I found the picture of RFEngineer (guy on the left):
Posted on 07/10/2005 4:51:09 AM PDT by voletti
More than half a century of US dominance in science and engineering may be slipping as America's share of graduates in these fields falls relative to Europe and developing nations such as China and India, a study released on Friday says.
The study, written by Richard Freeman at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Washington, warned that changes in the global science and engineering job market may require a long period of adjustment for US workers.
Moves by international companies to move jobs in information technology, high-tech manufacturing and research and development to low-income developing countries were just "harbingers" of that longer-term adjustment, Freeman said.
Urgent action was needed to ensure that slippage in science and engineering education and research, a bulwark of the US productivity boom and resurgence during the 1990s, did not undermine America's global economic leadership, he added.
The United States has had a substantial lead in science and technology since World War Two. With just 5 per cent of the world's population, it employs almost a third of science and engineering researchers, accounts for 40 per cent of research and development spending and publishes 35 per cent of science and engineering research papers.
Many of the world's top high-tech firms are American, and government spending on defense-related technology ensures the US military's technological dominance on battlefields.
But the roots of this lead may be eroding, Freeman said.
Numbers of science and engineering graduates from European and Asian universities are soaring while new degrees in the United States have stagnated -- cutting its overall share.
(Excerpt) Read more at expressindia.com ...
Then don't complain when Chindia, England, Japan, Germany and Israel are running the science and engineering show.
I remember when we were falling behind the commies, because they graduated 10 times the engineers we did and twice the doctors. There's more to successful research than numbers. You need freedom, you need a culture that encourages creativity and risk-taking and a culture of second and third chances. No one matches the US of A for all of the above.
This is not true. I know some high school students who love technology and are bright but are afraid of going into debt, wasting four years and not having the good career prospects. They are going to study safer fields (which they do not like).
That would be the proper order. But math education is so pitiful that you can't teach physics first.
All very true.... And one major aspect of it is the fact that in the US, we limit the number of medical school admissions in order to reduce the number of doctors. Then because we don't have enough doctors, we import doctors from India, where they don't have such stupid policies.
"I know some high school students who love technology and are bright but are afraid of going into debt, wasting four years and not having the good career prospects. They are going to study safer fields (which they do not like)."
What "safer fields" are they selecting? These poor kids have gotten bum advice. I wonder where they got it?
Law, finances.
"An engineer needs to spend his 30's preparing to start his own business"
I agree. Like many fields, an engineer in his 40's cannot compete with the younger, sharper minds of engineers in their 20's. That doesn't mean they are unemployable, it means that they take their experience and perspective and evolve.....starting your own business is definitely one of those options.
Of course, the days of lifetime employment are over for everyone, not just engineers, one should be prepared for change no matter what your age.
Those who came to this realization a little late are quite apparent on these threads.
"Law, finances."
Do you know how valuable someone is with an undergraduate engineering degree with a law degree on top?
In these days of global competition in science and technology, that is the ticket to riches beyond their wildest dreams........
Of course CPA's and Lawyers more often toil in obscurity and drudgery with middle-incomes than they do not...... Some people are ok with that.
It is stupid to invest money, effort and time into profession which is good only when you are in your 20's. Much better to be a lawyer, doctor, teacher etc - in these fields you can be making career your whole life.
starting your own business is definitely one of those options.
People who are good material for engineers often are not good for businessmen or salesmen. And you do not need to finish college or to be expert in technology field to be successful in business. Don't we know some famous examples for that? :)
It might be so now. But when the most of manufacturing base and technology relocates to China/India, US engineers with law degree will be much less in demand, similar to Argentinian engineers with Argentinian law degree.
Somewhere I read recently that "capital is a coward", it wants to minimize risk while maximizing profits. Think about how that might encourage mediocrity.
Mechanics on an intuitive level (see my post #9)
kinetics with marbles on a track
wave motion with a super size slinky
etc.
I've got three grand kids under 8. Girls.
There's all kinds of physics you can teach them before they've got much math.
I found the picture of RFEngineer (guy on the left):
My very bright daughter just switched her major from marine biology, that she loves, to accounting.
She is the hardest working person I know and always has been. Her couch in middle school used her as an example of what it was possible to accomplish with no talent but hard work and determination (I had mixed feelings about that).
Remember that the next time you hear, "The U.S. consumes 25% of the world's energy resources even though it only has 5% of the world's populaaaaaatioooon" (whiny emphasis mine). Also remember that for that 25% consumption of the world's energy resources, we produce... about 25% of the world's economic output.
You'll get a lot more rigorous readin' ritin' and rithmetic at a Christian school than you will at one of our dumbed-down, PC, moral-equivalency public skools, and the Christian schools will actually teach the value of Western civilization. You'd be better off sending your kids to Christian school and teaching them evolution on the side than you would sending your kid to your local liberal reeducation camps.
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