Engineering Science - Home Comments

Comment on '"End the University as We Know It"' by Geoff Davis

2009-05-25T20:45:57Z

That's great to hear about the Army research labs. I've heard in general that national labs are much more civilized places to work than academia.

Comment on '"End the University as We Know It"' by Jeanne Geyer

2009-05-25T12:31:34Z

When I was in graduate school, several of my female colleagues were concerned that taking a break from their career to have children would mean an end to their scientific career. I found myself in a fortunate position of being able to do both, in the US Army. Most people never think about science and research careers in the Army, but truth be told, the Army and the Department of Defense offer a variety of careers in science that are especially attractive to women. I have been on active duty for nine years in the Army as a microbiologist and the opportunities have been greater that I ever expected. In addition to serving my country, something I take very seriously, I have acquired a wealth of both scientific and leadership training and experience. Contrary to what many people believe, Army scientists compete with the leaders in their respective fields in academia. And the research areas are not what you would expect from the military. Most of my research projects will one day result in medical products that will have global impacts. I have been involved in projects that focus on developing drugs and vaccines to counter diseases that affect people world-wide, not just military personnel. As an Army scientist, I have had to chance to conduct and lead scientific efforts, compete for funding, present at national and international conferences and publish in peer-reviewed journals. As I look to my left and right, there are more female scientists than ever in the military. In my last assignment, my division was actually recognized for the number of successful female scientists! The scientific and leadership training we receive translates well into both industry and academia. My colleagues – many women - have gone on to lead to lead very successful careers in a variety of arenas after leaving the Army.

Comment on 'Science Stimulus' by subSquall

2009-04-10T23:23:17Z

The problem is that the stimulus shouldn't go to makework jobs ... there is a real need for that money in the economy. Unfortunately, students doing research aren't going to focus their studies on commercializable, practical technology ;)

-the Subversive Guide to Engineering

Comment on '"A Bad Reputation: Why are more and more graduate students turning away from careers at research universities?"' by Robert Hoy

2009-02-08T00:44:43Z

Well, Peter, what makes you think that many scientists would make good entrepreneurs? Their record on Wall Street isn't looking so hot now. And how many scientists that you know would want to go into politics? Speaking for myself, I want no part of the business or political worlds. The hassles there, for me, are much worse than those of academe.

I agree that it is a good thing - it filters out the less committed. Basically, my view of being a scientist is that it is much like being a musician or clergyman - it's not a "career path", it's a calling. If you go in expecting to BE something (say, a tenured professor or a rock star), the odds are against you. But if you go in expecting to DO something (create new knowledge or entertain people), your chances for happiness are much higher.

Comment on '"A Bad Reputation: Why are more and more graduate students turning away from careers at research universities?"' by Peter Fiske

2009-01-28T22:12:08Z

Geoff,

I, like you, am certain this is a GOOD thing. At last, graduate students are getting a more realistic perspective of the pluses and minuses of an academic career, and they are rationally weighing their options. I do remember from my days as a graduate student at Stanford that a common refrain heard by graduate students (spoken out of earshot of their advisors) was that they wanted to remain in science but "did not want their advisor's life." This study shows that this perspective is still present.

It is ironic that this study suggests that the turn-off about the academic life is a bad thing. Why do the authors (and the establishment in general) still feel that academia is the BEST place that science-trained individuals should be? Certainly, some should go on and be tomorrow's professors. But don't we also want the best and brightest science-trained individuals to be tomorrow's politicians, entrepreneurs, lawyers and businesspeople? Especially given this current economic crisis: don't we want more science-trained people directly working on emerging technologies for a new economy? Why does the establishment persist in believing that the role the “best and brightest” should play is in teaching classes, training graduate students and publishing papers?

Comment on 'Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls' by Richards

2008-08-06T12:00:34Z

Intelligence has nothing to do with the sex of the person.The one who works hard will succeed in any department he wants.

Richards

Mississippi Treatment Centers

Comment on 'Foreign Born TAs' by Gabe

2008-07-29T07:03:16Z

My personal experience with foreign TAs was that some were good and some were terrible. Largely due to language barriers making the bad foreign TAs terrible instead of just bad. I remember going to one TA and I couldn't understand a word he said. A half an hour later I still couldn't understand hiim. Obviously visiting him wasn't much use.

On the larger topic of recruiting foreign students I'd say that it only makes sense to bring in the best and the brightest but a lot of the foreign students I met while pursuing my bachelors and masters (across 4 universities) were no better/smarter than average native students. I don't see the point in recruiting foreign students who aren't any smarter than the natives. The only benefit from this is for corporations that use foreign engineers to supress salaries. However, there are long term consequences (engineering students and professionals returning to their home country with proprietary knowledge) that will only get more acute as the economic conditions in India and China improve. We should be recruiting more natives rather than spending time and money on recruiting the average engineer from other countries. This would cause our corps some short term pain but I think it will be healthier for the US in the long term.

Gabe My Site

Comment on 'phds.org Facelift' by Danny

2008-07-10T10:27:15Z

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Comment on 'Science Prizes' by Victoria McGovern

2008-06-30T14:00:41Z

that little bit of markdown doesn't seem to work...

Comment on 'Science Prizes' by Victoria McGovern

2008-06-30T13:59:58Z

I like the notion of an independently backed physics institute, especially if it took a skunk works approach to a bushel of problems. "Lads, I'm bored with superstrings! Let's make a rocket scooter today!"

BTW, did you know that now, mere moments after you've left, [TechShop] (http://durham.techshop.ws/) is coming to the Triangle? I'm excited.

I liked Longitude. Great story. I listened to the audiobook, though, so can't promise that it was lovely prose on the page.

Comment on 'Science Prizes' by Geoff Davis

2008-06-29T22:27:24Z

Yeah, I think the key is having an investor who is willing to spend money in pursuit of a prize. In the Ansari X-Prize case, it was Paul Allen's money (co-founcer of Microsoft) that financed Bert Rutan's team. In the end, I believe Rutan's team spent more money developing their ship than they won in prize money (though conceivably they might make some of that back in selling rocket flights to rich people)

The ranks of the exorbitantly rich have been growing pretty fast of late. I'd speculate that these kinds of prizes, if appropriately set up and marketed, might spur some of them to engage in outsider science/engineering kind of like what Paul Allen did. John Carmack, developer of Doom and other popular video games, is also busily building his own rocket. Mike Lazardis, founder of RIM (the Blackberry people), is funding his own physics institute - that seems a lot less entertaining than building rockets or solving the oil crisis or whatever else they are rolling out prize money for these days.

Longitude is on my to-read pile, but it's pretty far down. Is it worthwhile?

Comment on 'Science Prizes' by Victoria McGovern

2008-06-29T20:02:58Z

Talk about a winner-takes-all system, though!

You could spend a lot of money and time and do pretty well at approaching the problem, but still not make a living. Teams would surely disband and the members would all go into investment banking or fast food restaurant management, thus continuing the existing leaky pipeline problem. I think for big problems, potential prize-winning teams have to have some source (their own money? grants? bake sales?) of pilot-scale funding.

Look at the longitude prize. It's a contraexample to the notion that prizes are a great mechanism, since in the end the prize committee kept moving the goal lines and never gave the prize; on the other hand, John Harrison did solve the problem in the end, and he was supported with several grants of 500 pounds or more at a time during the 30 years it took him to do it.

Comment on 'Women in Science in the News' by Evan

2008-06-20T21:26:21Z

I don't think it's simply that you "can't catch up". The real problem is that when you apply for grants, you will appear extremely non-productive over that period of time if you have no publications. Do NIH or NSF have a policy regarding this? Even if they do, if your proposal is up against others who have been working during that time, how can you penalize those folks? It's just a big mess, and I honestly don't think there's anything that can be done about it - aside from creating special grants only for funding women who have taken time off for pregnancy/child rearing. That's probably a political nuke.

Comment on 'Women in Science in the News' by evan

2008-06-20T21:22:57Z

Geoff, just wanted to point out you switched the percentages given by the second study:

"Controlling for such factors as age, weekly hours worked, and race or ethnicity, male faculty members are 21 percent less likely than male physicians to have recently had a birth in their households. Controlling the same factors for women, those who are academics are 41 percent less likely than physicians to have recently had children."

Comment on 'Larry Summers Revisited' by Hellhound

2008-06-05T13:13:10Z

Take a look at the data: These are not execeptions, there are as many exceptions as there is proof for the postulated correlation.