Category Archives: Universities

USA Science and Engineering Doctorates Hold Steady

	1995	2000	2004
Total S&E Doctorates	29,533	26,536	26,275

NSF also indicates 33% of all doctorates (including those outside science and engineering) went to non-USA citizens in 2004 compared to 32% in 1995. It is not surprising that the percentage of non-USA-citizen doctorate degrees, awarded in the USA, is much higher for many science and engineering fields (65% in engineering, 56% in mathematics, 55% in physics). It might be surprising to many people that 56% of computer science doctorates were awarded to non-USA citizens.

More detailed data on Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards is available from NSF.

China, Germany to Join Hands in Engineering Education

China, Germany to Join Hands in Engineering Education from China’s People’s Daily:

Chinese and German engineering experts convened Monday in Beijing to discuss future cooperation in engineering education and mutual accreditation.

The Symposium on Perspectives of Sino-German Cooperation in Realm of Engineering Education and Accreditation, co-sponsored by the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and the Association of German Engineers, is expected to shape the future accreditation of engineers between China and Germany.

Chinese Association for Science and Technology – English section of the site:

On July 4, Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong joined the residents and children of the capital in activities marking the National Science Popularization Day. He expressed his cordial greetings to the nation’s scientific and technological workers and volunteers devoted to the cause of science popularization. He stressed that science popularization is a basic work concerning the development and prosperity of the nation, which needs the continuous endeavor of the whole society. It is necessary to sum up experience, intensify the science popularization work in the rural areas, enterprises, schools, communities and households and push it onto a new stage, remarked Zeng.

Engineering in America

America’s High-Tech Quandary by Charles Murray

Reliable statistics are few, but numbers published by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that engineering students are a small minority in U.S. colleges. In 2000, NSF figures showed that just 4.7 percent of U.S. undergrad degrees went to engineers, while 38.7 percent of the undergrad degrees in China were awarded to engineering students.

Country	First university degrees	Engineering degrees	Percentage
China	567,839	219.563	38.7%
Taiwan	117,430	26,587	22.6%
Germany	178,618	36,319	20.3%
Japan	542,314	104,478	19.3%
France	275,316	34,293	12.4%
Ireland	18,669	2,014	10.8%
United Kingdom	274,440	20,280	7.4%
Kenya	15,620	740	4.7%
United States	1,253,121	59,536	4.7%

The situation has been brewing for more than a decade, say academics. During that time, China’s leaders have repeatedly expressed a desire to emphasize engineering in their universities. Today, with all nine of the country’s Politburo Standing Committee—the top tier of the Communist party—being engineers, the vision has become more focused than ever. Chinese officials reportedly are aiming for 50 percent of the country’s college graduates to come from engineering. Today, the figure hovers between 35 to 45 percent, according to the best estimates.

On the lack of engineering students in the USA:

A combination of factors—salaries and public image, as well as offshoring of jobs to Asia—has made engineering appear undesirable to high school kids who might otherwise choose it as a career path.

Ok, the article makes some good points but I don’t think this is one of them. Salaries look pretty good. Public may not be great but it doesn’t explain much of the shortfall. Hard work, yes I believe that discourages many studnets. Difficult path, yes. Not enough effort to encourage science and engineering education, yes. But sorry I don’t believe salaries, public image and offshoring are the combination of factors resulting in turning high school students away from engineering.

2005 intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine competition

Davidson College: Kristen DeCelle 2006 and Andrew Drysdale 2007

2005 Intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine Competition. Thirteen schools participated in the 2005 Intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM 2005): Berkeley, Caltech, Cambridge, Davidson, ETH Zurich, Harvard, MIT, Oklahoma, Penn State, Princeton, Toronto, UCSF, and UT Austin. Learn about and sign up for the 2006 competition.

Photo of Davidson College students: Kristen DeCelle ’06 and Andrew Drysdale ’07. Davidson Students “Ace” Presentation at MIT Synthetic Biology Competition.

The Davidson team-“The Synth-Aces,” a word play on enzymes called synthases-presented their design of a genetically-engineered, E. coli-based “digital decoder.” The device detects which combination of three common chemicals (with eight combinations possible) is present, and then displays a human-readable number that glows in the dark. The number is produced by genetically customized bacteria that grow in a familiar pattern of a digital numeric display. The resulting readouts of “0” through “7” correspond to the specific chemical combination detected in solution. One real world application of a decoder device might be to monitor water for contaminants or toxins.

The Innovation Agenda

Democrat’s are proposing an Innovation Agenda, including:

Educate 100,000 new scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in the next four years by proposing a new initiative, working with states, businesses, and universities, to provide scholarships to qualified students who commit to working in the fields of innovation.

Place a highly qualified teacher in every math and science K-12 classroom by offering upfront tuition assistance to talented undergraduates and by paying competitive salaries to established teachers working in the fields of math and science; institute a “call to action” to professional engineers and scientists, including those who have retired, to join the ranks of our nation’s teachers.

Create a special visa for the best and brightest international doctoral and postdoctoral scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Make college tuition tax-deductible for students studying math, science, technology, and engineering.

They also propose doubling the funding for the National Science Foundation. Making promises about what you will do is much different than actually doing something: lets see what actually happens.

Currently the United States has over $8,000,000,000,000 (that is over $8 trillion – see current count) in debt (increasing by over $400 Billion a year). That brings every person’s share to over $27,000. Given that, it seems reckless to just add spending without either cutting something else or increasing taxes and I don’t see those details in the innovation agenda. Of course, my opinion on that being reckless may not be shared by a majority choosing to spend more money – after all they have been adding to that debt at a record pace the last few years.

To me, the most realistic federal action, given the role of the federal government (k-12 education is primarily a state and local responsibility) is the scholarship proposal but lets see what actually happens. In July we posted about proposed Science and Engineering Fellowships Legislation (which also seems like a good idea). We have not been able to find out about any progress on that legislation. From the November AAAS S&T newsletter:

Meanwhile, across the Capitol, Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and John Ensign (R-NV) are currently drafting bipartisan legislation to implement a series of policies based on the “National Innovation Initiative” report from the Council on Competitiveness. The legislation, which the senators originally planned to introduce in September, has reportedly been delayed by lack of agreement on its immigration provisions.

I am not certain whether the legislation being worked on includes the fellowships or not (though I would guess that it does).

A Decade of Progress for Women in Science …

A Decade of Progress for Women in Science … by Nancy Hopkins

In 1995 it was unimaginable that within 10 years the presidents of Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and University of California at San Diego would all be women, and remarkably, women scientists.
…
The percentage of women faculty at MIT is climbing, slowly. In 2004, 13% of faculty in the School of Science and 14% of the School of Engineering were female, up from 8% and 6%, respectively, in 1993. Women who make it to the top in science have long known what holds many women in science back: family demands and bias. But until recently both topics were taboo. A critical step to making progress for women in science has been to put these problems on the agenda.

Progress is being made and continued progress is needed. The percentage of women studying engineering is still very low. And the recent talk in the blogosphere about how many potential engineers are turned away shows that not just women choose to turn away.

We should work to make the option of pursuing a science and engineering path more desirable for those who are interested. Still, it seems progress is being made in including more women on the path to careers in science and though engineering is lagging, progress is being made there also.
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What Ails India’s Software Engineers?

India does not produce enough good computer engineers and those it does are good at theory but not very well equipped to handle the practical aspects.’
— Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie

What Ails India’s Software Engineers? is an interesting series of 3 articles by Rediff exploring the state of India’s software engineering industry.

From its 113 universities and 2,088 colleges — many of which teach various engineering disciplines — India produces nearly 350,000 engineering graduates every year. All of Europe produces 100,000 engineering graduates a year, and America produces only 70,000.

But, the quality of Indian engineers is questionable, says Madhavan, who has had a career spanning four decades and is now advisor to several engineering colleges in Karnataka and Kerala.
“That is because of the lack of trained faculty and the dismal State spending on research and development in higher education in the country,” he says.

Part of what makes this article interesting is it challenges the accepted wisdom. The article offers an interesting perspective and some details that are not well understood.

In the 1980s, India had just 158 engineering colleges. That number has jumped to 1,208 in the last two decades, mainly because of the information technology boom and the ever-burgeoning capitation fee that self-financing colleges charge.

Every year, these engineering colleges admit about 350,000 students. Apart from this, nearly 3,500 students are absorbed into the seven premier Indian Institutes of Technology.

GAO Report: Federal Science, Technology and Engineering Trends

GAO Report: Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Programs and Related Trends

13 federal civilian agencies reported spending about $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2004 for 207 education programs designed to increase the numbers of students and graduates or improve educational programs in
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. NSF and NIH each account for a bit over 1/3 of the spending.

University officials frequently cited teacher quality as a key factor that affected domestic students’ interest in and decisions about pursuing STEM degrees and occupations. Officials at all eight universities we visited expressed the view that a student’s experience from kindergarten through the 12th grades played a large role in influencing whether the student pursued a STEM degree.
…
officials at many of the universities we visited told us that some teachers were unqualified and unable to impart the subject matter, causing students to lose interest in mathematics and science.

Estimated Changes in Numbers of International Students in STEM fields by Education Levels from the 1995-1996 Academic Year to the 2003-2004 Academic Year

Education level	Number of international students, 1995-1996	Number of international students, 2003-2004	Percentage change
Bachelor’s	31,858	139,875	+339
Master’s	40,025	22,384	-44
Doctoral	36,461	7,582	-79
Total	108,344	169,841	+57

Gates Millennium Scholars

Gates Millennium Scholars, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established in 1999 to provide outstanding low income African American, American Indian/Alaska Natives, Asian Pacific Islander American, and Hispanic American students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any discipline area of interest.

Continuing GMS Scholars may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following discipline areas: education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science.

200,000 science and engineering doctorates in China by 2010?

Below are more statistics on engineering doctoral students in China, via China will increase its science and engineering doctorates to some 200,000 by 2010. I can’t say how reliable these figures are; but you can judge for yourself. The internet makes a great deal of information available but people still have to decide what level of credibility to give any source.

For more details see the original post:

Below are some figures taken from the China Statistical Yearbook 2005 on China’s graduate schools:

Science:
New enrollment: 41,607
Ph. D. 10,083
M. S. 30,984

Total enrollment: 102,769
Ph. D. 28,769
M. S. 73,612

Graduates: 17,540
Ph. D. 4,518
M. S. 13,022

Engineering:
New enrollment: 120,750
Ph. D. 20,271
M. S. 100,479

Total enrollment: 318,063
Ph. D. 69,315
M. S. 248,748

Graduates: 56,074
Ph. D. 8,054
M. S. 48,020
…
Number of science and engineering doctorate holders up to 1985:
Probably less than 2,000.
Number of science and engineering doctorate recipients between 1985 and 2001:
Approximately 51,400
Number of science and engineering doctorate recipients for 2002 and 2003:
Approximately 16,000.
Number of science and engineering doctorate recipients in 2004:
Exactly 12,572
Number of science and engineering doctorate recipients in 2005:
Approximately 15,000
Total number of science and engineering doctorates up to the end of 2005:
Approximately: 95,000
Total number of science and engineering doctorate enrollment at the beginning of 2006:
Approximately 85512

Whatever numbers turn out to be true the increase in science and engineering education in China is huge.