Category Archives: Engineering

Engineering Education and Innovation

Are U.S. Innovators Losing Their Competitive Edge? by Timothy L. O’Brien, New York Times:

He fears that corporate and public nurturing of inventors and scientific research is faltering and that America will pay a serious economic and intellectual penalty for this lapse.

See previous post, Leverage Universities to Transform State Economy.

The Industrial Research Institute, an organization in Arlington, Va., that represents some of the nation’s largest corporations, is also concerned that the academic and financial support for scientific innovation is lagging in the United States. The group’s most recent data indicate that from 1986 to 2001, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan all awarded more doctoral degrees in science and engineering than did the United States. Between 1991 and 2003, research and development spending in America trailed that of China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan – in China’s case by billions of dollars.

In a previous post, Science and Engineering Doctoral Degrees Worldwide, I mentioned that I thought the United States was not in fact leading (and if they still were it would not last for more than a few years) in doctoral degrees in science and engineering though I could not find supporting data. I still can’t, but the NY Times claims IRI does have the data (though I can’t find any such data on their web site).

And I find the claim questionable without the data. Do they mean on a percentage of population basis, that seems unlikely with China? On an absolute basis it seems unlikely for South Korea and Taiwan (at least, if not all countries) especially from 1986-2001. On an absolute basis crediting the degree earned to the nationality of the student (so Taiwanese students in American graduate schools count for Taiwan not the US)? The last version seems the most likely basis of the data to me, though even then I find it questionable. And it is not what I think most readers would believe the statement in the article means (instead believing that doctoral degrees granted by American schools were lower than those granted by schools in Taiwan… from 1986-2001).

I find it hard to believe that the United States trailed Singapore on R&D spending on an absolute basis so I would guess the data the NY Times is quoting on a percentage basis (at least for R&D) though that seems unlikely for China, so I am a bit confused about the claims in the article. They really should state what the data says specifically not just that the United States trails on some undefined measure. And they also really should provide the data that backs up their claim.

About Our Science and Engineering Blog

The title of the blog gives you an idea of the topics we explore. Here we will provide some additional insight into what we aim to do:

  • Primary education (k-12) in science, math and engineering – we will post about the state of such education (research etc.), news and items of interest to teachers and students. We aim to be a resource that helps teachers and students learn about science and engineering. The K-12 category will be targeted at teachers and students. We are also trying a students category for items we think might be of particular interest to students (and we believe teachers might find useful as items to interest students in science and engineering).
  • Higher education (college, university, graduate school and other sources of advanced learning) – we will post about news about science and engineering higher education and items of interest to professor, students and those interested in higher education. The higher education category will be targeted at professors, students and those interested in higher education.
  • Economic impact of science and engineering – we will post about the macro economic and societal impacts of science and engineering: higher education, research funding, investments and political decisions and discussions. We believe science, engineering and technology can serve to improve living conditions around the world. We believe investments in science and engineering, research and higher education, will impact the economic success of countries and the world overall. The economics category contains posts on developments in this are and our thoughts on this topic.
  • Highlight interesting science and engineering information – we will post about interesting science and engineering news and blog posts as we see it

Mars Rover

Mars Rover
Mars Rover Begins Climb Down From Summit (broken link removed)

After two months at the summit of Husband Hill, the six-wheeled rover is making its descent toward a basin to the south where it will explore an outcrop dubbed “home plate” that looks like a baseball diamond from orbit.

The solar-powered Spirit’s yearlong climb to the peak marked a major feat for the rover, which along with its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite ends of the Red Planet in 2004 in search of evidence of the past history of water on the cold, dusty planet.

Image credit: NASA/JPL Artist’s concept of the Mars Exploration Rover on Mars.High Resolution Image

NASA Mars Exploration Rover site

Engineering the Future

Engineering the Future

If you want to succeed in today’s hypercompetitive global economy, there are two things Jen-Hsun Huang wants you to know:

The name of the game is innovation, and innovation is a team sport.

“This is the innovation imperative,” he said.

That’s the message Huang plans to deliver this morning, when he will be the keynote speaker for the grand opening of the Kelley Engineering Center at Oregon State University.

In 1993 Huang cofounded Nvidia.

Using Light to Transmit Data

Stanford innovation helps ‘enlighten’ silicon chips, Stanford.

Light can carry data at much higher rates than electricity, but it has always been too expensive and difficult to use light to transmit data among silicon chips in electronic devices. Now, electrical engineers at Stanford have solved a major part of the problem. They have invented a key component that can easily be built into chips to break up a laser beam into billions of bits of data (zeroes and ones) per second. This could help chips output data at a much higher rate than they can now.

Global Engineering Excellence

Global Engineering Excellence

Technological innovation is a significant driving force for national economies. Research, development, and training the next generation of engineers are therefore important factors in competition. In response to this consideration, Continental and eight top international universities have started the Global Engineering Excellence initiative.

Global Excellence Team:

  • Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
  • Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Switzerland
  • Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
  • Tsinghua University, China
  • Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
  • University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Continental AG, Germany

Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education

Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Abstracts for programs funded given by NSF.

For example How Do We Know What We Know? Resources for the Public Understanding of Scientific Evidence,

This project is designed to improve communication between scientists and the public focusing on the role of evidence in science. It is a two-year project that includes: 1) implementing a national survey on the public use of science web sites; 2) conducting a national Science Education Outreach Forum bringing together scientists and informal science educators; 3) implementing workshop sessions at a national conference to disseminate lessons learned from the survey and Forum; and 4) developing a prototype website on the role of evidence that will be evaluated for audience engagement and understanding.

This project builds on the Exploratorium’s prior NSF-funded project (ESI#9980619) developing innovative strategies using the Internet to link scientists and the public using Webcasts, annotated datasets and interactive web resources. Project collaborators include the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Palmer Station, Scripps Oceanographic Institute, FermiLab and the Society of Hispanic Physicists among others. The research and evaluation of the project has the potential for strategic impact by providing new information and models on how science centers can more effectively use the Internet to improve communication between scientists and the public while engaging learners more effectively.

Four Vehicles Finish in $2 Million Robot Race

Four Vehicles Finish in $2 Million Robot Race:

Update: link broken – too bad they don’t know pages must live forever

The vehicles were equipped with the latest sensors, lasers, cameras and radar that feed information to several onboard computers. The sophisticated electronics helped vehicles make intelligent decisions such as distinguishing a dangerous boulder from a tumbleweed and calculating whether a chasm is too deep to cross.

International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering

Purdue is starting a new journal, International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering:

a faculty-reviewed electronic journal offered free, semi-annually, over the World Wide Web. The Journal welcomes manuscripts based on original work of students and researchers with a specific focus or implication for service learning in engineering, engineering entrepreneurship in service, or related service learning pedagogy.