Archive
The Mathematical Sciences in 2025
The Mathematical Sciences in 2025
Source: National Research Council
The mathematical sciences are part of nearly all aspects of everyday life–the discipline has underpinned such beneficial modern capabilities as Internet search, medical imaging, computer animation, numerical weather predictions, and all types of digital communications. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 examines the current state of the mathematical sciences and explores the changes needed for the discipline to be in a strong position and able to maximize its contribution to the nation in 2025. It finds the vitality of the discipline excellent and that it contributes in expanding ways to most areas of science and engineering, as well as to the nation as a whole, and recommends that training for future generations of mathematical scientists should be re-assessed in light of the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of the mathematical sciences. In addition, because of the valuable interplay between ideas and people from all parts of the mathematical sciences, the report emphasizes that universities and the government need to continue to invest in the full spectrum of the mathematical sciences in order for the whole enterprise to continue to flourish long-term.
Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market: An analysis of supply, employment, and wage trends
Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market: An analysis of supply, employment, and wage trends
Source: Economic Policy Institute
This paper reviews and analyzes the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) labor market and workforce and the supply of high-skill temporary foreign workers, who serve as “guestworkers.” It addresses three central issues in the ongoing discussion about the need for high-skill guestworkers in the United States:
- Is there a problem producing enough STEM-educated students at sufficient performance levels to supply the labor market?
- How large is the flow of guestworkers into the STEM workforce and into the information technology (IT) workforce in particular? And what are the characteristics of these workers?
- What are the dynamics of the STEM labor market, and what are the employment and wage trends in the IT labor market?
Analysis of these issues provides the basis for assessing the extent of demand for STEM workers and the impact of guestworker flows on the STEM and IT workforces.
Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for Our Nation
Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for Our Nation
Source: National Research Council
Optics and photonics technologies are ubiquitous: they are responsible for the displays on smart phones and computing devices, optical fiber that carries the information in the internet, advanced precision manufacturing, enhanced defense capabilities, and a plethora of medical diagnostics tools. The opportunities arising from optics and photonics offer the potential for even greater societal impact in the next few decades, including solar power generation and new efficient lighting that could transform the nation’s energy landscape and new optical capabilities that will be essential to support the continued exponential growth of the Internet.
As described in the National Research Council report Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for our Nation, it is critical for the United States to take advantage of these emerging optical technologies for creating new industries and generating job growth. The report assesses the current state of optical science and engineering in the United States and abroad–including market trends, workforce needs, and the impact of photonics on the national economy. It identifies the technological opportunities that have arisen from recent advances in, and applications of, optical science and engineering. The report also calls for improved management of U.S. public and private research and development resources, emphasizing the need for public policy that encourages adoption of a portfolio approach to investing in the wide and diverse opportunities now available within photonics.
Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for our Nation is a useful overview not only for policymakers, such as decision-makers at relevant Federal agencies on the current state of optics and photonics research and applications but also for individuals seeking a broad understanding of the fields of optics and photonics in many arenas.
Common Sense Guide to Mitigating Insider Threats, 4th Edition
Common Sense Guide to Mitigating Insider Threats, 4th Edition
Source: Carnegie Mellon University
This fourth edition of the Common Sense Guide to Mitigating Insider Threats provides the most current recommendations of the CERT® Program (part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute), based on an expanded database of more than 700 insider threat cases and continued research and analysis. It introduces the topic of insider threats, explains its intended audience and how this guide differs from previous editions, defines insider threats, and outlines current patterns and trends. The guide then describes 19 practices that organizations should implement across the enterprise to prevent and detect insider threats, as well as case studies of organizations that failed to do so. Each practice includes features new to this edition: challenges to implementation, quick wins and high-impact solutions for small and large organizations, and relevant security standards. This edition also focuses on six groups within an organization-human resources, legal, physical security, data owners, information technology, and software engineering-and maps the relevant groups to each practice. The appendices provide a revised list of information security best practices, a new mapping of the guide’s practices to established security standards, a new breakdown of the practices by organizational group, and new checklists of activities for each practice.
CRS — Army Corps Supplemental Appropriations: Recent History, Trends, and Policy Issues
Army Corps Supplemental Appropriations: Recent History, Trends, and Policy Issues (PDF)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)
Under its civil works program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans, builds, operates, and maintains a wide range of water resources facilities. The Corps also plays a prominent role in responding to domestic natural disasters, in particular riverine and coastal flooding events. The Corps can assist in flood fighting at the discretion of its Chief of Engineers in order to protect life and property, principally when state resources are overwhelmed. The Corps is also authorized to protect and repair its own facilities in the event of flooding, and to operate a program, the Rehabilitation and Inspection Program (RIP), that funds the repair of participating nonfederal flood control works (e.g., levees, dams, dunes) damaged by flooding events. Repairs under this program are funded by the Corps’ Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies (FCCE) account. The Corps also undertakes a variety of other activities at the request of FEMA under the National Response Framework, which are outside the scope of this report.
In recent years a number of natural disasters have required Corps response and repair activities with costs running into the billions. Congress provided most of these funds through supplemental appropriations. Over the 10-year period FY2003 to FY2012, Congress appropriated $25.5 billion in supplemental funding for the Corps through 12 supplemental appropriations acts (including P.L. 111-5, or ARRA). This was approximately half of the total amount received by the Corps in annual appropriations over the same period. Of the $25.5 billion, about $21 billion (82%) was for actions to respond to riverine and coastal flooding or other natural disasters. The majority of this funding was for response and repair related to Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 storm season ($16 billion). In addition to the disaster funding, Congress provided the Corps with non-disaster related supplemental funds, including $4.6 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (P.L. 111-5) and $39 million for facility security and other expenditures.
Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the East Coast is raising questions about how to fund Corps natural disaster response and recovery activities, including infrastructure investments in hurricane and flood protection. This report summarizes recent trends in supplemental funding for the Corps, particularly related to natural disasters. It provides summary data and analysis on Corps funding over the last 10 years and includes a general discussion of how the Corps funds emergency actions at its own facilities and elsewhere.
Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing?
Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing?
Source: National Research Council
Following a 2011 report by the National Research Council (NRC) on successful K-12 education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), Congress asked the National Science Foundation to identify methods for tracking progress toward the report’s recommendations. In response, the NRC convened the Committee on an Evaluation Framework for Successful K-12 STEM Education to take on this assignment. The committee developed 14 indicators linked to the 2011 report’s recommendations. By providing a focused set of key indicators related to students’ access to quality learning, educator’s capacity, and policy and funding initiatives in STEM, the committee addresses the need for research and data that can be used to monitor progress in K-12 STEM education and make informed decisions about improving it.
The recommended indicators provide a framework for Congress and relevant deferral agencies to create and implement a national-level monitoring and reporting system that: assesses progress toward key improvements recommended by a previous National Research Council (2011) committee; measures student knowledge, interest, and participation in the STEM disciplines and STEM-related activities; tracks financial, human capital, and material investments in K-12 STEM education at the federal, state, and local levels; provides information about the capabilities of the STEM education workforce, including teachers and principals; and facilitates strategic planning for federal investments in STEM education and workforce development when used with labor force projections. All 14 indicators explained in this report are intended to form the core of this system. Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing? summarizes the 14 indicators and tracks progress towards the initial report’s recommendations.
International Collaborations of Scientists and Engineers in the United States
International Collaborations of Scientists and Engineers in the United States
Source: National Science Foundation
International collaboration is a key aspect of the globalization of science and engineering (S&E). In 2006, according to the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT), one in six scientists and engineers in the United States reported working with individuals in other countries (table 1).[2] International collaboration was more likely to occur among persons working in the for-profit sector, men, and those with higher levels of educational attainment. Individuals who earned postsecondary degrees both in the United States and abroad reported the highest levels of international collaboration.
Characteristics of Recent Science and Engineering Graduates: 2008
Characteristics of Recent Science and Engineering Graduates: 2008
Source: National Science Foundation
This report presents data from the 2008 National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG) on the characteristics of men and women who received bachelor’s or master’s degrees in science, engineering, or health fields from U.S. institutions during the two academic years 2006 and 2007. The data reflect the employment, educational, and demographic status of individuals as of the survey reference week of 1 October 2008.
The data presented in this report measure the number of individuals with recently acquired science, engineering, and health degrees and do not necessarily coincide with the data on degree completions from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). IPEDS is conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. The IPEDS completions data file represents a count of degrees that graduates were awarded, whereas the NSRCG data represent estimates of graduates (persons).
The data tables present information on the number and median salaries of recent graduates by field of major, occupation, and various demographic characteristics. Tables are presented separately for bachelor’s and master’s degree recipients. Complementary tables for the two degree levels are numbered sequentially so that odd-numbered tables are for bachelor’s degree recipients and even-numbered tables are for master’s degree recipients.
The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas
The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas
Source: Brookings Institution
An analysis of the geography of H-1B visa requests — particularly in the metropolitan areas with the highest demand between 2001 and 2011 — reveals that:
Demand for H-1B workers has fluctuated with economic and political cycles over the last decade and reflects a wide range of employers’ needs for high-skilled temporary workers.
Employer requests have exceeded the number of visas issued every year except from 2001 to 2003 when the annual cap was temporarily raised from 65,000 to 195,000. Employers requesting the most H-1B visas are large companies subject to the cap specializing in information technology, consulting, and electronics manufacturing. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations account for almost two-thirds of requests for H-1B workers; healthcare, finance, business, and life sciences occupations are also in high demand. Over the last decade the federal government has distributed about $1 billion from H-1B visa fees to fund programs to address skills shortages in the U.S. workforce.
One hundred and six metropolitan areas had at least 250 requests for H-1B workers in the 2010–2011 period, accounting for 91 percent of all requests but only 67 percent of the national workforce.
Considerable variation exists among these metro areas in the number of workers requested and the ratio of requests to the size of the total metro workforce. On average, there were 3.3 requests for H-1Bs per 1,000 workers in these 106 metro areas, compared to 2.4 for the nation as a whole.
Metropolitan areas vary by the number of employers using the H-1B program and the cap status of the employers.
Demand in corporate metro areas (such as Columbus, IN and Seattle, WA) comes predominantly from private employers subject to the annual visa cap, while in research metro areas (such as Durham, NC and Ann Arbor, MI), the demand is driven by universities and other research institutions exempted from the cap. In mixed metro areas (such as Atlanta, GA and Trenton, NJ), a variety of employers are demanding temporary highskilled foreign workers.In 92 of the 106 high demand metropolitan areas, STEM occupations accounted for more than half of all requests.
Computer occupations were the most highly requested occupation group in all but 11 metros of the 106 high-demand metros, where engineering, healthcare practitioners, and postsecondary teachers were more requested. Metropolitan areas also vary on occupational concentration, ranging from 74 occupation groups requested in the New York metro area, to 15 groups requested in Bloomington, IL.H-1B visa fees designated for skills training and STEM education have not been proportionately distributed to metro areas requesting the highest number of H-1B workers.
Metropolitan areas with a high demand for H-1B workers are only receiving $3.09 on average per working age person 16 years or older of the technical skills training grants compared to $15.26 for metros that have a lower demand for H-1Bs from 2001-2011. STEM education funds are similarly distributed with the high H-1B metros receiving only $1.00 per working age person 16 years or older compared to $14.10 in the low H-1B metros.
Economic Survey of the United States 2012
Economic Survey of the United States 2012
Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
From press release:
The United States should do more to foster innovation and provide more equitable access to high-quality education in order to maintain its status as the world’s most vibrant and productive economy, according to OECD’s latest Economic Survey of the United States.
Data from the Survey suggest the United States is losing its cutting edge in innovation. This affects prospects for long-term growth and for maintaining living standards. Productivity in the U.S. is still growing faster than in most other OECD countries but growth has slowed down since the 1970s. Also, U.S. companies are no longer more likely to innovate than companies in other OECD countries.
Particularly worrying is the performance in education, which is essential to provide workers with the skills necessary to become more productive and to adapt to technological change. Attainment in tertiary education stagnated over the past three decades while it grew significantly in almost every other OECD country. Today, 22 out of 30 OECD countries surveyed have more graduates in science and engineering among the 25 to 34 year old workers than the United States.
Report overview and data available for free download. Full report available for purchase.
Changing and Evolving Relationships between Two- and Four-Year Colleges and Universities: They’re Not Your Parents’ Community Colleges Anymore
This paper describes a summit on Community Colleges in the Evolving STEM Education Landscape organized by a committee of the National Research Council (NRC) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and held at the Carnegie Institution for Science on December 15, 2011. This summit followed a similar event organized by Dr. Jill Biden, spouse of the Vice President, and held at the White House in October 2010, which sought to bring national attention to the changing missions and purposes of community colleges in contemporary American society.1 The NRC/NAE event built on the White House summit, while focusing on the changing roles of community colleges in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. An in-depth summary of the summit was prepared by the NRC and NAE for publication in late Spring 2012 by the National Academies Press (NRC and National Academy of Engineering, 2012 ). This paper provides a synopsis of that report, which is available at www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13399, and emphasizes how we can use the report to improve STEM education for our students, but also how much progress still needs to be made to realize this ideal.
NSF Releases Report Detailing Substantial Growth in Graduate Enrollment in Science and Engineering in the Past Decade
NSF Releases Report Detailing Substantial Growth in Graduate Enrollment in Science and Engineering in the Past Decade
Source: National Science Foundation
A recent report released by the National Science Foundation found that graduate enrollment in science and engineering grew substantially in the past decade.
Approximately 632,700 graduate students were enrolled in science, engineering and health programs in the United States as of fall 2010. This was a 30 percent increase from 493,000 students in 2000, according to the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.
The growth in first time, full-time graduate student enrollment in science, engineering, and health programs over this time was even greater, with a 50 percent increase from approximately 78,400 students in 2000 to almost 118,500 students in 2010.
Enrollment in biomedical engineering, which increased by over seven percent between 2009 and 2010, continues to be one of the fastest growing science and engineering fields and has experienced 165 percent growth–the most rapid growth over the last decade–from approximately 3,200 graduate students in 2000 to 8,500 students in 2010.
AAAS Report Shares Strategies to Recruit New Generation of Highly Qualified Science and Mathematics Teachers
AAAS Report Shares Strategies to Recruit New Generation of Highly Qualified Science and Mathematics Teachers
Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science
s U.S. science test scores stagnate, a new report by AAAS shows how high-quality science and mathematics teachers can be recruited and trained to help reverse this trend.
The report describes the innovative strategies used by the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, which trains science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate majors and STEM professionals to become K-12 teachers. The program has found new ways to recruit, prepare, and support these new teachers by offering them a chance to work in after-school programs, mentoring them with the help of local educators, and providing funding for research projects of their own.
Now a decade old, the program’s successes are being scrutinized as part of a national conversation on how to improve science education.
Improvements are urgently needed, education experts say. Results from the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science test, which were released on 10 May, show that only a third of eighth-graders who took the test scored at or above the proficient level for their grade.
CRS — Immigration of Foreign Nationals with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Degrees
Immigration of Foreign Nationals with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Degrees (PDF)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)
Although the United States remains the leading host country for international students in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields, the global competition for talent has intensified. A record number of STEM graduates—both U.S. residents and foreign nationals—are entering the U.S. labor market, and there is a renewed focus on creating additional immigration pathways for foreign professional workers in STEM fields. Current law sets an annual worldwide level of 140,000 employment-based admissions, which includes the spouses and children in addition to the principal (i.e., qualifying) aliens. “STEM visa” is shorthand for an expedited immigration avenue that enables foreign nationals with graduate degrees in STEM fields to adjust to legal permanent resident (LPR) status without waiting in the queue of numerically limited LPR visas. The fundamental policy question is should the United States create additional pathways for STEM graduates to remain in the United States permanently?
The number of full-time graduate students in science, engineering, and health fields who were foreign students (largely on F-1 nonimmigrant visas) grew from 91,150 in 1990 to 148,923 in 2009, with most of the increase occurring after 1999. Despite the rise in foreign student enrollment, the percentage of STEM graduate students with temporary visas in 2009 (32.7%) was comparable to 1990 (31.1%). Graduate enrollments in engineering fields have exhibited the most growth of the STEM fields in recent years.
After completing their studies, foreign students on F-1 visas are permitted to participate in employment known as Optional Practical Training (OPT), which is temporary employment that is directly related to an F-1 student’s major area of study. Generally, a foreign student may work up to 12 months in OPT status. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (HHS) expanded the OPT work period to 29 months for F-1 students in STEM fields.
Many F-1 visa holders (especially those who are engaged in OPT) often change their immigration status to become professional specialty workers (H-1B). Most H-1B beneficiaries are typically admitted to work in STEM occupations. In FY2010, the most recent year for which detailed data on H-1B beneficiaries (i.e., workers renewing their visas as well as newly arriving workers) are available, almost 91,000 H-1B workers were employed in computer-related occupations, and they made up 47% of all H-1B beneficiaries that year.
The H-1B visa and the OPT often provide the link for foreign students to become employmentbased LPRs. In total, foreign nationals reporting STEM occupations made up 44% of all of the 676,642 LPRs who were employment-based principal immigrants during the decade of FY2000- FY2009. Of all of the LPRs reporting STEM occupations (297,668) over this decade, 52% entered as professional and skilled workers. STEM graduates seeking LPR status are likely to wait in line to obtain LPR status. Those immigrating as professional and skilled workers face wait times of many years, but those who meet the criteria of the extraordinary ability or advanced degrees preference categories have a much shorter wait.
There may be renewed interest in establishing STEM visas in the 112th Congress, and several bills (H.R. 399, H.R. 2161, H.R. 3146, S. 1965, and S. 1986) have been introduced. The House Committee on the Judiciary held two hearings on these issues in 2011. These issues also arose during a 2011 Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on the economic rationale for immigration reform. No legislation on STEM visas, however, has moved through committees thus far.
CRS — The Army Corps of Engineers’ Nationwide Permits Program: Issues and Regulatory Developments
The Army Corps of Engineers’ Nationwide Permits Program: Issues and Regulatory Developments (PDF)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via National Agricultural Law Center)
Permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorize various types of development projects in wetlands and other waters of the United States. The Corps’ regulatory process involves two types of permits: general permits for actions by private landowners that are similar in nature and will likely have a minor effect on wetlands, and individual permits for more significant actions. The Corps uses general permits to minimize the burden of its regulatory program: they authorize landowners to proceed with a project without the time-consuming need to obtain standard individual permits in advance. About 90% of the Corps’ regulatory workload is processed in the form of general permits.
Nationwide permits are one type of general permit. Nationwide permits, which currently number 50, are issued for five-year periods and thereafter must be renewed. They were most recently reissued in total in March 2012. The reissued permits include modification of one nationwide permit, number 21, which authorizes discharges associated with surface coal mining activities and has been controversial.
The current nationwide permit program has few strong supporters, for differing reasons. Developers and other industry groups say that it is too complex and burdened with arbitrary restrictions that limit opportunities for an efficient permitting process and have little environmental benefit. Environmentalists say that it does not adequately protect aquatic resources, because the review procedures and permit requirements are less rigorous than those for individual or standard permits. At issue is whether the program has become so complex and expansive that it cannot either protect aquatic resources or provide for a fair regulatory system, which are its dual objectives. Controversies also exist about the use of specific nationwide permits for authorizing particular types of activities, such as surface coal mining operations.
In addition to general objections, interest groups have a number of specific criticisms of the permits, such as requirements that there must be compensatory mitigation for impacts of some authorized activities, impacts of regional conditioning through which local aquatic considerations are addressed, and the need to define “minimal adverse effects” for purposes of implementing the nationwide permit program. Coordinating implementation of the nationwide permits between federal and state governments also raises a number of issues. Of particular concern to states is tension over whether their authority to certify the nationwide permits is sufficient to assure that water quality standards or coastal zone management plans will not be violated.
Congressional interest in wetlands permit regulatory programs has been evident in the past in oversight hearings and in connection with bills to fund the Corps’ regulatory programs. For some time, there has been a stalemate over legislation that would revise wetlands regulatory law and that could, if enacted, modify the nationwide permit program. During this time, no consensus has emerged on whether or how to reform overall wetlands policy legislatively. Recently, Obama Administration initiatives and actions intended to restrict harmful effects of surface coal mining activities in Appalachia have drawn congressional attention and criticism that is likely to continue in the 112 th Congress and that could include oversight of the Corps’ regulatory program generally.
Report Warns of Rapid Decline in U.S. Earth Observation Capabilities; Next-Generation Missions Hindered by Budget Shortfalls, Launch Failures
Report Warns of Rapid Decline in U.S. Earth Observation Capabilities; Next-Generation Missions Hindered by Budget Shortfalls, Launch Failures
Source: National Research Council
A new National Research Council report says that budget shortfalls, cost-estimate growth, launch failures, and changes in mission design and scope have left U.S. earth observation systems in a more precarious position than they were five years ago. The report cautions that the nation’s earth observing system is beginning a rapid decline in capability, as long-running missions end and key new missions are delayed, lost, or cancelled.
“The projected loss of observing capability will have profound consequences on science and society, from weather forecasting to responding to natural hazards,” said Dennis Hartmann, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “Our ability to measure and understand changes in Earth’s climate and life support systems will also degrade.”
The report comes five years after the Research Council published “Earth Science and Applications From Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond,” a decadal survey that generated consensus recommendations from the earth and environmental science and applications community for a renewed program of earth observations. The new report finds that although NASA responded favorably and aggressively to the decadal survey, the required budget was not achieved, greatly slowing progress. Changes in program scope without commensurate funding, directed by the Office of Management and Budget and by Congress, also slowed progress. A further impediment, the report says, is the absence of a highly reliable and affordable medium-class launch capability.
Despite these challenges, NASA has been successful in launching some of the missions in development when the survey report was published. It has also made notable progress in establishing the “Venture-class” program, as recommended in the decadal survey. The suborbital program and the airborne science program are additional areas where significant progress is being made. In accord with the decadal survey’s recommendations, NASA also aggressively pursued international partnerships to mitigate shortfalls and stretch resources.
In the near term, the report concludes, budgets for NASA’s earth science program will remain inadequate to meet pressing national needs. Therefore the agency should focus on two necessary actions: defining and implementing a cost-constrained approach to mission development, and identifying and empowering a cross-mission earth system science and engineering team to advise on the execution of decadal survey missions.
VA Gov. McDonnell: Aviation and Space Workforce Report Published
VA Gov. McDonnell: Aviation and Space Workforce Report Published
Source: Southern Governors Association
Today Governor Bob McDonnell released the Aviation and Space Workforce Development Analysis and Strategy Development. The report highlights the aviation and space industries’ current employment levels and future projections for growth. According to the report, approximately 12,000 new employees will be required to fill positions that include airline pilots, aircraft mechanics and technicians, aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers, air traffic controllers and other technical jobs that require strong science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) skills.
“The goals of the report were to determine the current size and impact of the Commonwealth’s aviation and space industry, project industry growth, identify core workforce support entities and to isolate any gaps in the current workforce,” governor McDonnell said. “We plan to implement these recommendations leading Virginia in a direction to capture a greater share of the nation’s industry growth.”
Additional goals are to enhance interest in STEM-related careers by focusing on the educational pipeline and include secondary education, increase industry visibility through promotional and marketing efforts, develop a statewide strategic plan mentorship programs to transfer institutional knowledge from the senior generation to the younger generation of the workforce as well as place former military personnel with defense contractors.
Implementation of the recommendations will be executed as a joint effort between the Department of Aviation, the Virginia Department of Education, and aviation and space industry partners. The Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia Community College System identified several existing programs that support the recommendations and provided guidance on developing programs that strengthen STEM-related skills.
The report was commissioned through the collaboration of the working group-Working Smarter Alliance-which consisted of industry partners including the Office of the Secretary of Education, NASA Langley Research Center, the National Association of Manufacturers Institute and the Federal Aviation Administration.
+ Full Report (PDF)
CRS — National Science Foundation: Major Research Equipment and Facility Construction
National Science Foundation: Major Research Equipment and Facility Construction (PDF)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)
The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account of the National Science Foundation (NSF) supports the acquisition and construction of major research facilities and equipment that are to extend the boundaries of science, engineering, and technology. The facilities include telescopes, earth simulators, astronomical observatories, and mobile research platforms. Currently, the NSF provides approximately $1.0 billion annually in support of facilities and other infrastructure projects. While the NSF does not directly design or operate research facilities, it does have final responsibility for oversight and management. Questions have been raised by many in the scientific community and in Congress concerning the adequacy of the planning and management of NSF facilities. In addition, there has been debate related to the criteria used to select projects for MREFC support.
The Administration’s FY2013 budget request for the NSF is $7,373.1 million, a 4.8% increase ($340.0 million) over the FY2012 estimated level of $7,033.1 million. Included in the request total is $196.2 million for MREFC, slightly below the FY2012 estimate of $197.1 million. The FY2013 request proposes support for four projects—Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory ($14.9 million), Advanced Technology Solar Telescope ($42.0 million), Ocean Observatories Initiative ($27.5 million), and the National Ecological Observatory Network ($98.2 million).
EU — Regional development and creativity
Regional development and creativity (PDF)
Source: Research Papers in Economics
The aim of this paper is to assess the role played by creativity and other components of human capital on the process of economic growth for 257 regions in the 27 member countries of the European Union. We first decompose the regional human capital endowment to distinguish between the educational component (the share of individuals with a university degree) and the creativity component, which considers the actual occupations of individuals in specific jobs like science, engineering, education, arts and entertainment. We define three non overlapping categories of human capital (creative graduates, bohemians and non creative graduates) which are simultaneously included in a spatial model as determinants of regional growth measured by labour productivity. After extending the analysis to control for other relevant factors which may affect regional development, such as physical, technological and social capital, cultural diversity, industrial and geographical characteristics, we provide robust evidence on the growth enhancing effects of graduates, in particular for those of the creative category.
Frontiers of Engineering 2011: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2011 Symposium
Frontiers of Engineering 2011: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2011 Symposium
Source: National Academy of Engineering of the National Academies
The practice of engineering is continually changing. Engineers today must be able not only to thrive in an environment of rapid technological change and globalization, but also to work on interdisciplinary teams. Cutting-edge research is being done at the intersections of engineering disciplines, and successful researchers and practitioners must be aware of developments and challenges in areas that may not be familiar to them.
At the U.S. Frontiers of Engineer Symposium, engineers have the opportunity to learn from their peers about pioneering work being done in many areas of engineering. Frontiers of Engineering 2011: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2011 Symposium highlights the papers presented at the event. This book covers four general topics from the 2011 symposium: additive manufacturing, semantic processing, engineering sustainable buildings, and neuro-prosthetics. The papers from these presentations provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities of these fields of inquiry, and communicate the excitement of discovery.
