An astronaut, software engineer, college president and student walk into the White House…and they’re all women.
It’s not a joke. At least it wasn’t Tuesday morning when The White House Council on Women and Girls held a gathering in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building focusing on girls in the science, engineering, technology and mathematics fields.
The stories of senior citizens in distressed economic conditions because of defaulted student loans are merely the canary in the coal mine. Just as the implosion of the mortgage lending market opened up debate about the great American dream of owning a home, the implosion of the student loan market is leading many to question the great American dream of graduating from college.
The classic question facing any innovator goes beyond coming up with something new and different.
Professors are better at teaching the cut-and-dried academic science—physics and chemistry, theoretical models, and diagnosis/treatment decision trees—than the messy but critical subjective parts of medicine: When is it worth subjecting a patient to additional testing or treatment? What would motivate a particular patient to eat broccoli instead of bacon cheeseburgers?
Gernot Wagner is the author of But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save the World. He teaches at Columbia University and is an economist at the Environmental Defense Fund.
Five years ago, top Harvard College graduates flooded Wall Street. They were small cogs in a race-car engine, except the car was speeding over a cliff. It’s no wonder that today’s graduates are reconsidering their career choices.
They should start with economics.
We often mention, on this blog, the growing concern in the United States that not enough students are taking on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in school. Well, it appears GE had a similar problem…in 1953.
There’s a great deal of talk of education, when it comes to innovation, especially with the Republican presidential primary well underway. As policymakers and experts debate about how best to increase U.S. competitiveness by way of visa expansion, classroom improvements and infrastructure development, what of the arts?
Do you think colleges should be required to prominently post a College Report Card on their Web site?
Some observers say humanoid robotics is today where personal computer technology was in the 1970s. It is an exciting time. And here are five robo-scientists to watch.
