Posted by Tom Luce, CEO of NMSI

I was struck by many of the comments by the great speakers at the “Rising Above the Gathering Storm – Two Years Later” convocation, but I will just list a few here:

• Norm Augustine’s comment that, “Industry, unfortunately, has an easy solution to the shortage of STEM graduates in the US – simply outsource the work overseas.”
• Sally Ride’s quote, “We are like Wile E. Coyote who has run off the cliff chasing the Road Runner and doesn’t realize he is about to fall to the bottom.”
• Another speaker pointed out that for the first time in our history, our population no longer leads the world in educational attainment. In fact, we have slipped to 10th in the world.
• A constant refrain from other speakers was how can we best excite young people about the fields of mathematics and science? I totally agree if you ask most young people if you want to be a mathematician or scientist, you will most likely receive a blank stare. My personal opinion is there are 2 ways to communicate this issue to the current younger generation: 1) in my experience in talking to many young people in college across the country, this generation has an overwhelming desire to improve many aspects of our life. We need to do a better job of linking their desire to change the world to math and science. For example, many young people are concerned about health care, our environment and the global food crisis. Each of these issues will ultimately be addressed thru technology produced by mathematicians, scientists and engineers; 2) the younger generation is the largest user by far of technology, but as one participant said to me, “They are like a city kid who loves an egg sandwich but has no idea where the egg came from.” We need them to understand that IPODS, MP3 players and video games are produced by mathematicians and scientists

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