Response to Market Forces
Many of us rely on computers for word processing, file storage, and finding information. But today’s engineering students are entering a world where software and hardware assume an increasingly important role in just about any field they choose. And while employment prospects in technology have gone through boom-bust cycles in the past, the future may be different, given how the industry is growing. At a National Academies workshop in August 2017, Alfred Spector, chief technology officer of the New York hedge fund Two Sigma, reeled off a partial list of advances just in the previous decade. They included cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, data science, security, robotics, computational photography, computational finance, resource sharing, computational social science, and digital humanities. So it’s no wonder that student demand for computer science is exploding. In our September cover story, Paul Basken reports on some of the challenges this poses for universities—among them, a faculty shortage—and a potential solution that’s bound to be controversial: separate colleges for computer science.
Stephanie Farrell, ASEE’s President this year, has taken a leading Society role as a champion of diversity, in particular providing a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ students and faculty. Less well known, except to those who have followed her work closely, is her ability to make a range of real-life topics relevant to her classes in chemical engineering. Pierre Home-Douglas offers a number of examples in an illuminating profile. Her first letter to members leads the ASEE Today section.
Check out, as well, Tom Grose’s feature on unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The story was prompted by the revelation last December of a Pentagon project to document and investigate numerous reported sightings. It turns out that serious people see value in UFOs as an engineering and aerospace research topic, if only to shed light on unexplained aerial phenomena.
You’ll notice a new Prism banner on the cover of this issue. It’s the most obvious change in a redesign by our skillful art team, Nicola Nittoli, Francis Igot, and Miguel Ventura. The table of contents has been revamped to offer a cleaner, more logical layout. Other tweaks are more subtle, intended to make the magazine more attractive while keeping the best elements of the previous design.
We hope you enjoy this month’s issue—the first one of ASEE’s 125th year. Look for our special publication later this year celebrating the Society’s proud history.
Mark Matthews
m.matthews@asee.org