Engineering Science - Home Comments

Comment on 'Debunking Discrimination' by CK

2011-03-01T03:27:17Z

What is "systematic discrimination" and is it supposed to be different from "overt discrimination"?

Some detailed comments about flaws in the PNAS article are here. For starters, the statistics in the first paragraph that are labeled "tenure track" should be labeled "all ranks."

Some limitations of the study on gender differences in career preferences: This was a survey that collected responses to interest inventories. The connection between responses to interest inventories and choice of vocation appears to be unknown. The authors (Su et al.) note that validity studies conducted in the 1970s lead to “a variety of conclusions depending on how percentage agreement between interest score and criterion was assessed” (p. 861). These studies focused on only a few types of surveys, thus, as Su et al. note, their results had limited generalizability.

Su et al. note that the proportions of men and women showing interest in engineering via survey responses are similar to those actually employed in engineering. However, this is not the case for science and mathematics. They say: "This discrepancy between interest data and real employment composition indicates that there may be reasons other than sex differences in interests that can account for gender disparity in science and mathematics."

Comment on 'Test, test, test' by tima

2011-02-05T15:36:06Z

Very interesting . In some courses, the professor wants to exercise your brain through.various test methods but i feel as if the word test is associated with grade and therefore we cram to do well and forget the core meaning of what we're studying. Thanks for sharing.

Comment on 'Professional Science' by mba abroad

2011-01-06T09:56:32Z

It is a great idea for sure! There are a lot of things which you cannot learn in the classroom and to know something in theory is never the same as to know it in practice. Both industry and students can benefit from it.

Comment on 'Science funding: an alternative approach' by Geoff Davis

2010-12-28T17:41:44Z

That's great that they're doing so. I'm not seeing any pointers to the non-specialist summaries in the NSF's award search, though. Here's a random example: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1059160. Perhaps the abstract shown is the non-specialist summary, but the scientists in question are not very good at making their work accessible? Or perhaps the summary is somewhere else?

Comment on 'Science funding: an alternative approach' by Ed Goluch

2010-12-26T03:55:39Z

I just wanted to point out that the NSF has been requiring scientists to include 1 page summaries for educated, non-specialist audiences for several years now. They also require final reports that include a summary of the findings and how the work was disseminated. All of this information is available to the public through the NSF.gov and Research.gov.

Comment on '"The Disposable Academic"' by nicola rebagliati

2010-12-24T10:29:02Z

It is only useful for professorship, thus grant access to graduate studies to only one candidate over six.

Comment on 'Gender differences in science: a cure?' by Kennan Salinero

2010-12-15T03:00:22Z

I think you're right, Geoff, that this is an area that is almost totally unexplored in the academic science community. There is precedent in other sectors. I am very keen on exploring those precedents and bringing them into the academic realm for consideration and pilot programs to see what 'works.'

I was surprised to find out that many companies in Silicon Valley have been using tools for engaging the 'human' aspect of individuals in the workforce to optimize performance and facilitate effective inter-group dynamics -- and have, in fact, been doing so for many years.

More recent movements in this arena include the Agile software development approach, I am specifically familiar with Scrum, and the values-based approach that is a mainstay (see also Tobias Mayer).

Michael Broom, book author and organizational development guru, is the one who planted the seed in my thinking when he shared with me that scientists and engineers that he's worked with (there have been precious few) expect people to behave logically in the workplace, and have not realized the value of acknowledging and dealing effectively and imaginatively with our core values and human attributes. However, I think these approaches have been present as an innate function of good lab environments - realizing, acknowledging and honoring the need for such attributes may be what's most needed.

Recent books, such as 'Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard' by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, give good evidence of how highly effective it can be to adopt approaches that are consonant with the values experiment you speak of.

I assert that there are many overlaps between what promotes effective, diverse scientific work-groups and what promotes effective, diverse learning groups. It's certainly an area worth exploring, and I thank you for posting this interesting research finding.

Comment on 'NSF in the crosshairs' by Geoff Davis

2010-12-03T15:25:17Z

I, too, work in the private sector! Unless your work is in an area close to my training, you probably don't want me deciding whether or not your work is "wasteful". But I hear what you're saying. I think scientists in general are going to need to get much better at communicating the importance their work to a lay audience.

Comment on 'NSF in the crosshairs' by Karl Schrunk

2010-12-03T08:48:55Z

Your fates may be about to be decided by the masses.

I understand what you mean, but perhaps this isn't the best attitude to present. The vast majority of this country works in the private sector, where their paycheck is determined by whether the "masses" decide to buy the product their company sells. It comes off as arrogant when scientists imply that they are too good for this.

Comment on 'Leaving academia' by Curt F.

2010-11-23T16:51:12Z

Am I reading it wrong or did Matt Welsh just equate teaching with "overhead and red tape"?

I know that research is often prioritized over teaching at research universities, and perhaps rightfully. But even if teaching is a second priority it is an important second priority, and a core responsibility of the university. It is not "overhead" or "red tape".

Perhaps the tuition-paying undergraduates at Harvard should be glad that there is one less "teacher" with an attitude like his.

Comment on 'Waiter, there's a drosophila melanogaster in my soup' by Victoria McGovern

2010-11-10T12:56:38Z

Awesome. Thanks for making this more accessible.

Comment on 'Janitors with PhDs' by Geoff Davis

2010-11-02T18:43:49Z

It should be fixed now.

Comment on 'Janitors with PhDs' by Dmitri Pavlov

2010-11-02T14:36:20Z

The Google spreadsheet is inaccessible due to improper permissions.

Comment on 'A PhD is not enough' by Geoff Davis

2010-10-31T00:20:37Z

I believe the table was put together by a student of Richard Vedder's. I've contacted the student and asked him for more details. I poked around the BLS site but didn't see an obvious way to generate the data. I'll post more if I find out anything!

Comment on 'A PhD is not enough' by Victoria McGovern

2010-10-30T18:05:53Z

That's a nice screenshot of the table, but where does the table itself live?

I'm surprised only 30% of flight attendants have bachelor's degrees...I've met a fair few of them who started out as nurses.