INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION DIGEST
February
2006
Copyright © 2006 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.
CONTENTS
1 - International developments
- Inside
the Great Firewall of
China
- A
perspective on Afghan higher ed
- Microsoft
bares code to avoid EU fines
- Irreparable
change to climate debated
-
U.
of
Tokyo
closes lab in case of suspected research fraud
- $1
billion foundation to begin new Indian research university
- European
Institute of Technology takes form
- President
of International Council for Science denied
US
visa
- South
Korean education ‘Blitzkrieg’
- Some
surprise winners in German funding competition
-
France
’s
basic science agency in turmoil
- Internet
TOEFL raises major concerns
- Re-engineering
Iraq
-
US
academic canned in Emirates for showing those cartoons
2 -
US
developments
- US
State of the
Union
- American
competitiveness initiative
- 2007
US budget – big winners and losers
- It’s
all in how you look at it: new
US
Engineering Indicators report
- Restrictions
on foreign researchers loosened
- Another
initiative to proceed aPACE
- US
partner in Korean scandal accused of “research misbehavior”
- Panel
explores standardized tests for colleges
- Role
of S&T in international development
- Harvard
President resigns
- Engineers
Week 2006
3 - Technology
- One-hour
brainstorming gave birth to digital imaging
- UNDP
is new partner in $100 laptop project
- National
LambdaRail complete: how will it be administered?
- Last
telegram marks the end of an era
4 - Students, faculty, education
- Introducing
engineering to children
- Female
computer science students wanted
- Education
from the factory floor
- US
students “derailed” from engineering careers
- UT
Austin
reform provokes engineering faculty
- New
US
college students are seasoned volunteers
- College
ranking systems show distressing trans-global similarities
- US
college students still deficient in math
- Study
claims AP courses don’t contribute to college achievement
5 – Employment, competitiveness
- Entrepreneurial
advantage
- Outsourcing
is climbing skills ladder
-
India
set to outsource its outsourcing centers?
- Intellectual
property wrangling
6 – Journals
- Journal
of Engineering Education
- European
Journal of Engineering Education
- International
Journal of Engineering Education
- IEEE
Transactions on Education
- Journal
of STEM Education
7 – Meetings
- Global
Conference on Engineering Education
- Sustainable
Development in
Africa
________________________________________________________________________
1 - International developments
Inside the Great Firewall of
China
– Yahoo and Google are being pilloried for cooperating with
Beijing
’s army of censors – filtering certain topics such as “democracy” and
“human rights” from their
China
based search engines. Those defending the actions of such companies note that
any company that wants to do business in
China
today has to operate according to Chinese laws. But, according to an article by
Clay Chandler in the March 6th issue of Fortune, information wants to be free, even in
China
, and the firewall may be crumbling from within. One truth about the Chinese web
is that citizens there today enjoy greater freedom of thought and access to
information from outside
China
than at any time in history. Despite government efforts to impose a Great
Firewall, there are an estimated 110-million Internet users in
China
today, and 16 million bloggers. (See http://www.fortune.com)
A perspective on
Afghan higher ed – The
Chronicle of Higher Education recently published a set of three
articles written by Katherine Zoepf on higher education in
Afghanistan
. The first is a summary of
conditions in the universities after the rule of the Taliban then the war and
reconstruction. Demand for
enrollment is very strong after enrollment had dropped to only 4000 students and
the exodus of faculty under the repression of the Taliban.
Today enrollment has increase 900%. Security
on the campus of institutions such as
Kabul
University
is still a problem, as gangs make trouble, especially for female students.
With not enough seats available in public universities to respond to
demand, laws were recently passed to allow private universities to be set up.
Many of the faculty are not qualified with doctoral degrees, although
with money from the World Bank faculty with doctorates were given a $300 a month
bonus, and those with master’s a $200 a month bonus, this on top of the $60
per month base pay for academics. (See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i21/21a04401.htm)
A second article is entitled, "Women Fight for
Opportunity
and Respect at Afghan
Universities," which reveals that teaching is such a low status occupation
that women are reluctant to enroll in teacher training programs. (See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i21/21a04801.htm)
A third article describes the new
American
University
of
Afghanistan
which is set to open in
Kabul
this March. (See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i21/21a04601.htm)
Microsoft bares code to avoid EU fines – Microsoft Corporation
has offered to allow rivals some access to the proprietary source code of its
Windows operating system, in a move designed to head off large daily fines in
Europe
and to mollify increasingly impatient antitrust authorities in the
US
. Analysts say the move is a shrewd step – not only deflecting criticism that
the company is defying legal orders to share programming information, but also
to thwart the ambitions of software developers who advocate free or “open
source” access. As described by Mary Jacoby in Wall
Street Journal articles on January 26th and 28th,
however, European regulators have warned Microsoft that offering access to
proprietary source code for Windows would not solve all its problems. Experts
have told the EU regulators that the documentation being provided by Microsoft
does not allow even simple programming tasks to be accomplished. The European
Commission is to hold a hearing on the matter, and daily fines could go into
effect by late March if it concludes that the company is still failing to comply
with its orders. (See http://www.wsj.com)
Irreparable change to climate debated – Now that most
scientists agree that human activity is causing the Earth to warm, the central
debate has shifted to whether climate change is progressing so rapidly that
within decades humans may be helpless to slow or reverse the trend. According to
an article in the January 29th Washington Post by Juliet Eilperin, the “tipping point” scenario
has begun to consume many prominent researchers, because the answer could
determine how drastically countries need to reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions in the coming years. While uncertain when such a point might occur,
scientists say it is urgent that policymakers cut global carbon dioxide
emissions in half over the next 50 years or risk the triggering of changes that
would be irreversible. The debate has bee intensifying because Earth is warming
faster than some researchers had predicted – with 2005 the warmest year on
record. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com)
U.
of
Tokyo
closes lab in case of suspected research fraud – The
University
of
Tokyo
closed the lab of a chemistry professor in the Graduate School of Engineering
citing accusations of research fraud. A
university committee sent to investigate says that a dozen of the experiments
cited in Kazunari Taira’s articles, published in prestigious journals, could
not be replicated. Taira’s work
had been heavily supported by the Japanese government, who had spent $12 million
on it in six years. Taira has denied
any responsibility, suggesting that one of his assistants may be implicated,
writes Alan Brender in The Chronicle of
Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006020711n.htm)
$1 billion foundation to begin new Indian research university –
Indian industrialist Anil Agarwal has created a $1 billion endowment to found a
world-class university dedicated to graduate teaching and intensive research.
The institution would aspire to educate tomorrow’s Nobel laureates and
community leaders, according to an article in the Khaleej Times on
February 23. Sites under
consideration for the new university include Andhra Pradesh,
Goa
and Rajasthan. Management
consulting firm A. T. Kearney India Ltd. has been engaged to advise Agarwal and
to move the project forward. When
completed, the plan is for the university to enroll 100,000 students. (See http://www.khaleejtimes.com)
European Institute of Technology takes form – The European
Union took one more step toward the creation of a European Institute of
Technology by revealing a proposal to be debated in March by the union
memberships’ heads of state. The EUT is meant to prevent brain-drain by
providing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology look-alike focused on
research, innovation and graduate studies in strategic areas. The Institute is
scheduled to open in 2009, although it has not yet been decided whether it will
be a research center or a virtual organization formed from a network of existing
institutions. The proposal has
received some support, although there has been strong opposition from those who
believe that it will siphon off much needed funding from universities already
short of money, writes Aisha Labi in The
Chronicle of Higher Education. (See
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006022306n.htm)
President of International Council for Science denied US visa –
Goverdhan Mehta, president of the International Council for Science, an
organization of national scientific academics around the world, was denied an
entry visa into the US by a consular office in Chennai, touching off strong
protests from the US scientific community, writes Shankar Vedantam in the Washington
Post on February 23, 2006. According
to Mehta, not only was he denied his visa, but his research was questioned as a
threat to security. Under new
US
visa regulations, applicants are required to travel long distances to apply in
person, and then are subjected to intense scrutiny if their research touches on
certain high technology areas. Mehta, a former visiting professor at the
University
of
Florida
, was invited to return there to give a presentation at an international
conference. The US Embassy in
New Delhi
, in an unusual move, issued an apology, and the State Department attempted to
resolve the matter before President Bush's trip to
India
. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com)
South Korean education ‘Blitzkrieg’ – The president of the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nobel physics laureate
Robert Laughlin, has plans to make KAIST an academic powerhouse to compete with
the likes of MIT. Now, according to an article in the January 20th Science
by Richard Stone, he has a war chest from the South Korean legislature to
make that happen. The legislature has approved the first installment of a
$97-million “globalization package” for KAIST. Increased funding will allow
the institution to raise the fraction of foreign faculty to 15%, and aim to
teach all graduate courses in English by 2010, among other changes. The fund
will also strengthen the institution’s R&D, allowing awards of seed money
for innovative projects and the luring of talent with handsome start-up
packages. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
Some surprise winners in German funding competition – In an
effort to strengthen its public universities, the German government is
conducting a multi-tiered competition for funding.
The first round of competition is now over, and 90 out of 319
applications have been certified as qualifying for the next round.
Universities had to compete in three categories. The first involved the
design of new graduate programs or schools.
Twenty-one institutions had their proposals approved, and will now submit
proposals for ultimate funding. The second competition involves designing
partnerships for research with a university at the center.
Of the 39 finalists selected, about 15 will be funded at a level of $7.8
million annually. The third category
of competition will be open only to institutions which have won at least one
award in each of the two other competitions.
Five universities will be selected from the 10 already qualifying, and
each will be given $25.2 million annually. The competition will be held again
next year. A process of this sort is
a distinct departure from past funding plans in
Germany
, but supporters think it is a way for German universities to regain some of
their lost stature. When the results
of the first round were announced, there were some major surprises.
While the well-known Humboldt University failed to qualify for the third
competition, the Free University of Berlin did, along with the University of
Bremen, which does not the have prominence of some other universities.
(See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006012405n.htm)
France
’s
basic science agency in turmoil - The leading basic research agency in
France, CNRS, is struggling to get back on course after the loss of two top
managers. According to an article by Barbara Casassus in the January 20th
Science, the departure of the top two
officers resulted from a standoff between them over the selection of department
directors. The president resigned in early January, and the number two officer
was fired by the government a few days later. At the heart of the issues is the
government’s science reform bill that is currently being implemented. Moving
quickly, the government installed a new president – a physicist who had been a
CNRS director from 1997-2000. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
Internet TOEFL raises major concerns – A major storm has
brewed up in
Europe
around the decision by the US Educational Testing Service to administer the
well-known Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) via the Internet at
specific testing centers. When the
new system was introduced last fall, there were many reports of students unable
to take the test in a timely fashion because of lack of centers and sufficient
seats, reports Aisha Labi in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In some notorious cases, students traveled to other countries in order to
take the test where seats were available. This
test is essential to the application process for foreign students aspiring to
study in the
United States
. ETS says it has been responsive to criticisms by increasing its capacity, but
criticisms continue, and the news that the ETS is also planning to shift the
administration of the Graduate Record Exam to an Internet base has sent fright
waves through the academic communities on both sides of the Atlantic.
(See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006012503n.htm)
Re-engineering
Iraq
– US and Iraqi officials have spent billions on restoring
Iraq
’s electrical system – so why is
Baghdad
getting just 6 hours of electricity a day? An analysis by Glenn Zorpette in the
February 2006 IEEE Spectrum states
that never before has so vast a reconstruction program been attempted in the
face of enemy fire or managed in the shadow of geopolitics. Engineers involved
in the reconstruction estimate that between $20- and 40-billion is needed to
provide electricity throughout the country, and that level of money is not
available. (See http://www.spectrum.ieee.org)
US academic canned in Emirates for showing those cartoons – A
US English professor at
Zayed
University
in the
United Arab Emirates
was fired for showing her students the cartoons which have set off riots and
protests in Muslim countries around the world.
This was within the context of a discussion about freedom of expression,
reports Katherine Zoepf in The Chronicle
of Higher Education. One student
complained to the university administration, then parents became angry as well,
resulting in the firing by the chancellor.
Zayed
University
is reportedly considering running sensitivity training for its expatriate
faculty. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006021504n.htm)
2 -
US
developments
US State of the
Union
– In the traditional annual address by the President of the
US
, George W. Bush focused heavily on American competitiveness in the global
economy. As reported by various writers in major coverage in the February 1st
Washington Post, President Bush
outlined a litany of domestic initiatives to make the
US
more competitive overseas. He declared that “America is addicted to oil”,
and vowed to push for alternative energy sources allowing the US to replace
three-quarters of the petroleum now imported from the Middle East, by 2025. He
also vowed to steer more funding into scientific research and education. The
President proposed a ten year $136-billion initiative that would double the
federal commitment to basic scientific research, and train tens of thousands of
new math and science teachers. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com)
American competitiveness initiative – In his State of the
Union Address, President Bush announced the American
Competitiveness Initiative to encourage American innovation and strengthen
the
US
ability to compete in the global economy. As described in a White House
release, the initiative will increase federal investment in critical research,
ensure that the
US
continues to lead the world in opportunity and innovation, and provide American
children with strong foundations in math and science. Elements of the initiative
include doubling the federal commitment to basic research in the physical
sciences over the next 10 years, encouraging a favorable environment for
additional private sector investment in innovation, improving math and science
education for American children, supporting universities to provide world-class
education and research opportunities, providing job training to improve the
skills of American workers, attracting and retaining the best and brightest
immigrants, and fostering a business environment that encourages
entrepreneurship. (See http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060131-5.html)
2007 US budget – big winners and losers – A promised 10-year
doubling for NSF, NIST and energy research would be offset by no growth for NIH
and NASA in President Bush’s spending request for 2007, according to an
article by Eli Kintisch and Jeffrey Mervis in the February 10th Science.
The proposed budget answers fervent wishes by the scientific community for a
boost to the physical sciences, more attention to science and math education in
the public schools, and a focus on applied energy research. But in trying to
balance the costs of two wars and additional tax cuts, and a desire to trim
spending, the President’s budget would flat-line NIH and NASA budgets for the
next 5 years. Presidential Science Advisor John Marburger notes that the
proposed 14% rise for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and the
7.9% boost for NSF represent high priority areas that are most likely to
generate the sort of results that will create technologies to improve US
competitiveness. The boost for NSF would provide an estimated 500 new research
grants across all disciplines and a $5000 increase in the annual grant size, to
$148,000. (See http://www.sciencemag.org)
It’s all in how you look at it: new
US
Engineering Indicators report – The US National Science Board released
its biennial report, “Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006,” (available
at http://www.nsf.gov) on February 23, reports
David Epstein in Inside Higher Ed. While
the figures related to student achievement in math and science have in some
cases improved, in others they have only held steady or were a bit lower,
leading the authors to express concern about the long-term strength of US
leadership in engineering and science. Nearly 25% of science teachers and 20% of
math teachers are not fully certified in the subject matter they are teaching.
Overall, US students remain in the middle of the pack in achievement
among industrialized nations. The
report emphasizes the importance of primary and secondary education in science
and math, and makes recommendations for strengthening teacher competency in
these subjects by recruiting people with graduate degrees into the schools as an
alternative to a strictly research oriented university career. (See http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/02/24/scienceed)
Restrictions on foreign researchers loosened – The US Commerce
Department has abandoned a plan that would have restricted foreign students’
and other scholars’ access to sensitive technology based on their countries of
birth, according to an article in the January 17th Chronicle
of Higher Education by Kelly Field. The plan could have required American
colleges and universities to obtain export-control licenses for thousands more
of their foreign students and researchers. After
hearing from dozens of researchers in industry and academe, the Commerce
Department concluded that there was little evidence that its plan would improve
national security. Another provision of the plan, still being proposed, would
require colleges to obtain licenses for foreigners to work with equipment that
is subject to export controls, even if the underlying research is exempt from
licensing. (See http://chronicle.com)
Another initiative to proceed aPACE – Four
US
Senators have introduced legislation for the PACE Act, (Protecting America’s
Competitive Edge), designed to support improved math and science studies in the
US
. Faced with reports on the
deficiencies of students in these areas, the act would include enhancing teacher
preparation for primary and secondary schools, along with stipends for
undergraduate and graduate students in math, science and engineering. This
report was written by David Epstein in Inside Higher Ed. (See http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/26/pace)
US partner in Korean scandal accused of “research misbehavior” –
The University of Pittsburgh (USA) released the report on its investigation of
faculty member Gerald P. Schatten’s involvement in the fraudulent stem cell
research of Woo Suk Hwang of
South Korea
. Schatten was the lead author of a
paper with Hwang that was published in Science.
The investigatory panel said that while Schatten did not commit research
misconduct, he did commit “research misbehavior,” a term used in the
university’s faculty handbook to cover sloppy practices.
It pointed out that Schatten benefited from his role as co-author, and
stood to gain even more had Hwang been award the Nobel Prize for which a group
which included Schatten nominated him. Disciplinary actions have not been
announced, according to Lila Guterman reporting in The
Chronicle of Higher Education. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006021302n.htm)
Panel explores standardized tests for colleges – A higher
education commission named by the Bush administration is examining whether
standardized testing should be expanded into universities and colleges to prove
that students are learning, and to allow easier comparisons on quality.
According to an article by Karen Arenson in the February 9th New
York Times, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education has until
August to report on issues that include accountability, cost and quality.
Educators are wary, stating that to subject colleges to uniform standards is to
trivialize higher education. But the Commission chair argues that public
reporting of collegiate learning as measured through testing would be greatly
beneficial to students, parents, taxpayers and employers by creating a national
database that includes measures of learning. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
Role of S&T in international development – The US National
Research Council has released a new report, “The Fundamental Role of Science
and Technology in International Development: An Imperative for the US Agency for
International Development”. It
notes that science and technology capabilities are fundamental for social and
economic progress in developing countries, and that international programs based
on S&T are critical components of
US
foreign policy. Maintaining and strengthening the contributions of the science,
engineering and medical capabilities of the
US
to foreign assistance programs administered by the US Agency for International
Development are the themes of the report. Among other key recommendations, the
report states that USAID should reverse the decline in its support for building
S&T capacity in developing countries. (See http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11583.html)
Harvard president resigns – Lawrence Summers has resigned as
president of
Harvard
University
, after a relatively brief and turbulent tenure of five years. As reported in
the February 22nd New York
Times by Alan Finder et al, his resignation was apparently nudged by
Harvard’s governing corporation and by an impending vote of no confidence from
the influential Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The announcement by Dr. Summers,
an economist and former Secretary of the Treasury, disappointed many students on
campus and raised questions about future leaders’ ability to govern Harvard
with its vocal and independent-minded faculty. Summers’s well-known desire to
change Harvard’s culture, which he saw as complacent, was accompanied by
slights of some faculty members and missteps like his statement last year that
women might lack an intrinsic aptitude for math and science. And some of his
major decisions – including overhauling the undergraduate curriculum,
appointing deans and mapping out a new campus – were hugely divisive at the
370-year-old university. Summers has been offered a sabbatical year and return
to a university professorship, but friends say that he will be exploring other
opportunities as well. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
Engineers Week 2006 – The annual
US
celebration of Engineers Week, held during the week that surrounds George
Washington’s birthday, focused this year on spreading its message to those who
can best reach young people – educators. One new program, Connecting Educators
to Engineering, is the legacy project of the 2006 co-chairs, Northrop Grumman
Corporation and the Society of Women Engineers. Engineers Week 2006 also
introduced a DVD geared toward middle school students, called Ask
an Engineer. It is a fast-paced introduction to the wonders of modern
engineering and what engineers do. In addition, a major new book on women’s
contributions to engineering – “Changing Our World: True Stories of Women
Engineers” (ASCE Press) – was unveiled during a National Press Club event.
(See http://www.eweek.org).
3 - Technology
One-hour brainstorming gave birth to digital imaging – In a
one-hour brainstorming session in late 1969, two Bell Labs researchers drew up
the basic design for a memory chip they called the “charge-coupled-device”.
As described in an article by Guy Gugliotta in the February 20th Washington
Post, the device initially worked well for data storage – but its future
clearly lay in its breathtaking potential for capturing and storing images.
During Engineers Week ceremonies, the two researchers – Willard Boyle and
George Smith – were recognized for their pioneering development with the award
of the $500,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of
Engineering. The CCD allows images to be captured electronically, rather than on
photographic film. It has revolutionized fields such as space exploration and
earth based photography. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com)
UNDP is new partner in $100 laptop project – The United
Nations and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (
USA
) have joined in a project to design $100 laptop computers for children around
the world. The agreement reached
between the two institutions will expand the scope of the previously announced
project, which was aimed at seven large developing countries.
The UN Development Programme reaches smaller and poorer developing
countries that might not have the ability to participate.
Jeffrey R. Young covered this story for The
Chronicle of Higher Education. (See
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006013001t.htm)
National LambdaRail complete: how will it be administered? –
The new fiber-optic computer network known as National LambdaRail has been
completed, writes Vincent Kiernan in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Now
the challenge is to determine how it will be operated.
For over a year there have been discussions about linking National
LambdaRail with Internet2, another academic research network, but decisions have
been delayed. National LambdaRail is
run by a group of 30 large universities, while Internet2 has over 200 members,
some of them quite small institutions. (See
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006022201t.htm)
Last telegram marks the end of an era –
Western Union
has delivered its last telegram, 150 years after the company was started and
revolutionized communications by zapping messages across the
US
in less than an hour. According to an article by Valerie Bauerlein in the
February 3rd Wall Street
Journal, the telegram business had withered to 20,000 last year, as other
technologies displaced its effectiveness. The last telegram was sent on January
27th.
Western Union
has shifted its focus to wiring money. (See http://www.wsj.com)
4 - Students, faculty, education
Introducing engineering to children – The former dean of
engineering at
Tufts
University
who convinced the
Massachusetts
legislature to introduce engineering into the K-12 science and technology
curriculum, Ioannis Miaoulis, is now pursuing his passion of introducing
engineering to children as head of the Boston Museum of Science. As described by
Alice Daniel in the January 2006 ASEE
Prism, Miaoulis believes that engineering can be done at different
educational levels, without a full knowledge of math and science. At the
Museum
of
Science
, for example, a new program called Design Challenges lets children solve basic
engineering problems, such as building a proper habitat for a ferret with a
variety of materials. Intent on spreading his approaches, Miaoulis has developed
a
National
Center
for Technological Literacy, headquartered at the
Museum
of
Science
, to develop and teach curricula, provide workshops for teachers, partner with
universities and museums nationwide, and establish hubs in different states to
work with teachers and legislators on introducing engineering into public
education. (See http://www.asee.org/prism)
Female computer science students wanted – Colleges are working
to attract and support women in technology majors such as computer science,
according to an article in the January 13th Chronicle of Higher Education by Scott Carlson. A report from the
National
Center
for Education Statistics shows that the proportion of women in computer and
information sciences has dwindled in the last 20 years, especially compared with
other fields in mathematics and sciences. The head of the Center for Women and
Information Technology at the
University
of
Maryland
at
Baltimore
County
, Claudia Morrell, says “Computer fields have a geeky image, and girls in
particular don’t want to be perceived as geeks and nerds”. Several
universities are developing programs to counter the childhood influences that
steer girls away from the computer science field, and to build support programs
for female students in the field. (See http://chronicle.com)
Education from the factory floor – President William Wulf of
the National Academy of Engineering says that for too long, engineering
education has been in second place to actual engineering contributions. As
reported in an article by Eva Kaplan Leiserson in the March PE
Magazine, that observation explains the reason behind the Academy’s
strategy to recognize major contributions to engineering education – including
the $500,000 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and
Technology Education. During this year’s Engineers Week, the 2006 Gordon Prize
was awarded to a cross-institutional team that created the Learning Factory, a
program in which multidisciplinary student teams face the challenges of
real-world problems from industry. The Learning Factory is a hands-on laboratory
where students can put engineering theory into practice by carrying their ideas
through conception, design, and manufacturing. According to one of its
developers, what the Learning Factory does well is to bridge the gap between the
way professors want to teach and the way engineering really happens in the real
world. (See http://www.nspe.org)
US students “derailed” from engineering careers – France
A. Córdova, an astrophysicist who serves as chancellor of the University of
California at Riverside, gave a major address at the American Council on
Education’s annual meeting, saying figures indicate that American students
have interest in engineering, technology, science and math, but that they are
“derailed” somewhere along the way, including in college itself.
She said that one in three first year college students is interested in
these areas of study, but in the end, only 5% graduate with degrees in those
fields, reports Jeffrey Selingo in The
Chronicle of Higher Education. Even
special programs designed to attract and maintain student interest are
frequently available only after a student has navigated through several gate
keeping courses. Among Córdova's
recommendations is to admit all students into a core curriculum, offering them
opportunities to consider subject areas before they declare their major. (See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006021404n.htm)
UT Austin reform provokes engineering faculty – The University
of Texas at Austin (USA) is now debating the merits of a proposal to standardize
the first year undergraduate curriculum, which includes the establishment of
University College into which all freshmen would be admitted before proceeding
into specific colleges. The
College
of
Engineering
is strongly opposed, insisting that engineering students are recruited directly
by its faculty and thus should be able to join the college immediately upon
admission. To do otherwise would
delay graduation and weaken the link between the students and their major
faculty, writes David Epstein in Inside
Higher Ed. Supporters of the
proposal like the required “signature course,” large sections of
interdisciplinary study taught by full-time faculty and then divided into small
discussion sections. (See http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/02/23/texas)
New US college students are seasoned volunteers – The
University of California’s Higher Education Research Institute released its
annual national survey of incoming first year students in US college and
universities, reports Eric Hoover in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
One exciting finding was that two thirds of the students said they wanted to
help others who are in difficulty. A
record number of the students (83%) also said that they had done some volunteer
work during their last year in high school.
And over a quarter of the students said that they would probably
volunteer while in college. While
almost equal percentages of men and women students said they went to college to
get a better job, more women than men saw getting a good overall education and
learning to appreciate ideas as an important reason for enrolling.
More students are more interested in politics these days, fewer want to
increase military spending, and although beer consumption in high school
dropped, that was not reflected in their campus drinking habits.
(See http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006012603n.htm)
College ranking systems show distressing trans-global similarities –
Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Ed
addresses the issue of college rankings by taking an international perspective.
He found that the characteristics that irritated US college
administrators were found as well in similar rankings in other countries.
Most ranking systems are compiled by for-profit publishing companies, and
attempt to provide consumers with a single, easily understood, number which
indicates quality. But it is the
ones who design the ranking systems who select the indicators of quality and
thus define quality itself. One
German system avoids this distortion. The
Center for Higher Education Development produces a ranking of academic
departments, placing them into the top, middle or bottom of the separate
indicators, then leaves it to the reader to determine which of the indicators is
of interest, thus freeing the consumer to define quality.
(See http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/02/21/rankings)
US
college students still deficient in math – The
Washington
based American Institutes for Research recently published a study indicating
that not even half of
US
college students graduate with proficiency in math, reports Sara Lipka in The
Chronicle of Higher Education. Students
were queried on three skills: quantitative literacy, prose literacy and document
literacy, the latter designed to determine whether students could fill out a
form or read a label. Fewer than
half of the students graduating from four year institutions were rated as
proficient in all three categories, and one fifth of those students were at or
below basic quantitative literacy. (See
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/200601004n.htm)
Study claims AP courses don’t contribute to college achievement –
While record numbers of US high school students are taking Advanced Placement
courses and receiving college credit for their high scores, a study just
released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science suggests a
dark side to this seeming achievement. In
a study of 18,000 students who took introductory courses in biology, chemistry
and physics in college, the
achievement of students who had previously taken AP courses in those subjects,
and did well, was only a little better than that of students who had not taken
AP. The bottom line for the
researchers who conducted this study, Philip M. Sadler of Harvard and Robert H.
Tai of the
University
of
Virginia
, is that AP courses do not make a significant contribution to student academic
success in college. The College
Board, owner of the AP exams, is disputing their findings, writes Scott Jaschik
in Inside Higher Ed. (See http://insidehighered/com/news/2006/02/20/ap)
5 – Employment,
competitiveness
Entrepreneurial advantage – Responding to signs that the
US
is losing its monopoly on high technology, policymakers are calling for new
measures to increase the number of science and technology graduates and increase
R&D investment. A new report, sponsored in part by the Kauffman Foundation,
argues that policymakers are failing to recognize distinctive aspects of the
emerging global economy. Researchers from
Case
Western Reserve
University
and the Urban Institute studied engineering in multinational corporation home
countries and in emerging economies. Their findings suggest that the
US
cannot expect to match the numbers of engineers being trained in
India
and
China
, so the
US
should seek “collaborative advantage” by developing a new role in the
global technology system by training “global engineers”, supporting research
where there is true comparative advantage, and developing mutual-gain
partnerships. (See http://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship.cfm?topic=economic_development&itemID=663)
Outsourcing is climbing skills ladder – The globalization of
work tends to start from the bottom up. According to an article by Steve Lohr in
the February 16th New York
Times, the first jobs moved abroad are assembly tasks and manufacturing, and
later skilled work like computer programming. At the end of this progression is
the work done by scientists and engineers in research and development
laboratories. A new study funded by the Kauffman Foundation suggests that more
and more research work at corporations will be sent to fast-growing economies
with strong education systems, such as
China
and
India
. In a survey of more than 200 multinational corporations on their research
center decisions, 38% said they planned to “change substantially” the
worldwide distribution of their R&D work over the next three years, with the
booming markets of China and India, with their world-class researchers,
attracting the greatest increase in projects. The report found that while lower
costs and tax incentives play a role in such decisions, the primary driving
force is the availability of talent. And a company that is going to be a global
leader has to understand what is going on in the rest of the world. (See http://www.nytimes.com)
India
set to outsource its outsourcing centers? –
India
’s BPOs are poised to move into
Argentina
and
Eastern Europe
, says an article posted on newindpress.com on February 21.
These companies are responding to the fact that language skills, with the
exception of English, are not strength of the Indian population.
So these companies are looking at overseas locations where labor is
relatively cheap and people can speak Spanish and other languages currently in
demand by their customers. An
additional development in offshore outsourcing comes in a report from
Nasscom-McKinsey, which says that only about 25% of technical graduates of
India
’s institutions have sufficient skills to be employed in IT companies.
(See http://www.newindpress.com)
Intellectual property wrangling -- Time-consuming wrangling over
intellectual property issues is affecting the relationship between academia and
industry, according to an article by Thomas Grose in the February ASEE
Prism. Companies complain that too many university technology transfer
administrators have an unrealistic view that they can make money off of all
research. And research contract negotiations often get hung up between the
parties such that a company may spend more on attorney’s fees than the value
of the contract being negotiated. Corporate
America
has found one solution to this problem – taking its research proposals to
foreign schools. One industry observer says “American universities will either
have to modify their behavior or lose their industrial customers”. (See http://www.asee.org/prism)
6 – Journals
Journal of Engineering Education – The January 2006 issue of
this ASEE journal includes seven papers on various aspects of research in
engineering education. In a guest editorial, Norman Fortenberry of the Center
for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education at the National
Academy of Engineering outlines an extensive agenda for engineering education
research. The lead article presents the 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize Lecture,
written by the three Purdue University faculty members recognized for their
development of the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program.
(See http://www.asee.org)
European Journal of Engineering Education – The December 2005
issue of this journal of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)
contains ten papers on two themes: Improving Engineering Education in
Europe
, and Gender Studies in Engineering Education. The six papers on the first theme
are introduced by Claudio Borri, current President of SEFI, noting that the
papers relate to the results and impact of the ERASMUS Thematic Network project
“E4-Enhancing Engineering Education in
Europe
”. The second theme of the issue is introduced by Susanne Ihsen, citing the
development of gender studies in engineering education over the past 100 years.
The lead paper in this section reports on a SEFI workshop about creating a women
friendly culture in institutes of higher engineering education. (See http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals)
International Journal of Engineering Education - The first 2006
issue of this journal includes a major section on a special topic:
Agricultural/Biosystems/Biological Engineering Education, edited by Linus Opara
and Joel Cuello. The nine papers in this section discuss biological engineering
as a field of study and how it fits into the engineering education spectrum. The
remaining five papers in the issue cover agricultural engineering education in
developing and transitional countries. (See http://www.ijee.dit.ie)
IEEE Transactions on Education – The 22 papers in the February
2006 issue of this journal cover a wide variety of topics in electrical
engineering education, including problem-based learning, first programming
course, computer-aided teaching, wireless communications, engineering practice
in a freshman course, information security, web-based instruction, and a K-12
nanotechnology program for teachers. (See http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/es)
Journal of STEM Education - Two issues of this electronic
journal from late 2005 have been posted on the web. Articles cover problem-based
computer engineering education, a pre-engineering program for disadvantaged
youth, and software design education. (See http://www.auburn.edu/research/litee/jstem/viewissue.php)
7 – Meetings
Global Conference on Engineering Education – The fifth in a
series of annual conferences sponsored by the UNESCO International Centre for
Engineering Education will be held at
Polytechnic
University
,
Brooklyn
,
New York
from 17-21 July 2006. The congress will debate important global issues in
engineering and technology education. It will concentrate on three themes:
general issues in engineering and technology education, international
collaboration in engineering and technology education, and academia/industry
collaboration in engineering and technology education. Abstracts are currently
being sought. (See http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/uicee)
Sustainable Development in
Africa
– An International Conference on Sustainable Engineering Development
in
Africa
will be held in
Yaounde
,
Cameroon
, on 4-8 June 2006. The conference will explore how the engineering profession
can implement sustainable engineering projects to meet the UN Millennium
Development Goals through capacity building in rural communities in
Africa
. Proposals for papers to be presented are now being sought. (See http://www.ewb-international.org/ASAP06.htm)
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