The Risk Factor

There is an interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) this week on the introduction of the first engineering program at a women's college. It is particularly relevant to some of the discussion (here and here, for example) on the potential future state of US high-tech.

The article says,

"The first women's college to offer an engineering degree, Smith is forging new paths in a field that's eager to swell its ranks in the United States. Women receive only 20 percent of bachelor's degrees in engineering, according to a new report by the National Science Board (NSB). Like a handful of other liberal arts colleges, Smith is producing graduates who've had a different type of engineering education – one that goes beyond technical training to focus on a broader context for finding solutions to humanity's problems; one that emphasizes ethics and communication; one so flexible that about half the students study abroad, which is rare, despite the multinational nature of many engineering jobs."

It also sounds like Smith has gone and hired some very gifted instructors, such as Professor Glen Ellis, who the CSM writes arrived "at his engineering class dressed as a mountain climber. He hooks a rope to the ceiling, projects snow-capped scenery on the wall, and asks a volunteer to join him in a mock ascent." Needless to say, the students pay attention to the lecture and get a broader view of what engineering as a subject means.

Ellis makes the point in a speech in accepting his US Professor of the Year award last November from Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education that,

"It is just not good enough to teach the way that we were taught. We know that doing so in engineering will surely exclude many of the young people we need to attract."

Amen to that.

The CSM article goes on to state that, "Much research in recent years points to the idea that the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math, known collectively as STEM, is crying out for improvement. ... The NSB report says that 83 percent of professors still use lecture and discussion as their primary methods in undergraduate classes."

The trick is, of course, how to compete for the attention of young minds among all the other possibilities and get them interested in STEM without dumbing it down into becoming a clown college atmosphere. I don't think there are a lot of extroverted, innovative or self-confident STEM professors like Glenn Ellis's out there, or STEM departments that encourage this approach either. Maybe what is needed is a graduate school for STEM professors (and their Deans) to learn how to teach these subjects more interestingly to students who are increasingly skeptical of the value of these fields.

There was a small item over at NASA Watch that references a Times of India story that states that "12% [of the] scientists and 38% [of the] doctors in the US are Indians, and in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists are Indians."

The story goes on to say, "If that's not proof enough of Indian scientific and corporate prowess, digest this: 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians."

These statistics were presented by Indian government minister D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development on Monday to the Rajya Sabha or Parliament of India.

No stats on the percentage that are in the information technology & systems business, but according to Bill Gates, probably not enough. Gates warned Congress today that the U.S. needs to raise the cap on H-1B visas for skilled foreign nationals.

If not, Gates said, then "U.S. companies simply will not have the talent they need to innovate and compete," and all those foreign students receiving their education at U.S. universities will have to leave, to the detriment of US high tech companies.

Over at Baseline magazine, there is a lengthy article that is drawing a lot of heated discussion on whether there is a shortage of IT workers in the US or not. The article says that claims of an IT shortage are nothing more than a well-publicized myth. In fact, there may even be a slight surplus.

Furthermore, the article points out, if there was a true shortage, IT worker wages would be going up, which they haven't.

The article quotes different folks like Dr. Ron Hira, professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, a fellow at the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of the book Outsourcing America (bits on-line here), who believe that the claims of an IT shortage is to further certain high tech business interests: "the motive is to get the Feds to loosen immigration restrictions for cheap foreign labor, to increase supply of workers in order to reduce labor costs and to justify offshore outsourcing efforts."

You can check out Hira's views expressed before Congress when he was representing the IEEE-USA on the issue of outsourcing high-tech jobs here.

My previous IT job related posts and discussions can be found here, here, here and here.