[Wonder Warthog]

"This is such an outrageous statement. You can not possibly paint the entire nation of American engineers with one brush. It is naive of you to think that ALL American engineers and college students are incompetent and unable to cut it. JUST AMERICAN BASHING AT It's BEST."

Sorry, dude, but wrong. As I said, my wife taught undergraduate and graduate-level Petroleum Engineering at a major university (and one very well-respected in the PE world, I might add). She saw students from all over the country, and all over the world pass through her and her colleagues classes--certainly enough to be a valid statstical sampling. The truth is that the Americans simply are no longer as well-prepared as the "furriners". The only "American-bashing" involved is the fact that the truth hurts.

It's not just in engineering, either. Virtually any technical field is in the same boat. I got my college education in the late sixties and early seventies (PhD chemistry), and the students today in my own area of expertise are also not as well-grounded as in past years.

My family has been on these shores since 1630, and helped found this nation--I wouldn't be "bashing" if it weren't the truth. If you choose to disbelieve it, you are naive at best, stupid at worst.

[ComputationalComplexity]

To regain leadership in the hi-tech field, Americans have to regain their edge in training and education, there is not way around it. We'er gonna have to help ourselves in the long run here, the government can't offer anything more than a short term fix.

[blueriver]

As I said, my wife taught undergraduate and graduate-level Petroleum Engineering at a major university (and one very well-respected in the PE world, I might add). She saw students from all over the country, and all over the world pass through her and her colleagues classes--certainly enough to be a valid statstical sampling.

A statistical sampling involving one college in one engineering discipline - with that you think you have the data to broad stroke the entire nation of American engineers in every discipline?