December
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., and Bethany S.
Oberst, Ph.D.
5 – Employment
6 – Journals
Campus corruption in
Italians protest plan to end tenure – Italian academics have
rallied outside that country’s higher education ministry to show their
disapproval over government plans to end tenure and increase teaching loads.
According to a note by Alexander Hellemans in the November 19th Science,
the government says that its reform plan is needed to provide much-needed
flexibility. But faculty members feel that the plan could drive away the
country’s best young brains. The plan put forth by
American-style law schools in
Cell phones used in
New Commissioner for EU science and research –
Canadian higher education no big bargain – A new report
compares the cost of higher education in
FY 2005 Appropriations bill enacted – A lame-duck US Congress
finally has completed work on the FY 2005 budget, with a $388-billion omnibus
appropriations bill. The bill, now signed by the President, holds domestic
spending flat at last year’s level, according to an analysis by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. Earlier in the year, defense and
homeland security spending had won large increases, including for R&D
programs in those agencies. With only a few exceptions, R&D funding in
domestic agencies share in the sacrifice of tight budgets. The National Science
Foundation’s budget actually declines in FY 2005, down to $5.5-billion,
$107-million or 1.9% less than last year. The five largest research directorates
all see budget cuts approaching 2%. NSF’s education and human resources
programs fall by 10%. The National Institutes of Health budget of $28.6-billion
is just 2% above last year’s funding level, well off the 15% annual increases
in recent years. NASA is one of the few winners, with a $16.1-billion
appropriation, 4.5% more than last year. The Department of Energy’s Office of
Science gets a 2.8% increase, the US Geological Survey gets a 0.3% cut, and the
National Institute of Standards and Technology labs is a bright spot with a 10%
increase. (See http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
National Academies urge more expertise, less politics – The US
National Academies recently released a report urging that federal advisory
panels on science and technology be populated by experts rather than political
supporters. The Bush administration
has been criticized for asking candidates questions about their voting records
or views on particular policies. But
the recommendations in this report are largely the same as have been made in
reports dating back to 1992. One
additional recommendation in the report is that new presidents appoint a science
advisor immediately, to help select other people for science and technology
positions. To date, presidents have
awaited Senate confirmation of their director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, a potential lengthy process, according to Kelly Field writing
in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
(See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/11/2004111802n.htm)
US Commission on UNESCO appointed – After an 18 year absence,
the
US
Bush victory brings concerns in the science community – The
scientific community was critical of President Bush’s policies in his first
term, and let its concerns be known in the recent presidential election
campaign, according to an article in the November 12th Science
by Jeffrey Mervis. Now that he has been re-elected, his chief spokesman to
that community – Presidential Science Advisor John Marburger – has warned
that criticism of the Administration’s science policies during the campaign
may be undermining public support for science. Observers from the scientific
community say that the White House now perceives that community as an enemy, and
that that perception will make it harder to open doors for engagement with the
Administration – which may just go its own directions without interacting.
(See http://www.sciencemag.org)
Bush proposes Spellings as Secretary of Education –
Decline in new foreign grad students slows – The number of
international students beginning graduate studies at US universities has
declined for the third year in a row, according to a note by Yudhjit
Bhattacharjee in the November 12th Science. But the 6% drop this year is the smallest in three years.
Some attribute this improvement in part to faster handling of visa applications.
This is good news for higher education organizations, which had braced for worse
after a 28% drop in international graduate applications and an 18% drop in
offers of admission. Declines in the past two years – 10% in the fall of 2003,
and 8% the year before – appeared after the September 11th
terrorist attacks, and reversed several prior years of growth in the number of
international students. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
Collaborative research receives support – The US House of
Representatives recently passed legislation that will eliminate a significant
barrier to collaborative research. The
legislation was endorsed by the Association of American Universities,
representing 62 research institutions. The
bill will permit members of research teams from different organizations to share
information on a project. Since 1997, a court ruling judged that such sharing
could make the results of research “obvious,” thus preventing discoveries
from being patented. Joseph Gidjunis
reported on this for The Chronicle
of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/11/2004112302n.htm)
Some
On-line education deemed successful – Between fall 2002 and
fall 2003 the number of US students enrolled in on-line courses increased 19%,
to 1.9 million, according to chief academic officers at 1170 institutions.
The survey, supported by the Sloan Foundation, revealed that larger
public institutions relied more heavily on on-line education as a central part
of their over-all strategy than did smaller, private, non-profit institutions,
writes Scott Carlson in The Chronicle
of Higher Education. Student
satisfaction with on-line courses was reported to be positive by 40% of the
respondents. Again, student
satisfaction was reported to be higher by CAO’s affiliated with public and
for-profit institutions. The report,
“Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the
Internet access delivered from above – Telephone companies are
being challenged for high-speed Internet business customers by new services
using beamed high-powered wireless Internet connections, according to an article
by Ken Belson in the November 29th New York Times. Technology experts say that this wireless technology
could uncork the nettlesome bottleneck of the telecommunications industry, the
phone companies which control the “last mile” of wire that travels from
their switching stations to homes and offices. The emerging wireless service is
known as WiMax, wireless interoperability for microwave access. Unlike WiFi,
radio wave technology which allows laptop users to log onto the Internet within
150 feet of an antenna, WiMax
delivers broadband Internet connections through fixed antennas that send and
receive signals across entire cities. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
High tech communications don’t replace face to face in research
projects – In a comprehensive update on the success of electronic
collaboration in multi-location research projects, Jeffrey Young, writing in The
Chronicle of Higher Education, points
out evidence that indicates technology cannot replace face-to-face
communication. An analysis of 62
multi-institution research projects shows that they have been less successful in
terms of published papers and patent applications than single institution
projects. While there are recent
developments which will mitigate the situation, such as the design of
technologies permitting multiple researchers to control equipment simultaneously
from different locations, significant social and culture barriers persist.
It is difficult to maintain motivation when working with remote
colleagues, and e-mail and phone contacts often degenerate into discussions of
mundane matters such as timetables, schedules, and logistics.
The most successful distributed projects rely on face to face meetings
and workshops for participants. C.
Suzanne Iacono, director of NSF’s Information Technology Research program,
succeeded in requiring grant applicants to provide detailed plans for
coordinating distributed projects. But
hers was the only NSF program to do so, and it did not receive continued
support. Insiders report that travel
is often the first item to be cut from proposals, when in fact it can be crucial
to establishing trust between researchers. (See
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i16/16a02501.htm)
Libraries reach out online – Libraries are moving to serve the
massive online public as their newest service audience, according to an article
by Tim Gnatek in the December 9th New York Times. For example, the New York Public Library now offers
to its 1.8-million cardholders some 3000 titles of electronic books, available
through the web, ranging from best-sellers to nonfiction to romance novels to
self-help books. Patrons borrow them for set periods, downloading them to
computers or handheld devices. When they are due, the files are automatically
locked out and returned for circulation. In addition to e-books, libraries offer
access to card catalogs, reserving and renewing of book loans, paying fines,
etc., on-line. They are also leveraging technology, such as free access to
wireless networks, to draw people to their physical premises. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
Google Scholar now available to search – A beta version of
Google Scholar was recently released, designed to focus entirely on scholarly
works, including technical reports and peer-reviewed papers.
Google officials say they worked with a range of scholars, colleges and
universities, librarians, academic publishers and learned societies in creating
this new search engine, although for the moment, the names of the people
involved in the development have not been released, nor has a definition of what
constitutes a scholarly work. Enthusiasts
say this sort of engine is long overdue: skeptics are afraid that students will
no longer used specialized academic databases. According to Jeffrey R. Young,
writing for The Chronicle
of Higher Education, improvements will be made to the engine in the future,
including options for limiting searches. For
now, no advertising is included in search results. (See http://chronicle.com/free/2004/11/2004111901n.htm)
Barriers to study abroad still exist in
2005 Grads getting good offers – After three slack years,
employers across a range of industries have headed back to campus, according to
an article in the December 6th Business
Week by Jennifer Merritt. A study of 582 companies by Michigan State
University indicates that companies plan to expand hiring of grads by 20% over
last year, and that average pay could rise 4% to 7%. The change appears to be
across the board, in industries ranging from investment banking and health care
to retail and real estate. Companies are hiring due to continued solid economic
growth and because they can no longer put off hiring for jobs left empty through
attrition. (See http://www.businessweek.com)
Foreign students like
Closing the racial gap - Many middle-class African American
students are scoring lower than white classmates, but it may be their parents
and teachers who need remedial work. Writing in the November 29th Time,
Sonja Steptoe explores issues about the achievement gap between black and
white students in the
Another challenge to affirmative action in US university admissions –
As proof that affirmative action issues related to US college admissions were
not over, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has begun
investigating the University of Virginia’s admissions policies, and will begin
similar proceedings related to, among others, the law program at the College of
William and Mary, and the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine in
Baltimore, writes Peter Schmidt in The
Chronicle of Higher Education.
The plaintiffs claim that the schools under investigation consider race
and ethnicity to such an extent that they violate guidelines coming out of the
Supreme Court’s 2003 rulings on the
Professors paid to express views – If a professor takes money
from a company and then argues in the media for a position the company favors,
is he an independent expert or a paid shill? Writing in the December 10th
Wall Street Journal, Michael Schroeder
explores this question – pointing out among other things, that often the
financial arrangement between a professor and a company is not disclosed. Some
PR firms seek to hire experts who already espouse a certain viewpoint, and may
even ghost-write opinion pieces to run in the media then solicit experts to lend
their name to the article. Academics who enter into such arrangements argue that
there is nothing wrong with working with PR firms or interest groups when the
opinions expressed match their views. They argue that newspaper quote or opinion
articles can be a good plug for their research and university. Yet the general
public is typically unaware of such consulting arrangements. (See http://www.wsj.com)
Pros and cons of open, shared research space – The
Chronicle of Higher Education published a long article by Lila Guterman on
the movement to design research labs with open spaces, rather than defined
turfs. The advantages are better collaboration, and more efficient use of
equipment, say advocates. Old (turf
protection) habits die hard, though, and some of the new open lab space is
under-utilized because faculty refuse to move.
There are limits, too, to the size of an open space: some say that 20 –
24 people in one space is about the maximum before giving the impression of
chaos and working in a warehouse. This move toward shared space echoes some
funding priorities in the US National Science Foundation.
In 1982, about 85% of funds went to individual researchers, while in
2001, that figure had dropped to about 50%.
And the National Institutes of Health in 2003 recommended
interdisciplinary research as a backbone of medical research.
While no claims can be made for having achieved a monumental breakthrough
in the way science is done, open labs have been conducive to communication and
collaboration when researchers want it.
(See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i16/16a01201.htm)
Engineering for Everyone – The cover story in the December ASEE
Prism, by Bethany Halford, describes a push on campuses to make all students
technically literate. In a technology-driven society, everyone needs to know
about engineering, and more and more schools are teaching engineering courses to
non-engineers. One landmark pair of courses in this area is that taught for many
years at
The secret is out! Students don’t study much – Despite
the fact that most US students report their grades to be mainly A’s and B’s,
only about 11% of them study more than 25 hours per week, according to a recent
finding in the National Survey of Student Engagement, writes Eric Hoover in The
Chronicle of Higher Education.
That 25 hour target is the time that faculty say students should spend in
class preparation. About 44% of students spend fewer than 10 hours per week
studying. The National Survey also reports that about 25 % of seniors talk with
their professors about class materials outside of class, and 60% engage in
volunteer work. Over a quarter of
students did not attend an art exhibit or play during the academic year, and
only 10% used newspapers and magazines for information on local and national
news. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/11/2004111501n.htm)
Surfing to campus – A new online search service for
college-bound students, Destination-U.com, offers to assist prospective students
in picking the right college. As described by Sonja Steptoe in the December 20th
Time, the service joins a vast array
of free and fee-based college-search services available to anxious families
during the complex and competitive admissions process. Destination-U.com aims to
differentiate itself from the pack by tailoring its advice to the candidate’s
personality – for a price. (See http://www.time.com)
5 – Employment
Economist magazine sees benefits of outsourcing – The
Economist, in the November 13, 2004, issue, presented a detailed study of
outsourcing, a topic that has generated a great deal of controversy, enthusiasm
and misunderstanding over the past few years.
While admitting that the subject has “. . . inspired[d] more fear about
jobs than hope about growth,” the editors claim that the “. . . agents of
change are the same as those that brought about the 1990s boom. . . . This
survey will try to restore some of the hope.”
“Men and machines” looks at lessons to be learned from
the revolution in industry which has long since been successfully navigated by
the labor markets around the world, and concludes, “Just as in manufacturing,
the solution to the growing complexity of white-collar work is to do less of it
in-house.”
“The place to be” describes
“Faster, cheaper, better” argues that India’s claim
to be able to do everything faster, etc., is suspect, given the challenges of
competing with more mature companies better positioned to take advantage of the
needs for custom-design in IT services.
“Into the unknown” asks “Where will the jobs of the
future come from?” The Economist makes the argument for the deconstruction of job
descriptions, and says, for example, that while skills related to the
maintenance of business-software packages have migrated overseas, there is a
shortage in the US now of people who can custom tailor software and services.
And some jobs will disappear not through outsourcing, but as a result of
more sophisticated use of technology at home.
“Sink or Schwinn” says that while the US receives $1.14
in return for every dollar spent in outsourced work in
“A world of opportunity” is the final article. The
Economist concludes that the ultimate advantage of a truly globalized
economy is that it offers opportunities to severely under-developed countries to
improve the lives of their citizens. (See
www.economist.com/surveys)
Preparing engineers for an outsourced world –
More visas for foreign workers – Congress is letting employers
hire 20,000 more high tech workers under its H-1B visa program, after business
reach the previous quota of 65,000 on the first day of the 2005 fiscal year.
According to an article in the November 23rd Washington Post, Congress is exempting from the limit 20,000 foreign
students with masters or higher degrees from American universities. Industry
representatives argued that these graduates represent a critical talent pool
that American taxpayers have helped to educate, and that it would be
counterproductive to force them abroad to compete against the
Rejecting the next Bill Gates? – There is a growing danger for
the United States that needs urgent attention of the State Department, soon to
be headed by Condoleezza Rice, according to an article by Fareed Zakaria in the
November 29th Newsweek. It
is the foreign visa crisis, which has become so cumbersome and bureaucratic that
the
6 – Journals
IEEE Transactions on Education – The November 2004 issue
contains several papers on diverse topics: tools for power electronics
education, improving education through teaching about industrial engineering,
teaching through games, robotics courses to motivate children, a unique capstone
course, etc. (See http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/es)
International Journal of
Engineering Education – A special issue on Spreadsheet Applications in
Engineering Education, with guest editors Chung-yau Lam and Karim Kabalan, is
the primary thrust of vol. 20 no. 6, with 14 papers. The issue also contains
eight papers on diverse topics, including one entitled “Engineering Education
Reform: Signs of Progress”, which focuses on the importance of the inclusion
of environmental and sustainable development considerations in the engineering
curriculum. (See http://www.ijee.dit.ie)
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