Learned Societies in an International Context

1
Learned Societies in an International Context
A Perspective from the United States
Eric Roberts Stanford University co-chair, ACM
Education Board
CPHC Grand Challenges Conference Glasgow,
Scotland March 24, 2006
2
A Stanford-UK Story
Once upon a time, the Financial Times ran a story
comparing Silicon Valley and Silicon Fen
3
A Stanford-UK Story
A year later, we got a visit from a delegation of
MPs
Barry Sheerman Huddersfield, Labour
Chairman Charlotte Atkins Staffordshire
Moorlands, Labour Valerie Davey Bristol West,
Labour Michael Foster Worcester, Labour Helen
Jones Warrington North, Labour Gordon Marsden
Blackpool South, Labour Dr Evan Harris Oxford
West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat Stephen
OBrien Eddisbury, Conservative Nick St Aubyn
Guildford, Conservative
4
What is a Learned Society?
The term learned society conjures up visions of
the Royal Society, which has several potential
analogues across the pond
Our work in computing research and education is
influenced more strongly by professional
societies and professional associations.
5
Professional Societies in Computing
As all of you who have been involved in IFIP
know, the U.S. has two computing societies
The two societies operate independently, but
collaborate in several important areas, such as
the development of computing curricula.
6
CC200x Series
7
Professional Associations
The ACM and IEEE-CS are organized around
individual memberships. Most top research
institutions (academic and industrial) also take
part in a research consortium
Computing Research Association (CRA)
The CRA is responsible for The Taulbee survey
of research universities The biannual Snowbird
conferences A large number of useful reports
8
Challenges Facing Computing in the U.S.

• Federal funding for research has declined. At the
  same time, fewer companies can support academic
  research or maintain their own research labs.
• The Bush administrations aversion to taxes and
  the staggering U.S. debt make funding increases
  unlikely.
• Science is under attack in the current political
  climate, along with the mission of universities
  more generally.
• Student interest in computing degrees has
  declined precipitously in recent years.
• The 9/11 attacksand the subsequent appeal to
  fear used to bolster support for the Iraq
  warhave made it harder for the United States to
  attract talented students.

9
Erosion of Research Funding

• Corporate support for research has declined since
  the collapse of the dot-com bubble. Although
  there are growing opportunities at wealthy
  companies like Microsoft and Google, there are
  fewer companies supporting university research.
• Despite calls for increased funding for science
  in the most recent State of the Union address,
  actual increases in the NSF budget are small.
  Funding for science education has in fact
  declined.
• Under Tony Tether, DARPA research funding has
  become far more mission-directed.

10
The New DARPA Funding Model

• For many years, DARPA invested a great deal of
  money in research projects to create autonomous
  vehicles.
• In the last two years, DARPA put 2M into a prize
  instead.

11
The Crisis in Computing Education
12
The Crisis in Computing Education

• The CRA finds that computing enrollments have
  fallen between 40 and 50 since 2000.
• At UCLA, the number of students listing CS as a
  possible major has declined significantly in
  recent years, particularly for women.

13
Possible Reasons for Declining Enrollments

• No understanding of opportunities in computing
• Negative image of work in computing fields
• Static curricula that fail to attract todays
  students
• Growing complexity of introductory courses
• Concerns about job security in the wake of
  offshoring
• Belief that all jobs vanished with the dot-com
  collapse
• Students pursuing wealth over good salaries
• Failure to believe statistics showing good
  opportunities

14
The No Jobs Fear is Widespread
All this talk about Blue Skies ahead just cant
hide the stark fact that Americans who dont wish
to migrate to India and/or some other off-shore
haven are going to have a difficult career.
Why would any smart American undergrad go into IT
when companies like IBM and HP are talking of
stepping up their off-shoring efforts in the
coming years? They want cheap labor, no matter
the real cost.
I have been very successful in IT, but I
certainly wouldnt recommend it today to anyone
except people who are geeks. . . .
I think the latest figures from the U.S.
Department of Labor are not correct.
15
Crisis and Opportunity

• In this age of technology-enabled globalization
  (see Tom Friedmans The World is Flat), the
  problems in the United States create
  opportunities for the rest of the world.
• India and China have seized these opportunities
  with a vengeance. There is no reason that
  Europe cannot do the same.
• Given the current political situation and its
  apparent trends, the United States may be unable
  to respond to the crisis without this kind of
  external pressure.
• Economic strength in the rest of the world can
  serve as an essential counterweight to U.S.
  dominance.