April
2004
Copyright © 2004 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 – Meetings
___________________________________________________________________
Japanese Universities free to innovate – A new law has turned
Japanese universities into independent public corporations – uncharted waters,
according to an article by Dennis Normile in the April 2nd Science.
Although cynics say that the law is simply a way for the government to shed
some 115,000 civil servants, it gives the presidents of the 89 national
universities more freedom to run their own campuses. They can now set tuition
fees, hire lab technicians and other workers as needed, and carry funds over
from one year to another. But those freedoms come with additional
responsibilities, particularly the need to raise more money from nongovernmental
sources and to show that public funds are contributing to better education and
research. Each university has drawn up a strategic plan, and the new law says
that future funding from the government will be tied to the university’s
progress toward achieving its goals. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
Reaching out to Iraq’s
scientific elite – As the occupying coalition struggles to rebuild
Iraq’s shattered scientific community it is putting a high priority on keeping
former weapons of mass destruction experts from applying their WMD skills
elsewhere, according to an article in the March 12th Science by Richard Stone. With nonproliferation as a goal, three
initiatives are being developed to keep weapons researchers busy: a new
French researchers claim victory in battle for support –
French science researchers were elated with their success in pushing the
government to provide them with increased support.
After defeats in regional elections caused President Jacques Chirac to
make changes in his cabinet, including the post of Minister for Research and New
Technologies, representatives of the researchers were able to convince the
government to support a national conference on the future of French research, to
add 1000 new university positions, and to turn 550 positions back to permanent
jobs, writes Aisha Labi of the Chronicle of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/04/2004041403n.htm)
Realigning
Perceived barriers to Israeli-Arab students – The plight of
Israeli-Arabs in their quest for higher education is the subject of an extended
story in a recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Reporter Haim Watzman describes a complex set of factors which has
resulted in low participation rates in the elite Israeli universities by Arab
citizens. Factors such as the
quality of secondary education available to Israeli-Arabs, the dominance of
Hebrew (a second or third language to Arabs) in the culture and in the higher
education system, a daunting required admission test called the psychometric,
the potential of biased advising, the structure of the most prestigious degree
programs, when taken together are cited as barriers that conspire against full
participation by Arabs in the universities of their homeland.
As a result, numbers of Israeli-Arabs attend universities outside of
Other Asian students soured in Japan – Foreign students from
other Asian countries studying in Japan often find it inhospitable, according to
an article by Norimitsu Onishi in the March 28th New
York Times. To many Asian students,
More support for Spanish research –
Textbook piracy encircles the globe – The Chronicle of
Higher Education recently published a set of five articles on textbook
piracy around the world. The authors
of the individual articles, Burton Bollag, Martha Ann Overland, Marion Lloyd,
and Jen Lin-Liu, presented an overview of the problem, then looked at the
situation in
Older scientists funded in
Moroccan meeting cancelled because of Israeli presence – A
scientific meeting on the migration of dunes in
Canadian science budget gains – The first federal budget from
a new Canadian prime Minister would provide a 6.3% boost for each of Canada’s
three granting councils, according to an article by Wayne Kondro in the April 2nd
Science. That is less than scientists
say they need, but more than was expected in the current government funding
crunch there. The new budget adds $15-million to a $171-million a year program
to pay for the cost to universities of supporting federally funded research, and
promises to invest $38-million over five years in a program aimed at
commercialization of university research. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
Foreign student tracking information not given to immigration officials –
Michael Arnone, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, said that
US college officials are angered over the discovery that information from the
SEVIS system of tracking foreign students is not available to the first line
immigration officials who screen people for security purposes.
The Student and Exchange Visitor Information Service was set up as a
security measure, and all colleges and universities have spent large amounts of
time and money to implement the measures. The
Homeland Security Department could not give a date by which those first line
officers would have access to the data. (See
http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/04/2004041502n.htm)
US squeezes Cuba travelers, including students - Citing its aim
to slash the flow of dollars to Fidel Castro, the Bush administration is putting
an increased squeeze on Americans traveling to Cuba. But according to an article
by Neil King in the April 13th Wall Street Journal, the policy seems more aimed at swaying the
opinions of a key bloc of
Bush White House defends its use of scientific info – The Bush
administration responded at length to the February report of the Union of
Concerned Scientists, who had accused it of distorting science to its own
political ends, writes Jeffrey Brainard of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
John H. Marburger III offered a point-by-point rebuttal of the report,
and called it misleading. Kurt
Gottfried, chair of the UCS, stood by his group’s report.
Marburger’s response is available at http://www.ostp.gov.
(See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i32/32a02701.htm)
Editorial cites need for the scientific creativity of international
students – Robert Gates, president of Texas A & M, wrote an op-ed
in the New York Times on the impact of international students on US
college and university campuses. As
former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, he acknowledges that a
certain amount of security protection is needed to ensure the safety of US
citizens, but he also pleads strongly for an understanding of the important role
played by international students in the creative work of science and technology
in the
US students: more politically active, more opposed to current
administration – A survey of US college students shows that they are
increasingly committed to voting in the upcoming presidential election, their
support for President Bush is falling, they are more disgusted with both
political parties, and they are more opposed than before to the Iraq war.
The Chronicle of Higher Education article, written by Elizabeth
Farrell, reports on the survey conducted by Harvard’s
Engineers provide data for study of workplace generosity – The
Economist recently published an article on a study of acts of generosity in
the workplace. The subjects were 161
engineers working in telecom in the
Prohibition against editing manuscripts lifted – The US
Treasury Department recently lifted the prohibition that prevented scholarly
publishers from editing articles written by authors in embargoed countries.
Last fall, the department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) had
ruled that even correcting the grammar of such an article constituted a valuable
service rendered to those countries and thus was forbidden.
The new ruling, although referring specifically to the
Engineering prizes awarded – The National Academy of
Engineering has awarded its current round of very prestigious awards, according
to an article in the April Engineering
Times. The renowned Charles Stark Draper prize has been awarded to Alan Kay,
Butler Lampson, Robert Taylor, and Charles Thacker, the inventors of the
world’s first networked personal computer. The highest education honor, the
Bernard M. Gordon Prize, has been awarded to Frank Barnes, the creator of an
innovative, multidisciplinary engineering program at the
Journal publishers push back on PLoS – The Public Library of
Science (PLoS) recently met organized resistance to its efforts to provide free
access to scientific and medical knowledge by charging authors to publish in
their journals and then providing the material on the Internet.
A group of 48 non-profit publishers met to announce the “Washington DC
Principles for Free Access to Science.” Martin Frank, one of the organizers of
the resistance, said that they have no quarrel with the goal of making research
freely accessible, but that he and his colleagues want to create a different
business model which would not put the burden on the researchers and their
institutions. Lila Guterman wrote
this article for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i29/29a02001.htm)
Budget for weaponry soars – The federal budget request
submitted to the US Congress by President Bush contains substantial requests for
weaponry, such as a missile defense system, according to an article in the April
IEEE Spectrum by Stephen Barlas. The
proposed military research budget would increase 6.7% to $69.9-billion. The
three weapons systems that account for the largest sums in the military’s
R&D budget are the Armored Systems Modernization Defense, the Joint Strike
Fighter, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Mid-Course Segment. To partially fund
increases in these priority areas, the military’s basic research budget would
fall 4.5% to $1.3-billion, and applied research would drop 13.5% to
$3.8-billion. (See http://www.spectrum.ieee.org)
One hundred campuses listed as “most unwired” – Intel has
added a twist to its second annual report on the most unwired cities, and
created a report on the most unwired campuses.
They used data such as the number of hotspots, the number of computers,
and the computer-student ratio. The
top five unwired campuses are
MIT announces new distance ed software – MIT’s Learning
International Network Consortium recently announced release of new software
designed to help institutions manage their distance education programs.
Caddie.net is consistent with MIT’s popular OpenCourseWare project,
which currently gives the public free access to materials from over 500 (soon to
be 1000) courses. Caddie.net is
designed to be used in any country in the world: it includes the capability to
be updated with new languages. Dan
Carnavale wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/03/2004032407n.htm)
It’s all in your head, prof – Researchers claim they have
evidence that teaching a course on-line takes no more time than teaching it in a
classroom, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Seven professors who taught the same course both in person and on-line
were asked to track the time they devoted to each task.
They were surprised to discover that they spent a total of about three
hours per semester more in teaching the on-line version.
The researchers, a professor of information science and a professor of
engineering and science, believe that the on-line teaching, with its extend and
constant tasks and student interaction, gives the impression of taking more time
when compared with the relatively compact nature of student-faculty contact in a
traditional classroom-based course. Dan
Carnavale referenced the original article that appeared in The Internet and
Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i29/29a03192.htm)
No wires, no rules – The unlicensed portion of the radio
spectrum is turning into a hothouse of technological innovation, according to a
special report in the April 26th Business
Week by Heather Green. Wi-Fi was the first step into this space, and it is
being followed by WiMax, Mobile-Fi, ZigBee, and Ultrawideband – that will push
wireless networking into every facet of life. These technologies have attracted
$4.5-billion of venture investments over the last five years, and products based
on them will start hitting the market this year and be widely available in 2005.
(See http://www.businessweek.com)
US university plans to put all courses on the Internet – The
University of Illinois at Springfield (USA) has announced plans to place on the
Internet all the courses in the 39 degrees programs it offers.
The work is supported by a $1.21 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation, as well as internal funds. Plans
call for all degrees to be on line within ten years.
This project differs from that at MIT in that the
Hispanic institutions seek support from US Department of Education –
Bethany Broida, writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education, reports
that the US Department of Education and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and
Universities have committed themselves to increased cooperation in order to open
the doors of higher education to more Hispanic students.
The agreement, however, does not contain any promises of increased
funding or connect with the debate on the renewal of the Higher Education Act.
The Hispanic Association wants $175 million in support for undergraduate
programs, and an additional $20 million for graduate programs, both under Title
V. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/03/2004033103n.htm)
Grads see brighter job prospects – After years of sluggish
activity, the job market for college seniors and graduate students finally
appears to be looking up, according to an article in the April14th USA
Today by Barbara Hagenbaugh. Firms are interviewing more, giving more
offers, and even bumping pay up a bit. A sampling of universities across the
country suggests that hot areas are health care, accounting, defense,
hospitality, insurance, and consulting. Comparing salaries from 2003 and 2004:
Electrical engineering, up 0.4% to $50,761; Information sciences and systems, up
10.7% to $44,075; Mechanical engineering, up 0.8% to $49,056; Computer science,
up 7.5% to $50,007; Computer engineering, down 0.2% to $52, 573; and Chemical
engineering, down 0.3% to %52,038. (See http://www.usatoday.com)
Harvard, Penn, reduce their input into business schools rankings –
In a blow they claim is aimed at simplistic rankings of graduate programs, both
Harvard and the
Engineering with a conscience – Engineers Without Borders, a
program led by Professor Bernard Amadei at the
Princeton proposes steps to reduce grade inflation – On April
26 faculty at Princeton University (USA) are scheduled to discuss a proposal
designed to tackle grade inflation by imposing departmental caps on the number
of A grades allowed to be assigned in undergraduate courses.
The dean of the undergraduate college at Princeton stated that the plan
grew out of a desire on the part of department heads to have all programs held
to the same standards, writes Eric Hoover in the Chronicle of Higher
Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/04/2004040902n.htm)
Adults pleased when kids choose engineering – A recent survey
conducted for the American Association of Engineering Societies shows that
adults rate engineering high as a career choice for their children, according to
a news release from IEEE. Engineering rated above such other highly ranked
fields as accounting and the ministry. Respondents explained their choice by
saying that engineering “makes a positive contribution to society”, involves
“interesting work”, and that engineers “earn a good salary”. More
broadly, 77% of the respondents hold engineering in high esteem because they say
that engineers are largely responsible for a high standard of living. For an
article on results, see http://www.ieeeusa.org,
and for the complete survey results see http://www.aaes.org.
New victories for campus unions – The unionization of teaching
and research assistants in
5 – Employment
Increased education, research, cited as remedies for off-shoring –
Off-shoring of jobs is only part of the threat to work and prosperity in the
Other professions soon to follow IT in being off-shored – Some
observers are predicting that the list of jobs affected by off-shoring will grow
longer in the coming years. According
to an article written by Kris Maher on March 23 in The
Wall Street Journal, technical writers, architects and drafters, legal and
investment researchers and insurance claims processors will soon join the ranks
of medical transcriptionists and others lining up for unemployment.
Yet there is hope. Salaries
in places where off-shored jobs land are feeling upward pressure, thus
decreasing the advantage to be obtained by off-shoring.
The article cites a situation where an Indian employer gave 80% raises to
his Indian employees in order to retain them.
(See http://www.wsj.com)
IEEE-USA issues policy statement on off-shoring – The Board of
Directors of the IEEE-USA, a unit of the
Venture capitalists promote off-shoring in new companies –
Outsourcing by off-shoring has found an ally in the venture capitalists of
Silicon Valley (USA) who are promoting “micro-multinational” start-ups.
These are companies which from the beginning rely on off-shore workers to
reduce costs and to create a round the clock work schedule.
An additional advantage is that when US workers are asleep, their
colleagues around the world are awake and continuing the work schedule. Ann
Grimes, writing for The Wall Street Journal on
April 2 mentions the appearance of “in-sourcing,” as well.
This is the return of jobs to the
European businesses subjected to off-shoring trends – BusinessWeek,
in its April 19 issue, assembled a team of writers under the leadership of Carol
Matlack to report on off-shoring in
Credible data on off-shoring needed – Any attempt to
understand and respond to the off-shoring phenomenon is complicated by a
breathtaking lack of data on the topic, according to Jon Hilsenrath writing for The
Wall Street Journal on April 12. Data
are scarce, and often imprecise. For
example, it is difficult to pin down which jobs have been lost to off-shoring,
and if a job is shifted out of the
“Near-shoring”: now you’ve heard it all – “Forget
What goes around comes around – Some Indian call centers are
now setting up shop in the
New report cites economic advantages of off-shoring – Recently
the Information Technology Association of America hired Global Insight, Inc., to
conduct a study of the costs and benefits of off-shoring, reports Michael
Schroeder of The Wall Street Journal
on March 30. The bottom line of the
study is that savings resulting from off-shoring permit companies to expand, and
that for every job lost through off-shoring two are created.
Critics of the report say that its focus is too narrow, looking just at
computer software and services, and that economists have been poor predictors of
job growth over the past several years. An executive summary of the study is
available at http://www.itaa.org/itserv/docs/execsumm.pdf.
(See http://www.wsj.com)
US Secretary of State Powell pressures India on off-shoring –
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, while on an official visit to India, pushed
its government to open its markets to more US goods, thus relieving some of the
political pressure being placed on the Bush administration in the fight over
off-shoring. At the same time,
Powell’s visit created new worries for Indian workers who fear a backlash
against off-shoring and thus a potential loss of their jobs, according to David
S. Cloud of The Wall Street Journal on
March 17. (See http://www.wsj.com)
6 – Journals
International Journal of Engineering Education – A special
issue on Trends in Electronics Education, edited by Ahmad Ibrihim and Aleksander
Malinowski, has been issued as Volume 20, Number 2. The special issue includes
some thirteen papers covering issues such as outcomes assessment using
multimedia, online testing technology, interdisciplinary learning, virtual labs,
and courses for teachers. A second part of the same journal issue contains six
papers on varied topics in engineering education. (See http://www.ijee.dit.ie)
Issues in Science and Technology – The Spring 2004 issue
focuses on “Atoms for Peace after 50 Years.”.
Six featured articles cover nuclear technology’s numerous uses, nuclear
power, nuclear weapons, and deterring proliferation and terrorism. Additional
articles in the issue cover the hype and hope about hydrogen technologies,
problems of small cities, and the preservation of the earth’s rivers. (See http://www.issues.org)
Global Journal of Engineering Education – A special edition
describes the activities of the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering
Education and its
7 – Meetings
International Engineering Education – The annual Colloquium on
International Engineering Education will be held by the
NCIIA Annual Meeting – The annual meeting of the National
Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance was held in
________________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe from this
newsletter service, please respond to digest@worldexpertise.com
with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Send address changes to the same
e-mail address.
To contribute information to
this electronic newsletter, please send it by e-mail to russel_jones@worldexpertise.com
This Digest provides summaries
of published articles, both printed and electronic. World Expertise does not
endorse or corroborate the information in these articles. Some publication web
sites may require user registration before access is granted to articles via the
links provided above.
Back issues of this
International Engineering Education Digest can be read on the Web at http://www.worldexpertise.com