the country
on how conservative Islamic thought is affecting higher learning and the
society. Critics of the current
situation say that an emphasis on conservative Islam in public higher education
has resulted in a close-mindedness that is inhibiting the development of the
country. Defenders of the situation
bristle at the perceived threat to Islamic values conveyed by questions seen
coming from the West. Central to the
debate is the form of Islam called Wahabism which rejects any interpretations of
the religion if they are based on knowledge accrued in the past thousand years.
Wahabism is the dominant form of Islam taught in Saudi Arabian public
universities. Increasing concern
stems from the presence of Saudi educated Islamic scholars abroad, in Kuwaiti
universities, for example, and the traditional comfort political leaders in
Life at the
Law and order in
China rising for services outsourcing – After emerging as the
world’s hottest manufacturing hub, China is joining India and the Philippines
as a key destination for outsourced service jobs, according to an article by
Bruce Einhorn and Manjeet Kripalani in the August 11th Business
Week. So far,
Assassination of former president of
Picking up the pieces – The cover story in the September 2003 World
Press Review summarizes world opinion on post-war activities to rebuild
Major private funding source for
2 -
Engineers to aid in Iraq Reconstruction – The American Society
of Civil Engineers is exploring ways for its members to assist in the rebuilding
of Iraq, according to an article in the July 2003 ASCE
News. Suggestions that the engineering community may be of help have been
met with serious interest by involved
Hoping to avoid chaos for foreign students – The US Department
of Homeland Security has taken steps to ward off chaos as international students
arrive in the
Fall-out from US Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action – Fifteen days after the US Supreme Court issued a decision permitting the use of affirmative action in admission to the University of Michigan’s law school, but declared against the UM’s undergraduate admissions policy, Ward Connerly, the activist who had led battles against affirmative action in California and Washington State, announced an effort to pursue the issue on a broader scale and using other mechanisms. Peter Schmidt reported for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003070901n.htm)
Funding available for university-based homeland security centers – The US Department of Homeland Security is looking to create university centers for research into topics such as “…the impact and consequences of terrorism, behavioral research on terrorism and countermeasures, public safety, technology transfer, agroterrorism countermeasures, and research and development on security technology.” A first center will likely be funded by November 2003, with nine more selected in 2004. The guidelines were originally drafted last year, but were recast after complaints that only Texas A & M could have satisfied them. The article was written by Anne Marie Borrego for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003042401n.htm)
NSF budget increase proposed – A House of Representatives spending panel has proposed that next year’s National Science Foundation budget be boosted by 6.2%, according to an article by Jeffrey Mervis in the July 25th Science. This compares with proposed increases of 2.5% for the National Institutes of Health, 1% for NASA, and 2.9% for the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed $329-million increase for NSF is nearly twice what the President has requested, but it still falls short of the target of doubling the agency’s budget over 5 years as some supporters have targeted. The House panel supported three major research projects: a National Ecological Observatory Network, a next-generation ocean drilling program, and a high-energy physics experiment. Education programs would remain essentially flat in funding, a workforce initiative would not be funded, and a proposed competitive grant program that teams universities with local schools to improve math and science instruction would be scaled back. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
“Devolution” at Pentagon seen as threat to basic science – The US Pentagon has proposed a change to the funding process which, critics charge, would favor short-term, applied research over basic scientific investigation. The change would entail the Department of Defense moving funding decisions into the individual service branches, thus permitting the DOD to avoid the tough issue of how to balance basic and applied research. Many colleges and universities are concerned with the implications for the long-term, large-scale, interdisciplinary projects currently funded by the DOD. This Chronicle of Higher Education article was written by Anne Marie Borrego. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003071604n.htm)
3 - Distance
education, technology
SARS promotes videoconferencing – As travel was restricted by
the SARS outbreak, many companies compensated by substituting videoconferencing
for face-to-face meetings. According to Scott Neuman writing in the July 8th
Wall Street Journal, many of these
companies are not returning to business as usual via travel, but have decided to
lock in the savings associated with remote meetings. Some companies have set up
sophisticated videoconferencing centers, but others are using inexpensive
alternatives such as a simple video camera and e-mail. Web-based software such
as Microsoft’s Net-Meeting offer a middle ground. There are limitations to
this approach however – particularly with contacts in
Costs of Spam estimated – Unwanted commercial e-mail, or spam,
has become the bane of the internet, according to an article by Saul Hansell in
the July 28th New York Times. It
is easy and cheap to send spam – as little as 0.025 cent per e-mail message
– and computing costs for recipients are similarly low. But the huge volume of
spam messages, billions sent each day, add up to real costs; and even greater
are the costs of trying to block spam, catch spammers, and undoing the damage
they do to recipients. Estimates of the total cost of spam today range from
$10-billion a year to $87-billion a year in the
Do-not-call registry popular – In the first three weeks after the Federal Trade Commission opened its no-call registry, more than 27-million Americans signed up, according to a note by Catherine Yang in the August 4th Business Week. This is just the latest sign of a growing grassroots backlash against intrusive information purveyors of the new economy – and politicians are jumping on the bandwagon as the defenders of voters who want to rein in e-mail spammers, telemarketers, and credit companies. A national level anti-spam bill has been proposed as the next step; it would require e-mail marketers to give consumers the ability to opt out, with severe penalties for offenders. And congress is also considering a bill that would curb the ability of financial institutions to share customer data with affiliates or outside companies. (See http://www.businessweek.com)
Saudi royal family contracts with
Dissertation a security threat? – A
Computers working in unison – The idea of lashing computers together to tackle large scale computational problems, almost as a utility, is coming of age – according to an article by Steve Lohr in the July 15th New York Times. Moving the concept of distributed computer utilities, or grids, toward practical reality has taken years of continuous improvement in computer processing speeds, data storage, and network capability. One of the greatest challenges has been to design software to juggle and link all the computing resources across far-flung sites, and deliver them on demand. The grid is widely regarded as the next stage for the Internet after the World Wide Web – the Web providing access to text, images, music and video, and the promise of the grid to add a problem-solving system. (Se http://www.nytimes.com)
Distance education service turns profitable – eCollege, a publicly-traded, Denver-based company, has posted its first profitable quarter in its seven years of existence. The company offers its resources for course-management and servers to institutions wanting to establish and grow on-line instruction without having to invest in all the necessary equipment and services. It claims to save these institutions between 10-20%. Florence Olsen wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003072802t.htm)
Instant messaging in the classroom – Students are learning that they do not need to sit quietly during classroom presentations, but can interact quietly with one another using IM technology via their wireless computer connections. Some students ignore classroom presenters entirely by surfing the web or e-mailing, but others are genuinely interested in the topic being discussed and want to talk concurrently about what is being presented. Such back-channel communications have also been occurring during international technology meetings, where participants see it as an extension of what typically happens in the corridors just after people leave a conference session. Some presenters have promoted such audience interactions, noting that the intellectual quality of a two-track meeting is very high. But many speakers at the front of the room are less enamored with the practice, calling it irritating and distracting. Some observers say that such multitrack channels will simply be considered a given by the young generation that has honed multitasking to a fine art and grew up on pop-art videos where commentary about the artists pops up on the screen during a song. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
Video games and the contemporary college student – On July 6 the Pew Internet & American Life Project issued a report on the role of video games in the lives of US college students. The findings indicate to the researchers that the games are played by about 65% of students, they are central to campus social life, and that women and men approach games differently. Women play more computer and Internet games (possibly because such games tend to be less violent), while men are more attracted to console games. Women tend to play to pass the time; men play as an integral part of their daily activities. Two-thirds of the students surveyed claim that video games do not affect their academic endeavors. However over 60% of the respondents said they didn’t study more than seven hours a week in any case. The implications of the importance of these games in the lives and skill sets of the current university population suggests that developers of educational materials might want to adopt some of the characteristics of these games in new instructional approaches. For the full report, see http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=93. Scott Carlson wrote this article for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003070702t.htm)
Fiber-optic connections to every home – Verizon
Communications, one of the largest
telecommunications providers in the US, is making a commitment to provide
fiber-optic connections to every home and business in its 29-state territory
over the next 10 to 15 years. According to Steve Rosenbush, writing in the
August 4th Business Week, this
$20- to $40-billion project will allow lightening-fast transmission of
everything from routine phone service to high-definition TV. One major driving
force for this aggressive investment is competition from cable companies, which
is cutting into phone company business for broadband communications and even
local phone service. The proposed fiber-optic lines will provide net access that
is 20 times as fast as today’s broadband. Skeptics of the plan point out that
phone companies have tried to combine communications and television offerings in
the past, with failed results, and they wonder whether consumers are ready for
such an approach now. Verizon is also aggressively rolling out Wi-Fi access –
currently developing 1000 hotspots in
Debate on use of open-source software – The Chronicle
of Higher Education recently published a major article by Florence Olsen on
open-source software in
4 - Students,
faculty, education
University tuition frozen – A new law in
Visa rules deter foreign students – Students from abroad are
avoiding the US due to the arduous process of getting visas, according to an
article by Barry Newman in the July 29th Wall Street Journal. For example, students in summer intensive
English language courses have thinned from 150,000 in 2001 to only 90,000 this
year. The effect goes beyond such language courses, and threatens to impact the
$13-billion-a-year industry of educating foreign students in the
Bill to aid minority schools – A bill to provide $250-million to help African-American, Hispanic and Native American undergraduates to bridge the digital divide is working its way through Congress, according to an article by Jeffrey Mervis in the July 18th Science. The bill, already passed by the Senate, would award $2.5-million to each qualified minority-serving institution to acquire digital and wireless communications technology. It is proposed that the program be operated by the National Science Foundation. (See http://www.sciencemag.com)
Math boot camp for women – Robin Wilson wrote an article for
the Chronicle of Higher Education on
the National Science Foundation/Andrew E. Mellon Foundation program called EDGE
(Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education), which is designed to support women
pursuing graduate degrees in mathematics. Statistics
show that women with graduate degrees in math are still rare in the
Teach teachers technology – High school instructors that have
not been trained in math, science or engineering may be turning out
technologically indifferent graduates, according to an article written by Erica
Vonderheid in the IEEE Institute on
July 7th. And some of those graduates will eventually become teachers
themselves, in turn passing on little enthusiasm for technology. A new alliance
aimed at addressing this issue, the
New formula trims college aid – The first report to document the impact of the government’s new formula for financial aid has found that it will reduce the nation’s largest grant program by $270-million and bar 84,000 college students from receiving any award at all, according to an article by Greg Winter in the July 18th New York Times. The report by the Congressional Research Service indicates that the new formula being implemented by the Department of Education, which takes force in the 2004-05 academic year, will trim the Pell Grant program so that hundreds of thousands of students will get smaller awards – in addition to the 84,000 who will get no awards. The Department of Education does not dispute the numbers, but argues that the new formula is needed to keep the cost of the program – driven by the rising popularity of higher education among low-income families – under control. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
New
Registration Board questions EC2000 – The president of the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers, the state licensing board in that state, has written an article in the Spring 2003 DAPE News criticizing the new criteria being utilized by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. J. Ross Harris, P.E., discusses what he characterizes as decreasing quality controls for adequately preparing future engineers with the skills needed to properly safeguard public property, health, safety and welfare. He criticizes ABET’s Criteria 2000, which dropped a prescriptive form of criteria and adopted an outcomes assessment approach, saying that “it allows an engineering program to be pretty much what its administrators want it to be, providing that they can demonstrate some degree of continuous improvement from one ABET visit to the next”. The writer further states that he is not alone in his concern, and that “Our NCEES leadership has concluded that it is presently impossible for a program being evaluated under Criteria 2000 to fail to pass”. He notes that the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying is currently negotiating with ABET over its concerns. (See http://www.dape.org)
Success as a global engineer – The June 2003 issue of IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer contains an article by Terrance Malkinson describing how engineers can prepare themselves for global practice. The author points out that to be successful in the current global environment, an engineer must develop personal, social, business and cultural global literacies. Cultural etiquette skills are singled out as particularly important. The article provides a global skills checklist, and provides suggestions on where to go for assistance – including a list of references for further reading. (See http://www.todatsengineer.org)
5 – Employment
Good jobs going abroad? – Following the exporting of lower
skilled jobs abroad, US companies are now shifting high-wage work overseas,
according to an article in the August 4th Time by Jyoti Thottam. US
financial services firms expect to move more than 500,000 jobs overseas within
five years, and projections for overall job exportation indicate that
3.3-million
EU takes anti-brain drain measures – The European Union is
taking serious steps to slow the brain-drain of its scientists to the
Immigration policy via trade pacts – Two new trade pacts
signed by the Bush administration this spring create new visa categories to
allow professionals from other countries to work in the US, according to a
commentary by Paul Magnusson in the July 21st Business Week. New trade pacts with Chile and Singapore contain
provisions to allow thousands of professionals from each country to work in the
US, on top of existing visa programs such as H1(b)s. The Administration is
pursuing similar templates in negotiations with
Strong Education vs. Big Tariffs – The US job market is
groping for recovery from its recession, with some observers placing blame on
the nation’s imports and exports, according to an article by Daniel Altman in
the July 28th New York Times. The
argument goes that consumers are importing too many goods and services, while
companies are exporting too many jobs. But experts who take a long term view
argue that while these trends may slow the recovery in the short term, they
offer an opportunity for long term improvement in the standard of living in the
IEEE sees loss in competitiveness – According to report from a
research firm, Gartner Inc., one-half-million additional IT jobs will move
overseas within the next 18 months. In a news release from IEEE-USA, it is
reported that this trend will bring the total IT job losses to one-million since
2001. The Gartner report
urged business executives to pay attention to the loss of future talent and
intellectual assets due to such outsourcing, as well as the potential negative
impact of outsourcing on organizational performance. The president –elect of
IEEE-USA has stated: “In the rush to cut costs through offshore outsourcing
and increased use of guest workers, companies are undermining the
6 - Journals
Journal of Engineering Education – The June 2003 issue of this ASEE journal contains nine peer-reviewed, archival quality papers on engineering education, as well as reviews of several books of interest and an editorial entitled “Will our graduates be global players”. The papers cover such areas as assessment, general engineering programs, multimedia tutors, problem solving courseware, exam anxiety, support for women faculty in engineering, PDA usage in the classroom, student centered learning, and degree completion time. (See http://www.asee.org)
Issues in Science and Technology – The summer 2003 issue is a 20th anniversary issue of this journal by the National Academies, containing a wealth of papers by top engineering and science leaders on topics such as ethics, research and technology, health, environment and energy, education, international and defense. The papers are generally updates of previous policy level articles, with the distinguished authors revisiting topics that they wrote about previously in Issues. In some cases the original problem continues unabated, in other cases the problem is now different due to scientific developments or political shifts, and in some cases the problems have gotten significantly better or worse. (See http://www.issues.org)
7 - Meeting
International Conference on Engineering Education – The 2003
ICEE, sponsored by iNEER, was held at the Universidad Polytechnica de Valencia
in
8 - Editorial
Conference date clearing house needed - International
engineering education meetings are proliferating, and frequently being scheduled
in conflict with one another. For
example, the American Society for Engineering Education’s annual meeting in
the
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