Monday, April 18, 2005

American universities fall way behind in programming / Weakest result for U.S. in 29-year history of international technology competition

American universities fall way behind in programming. This is VERY disturbing. The colleges and universities in America need to WAKE UP! It's not about losing an ACM programming contest. It's about America continuing to lose its edge in the technical/scientific fields. Once a great leader, we are now struggling to keep up with other countries worldwide, and this is not just in Computer Science related fields. I think priorities in universities in this country are severely out of balance. We're paying the price for this lack of balance. I see it in the university I'm in now. The university puts their focus on research. Certainly, research is very important, not to mention that it is what "looks good" for a university. That's fine, except, how are universities going to continue current research when they are clearly not putting resources into teaching the up-and-coming researchers? Does anyone see a problem here? This problem certainly extends into the quality of the K-12 education as well.

This just continues to drive me toward excelling at teaching. But, as I've stated before, I know I need to focus on research in the short term if I ever want to obtain my PhD. Only then will I be in a position to attempt to make a difference...

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Feeling unreasonable...

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable."

- George Bernard Shaw

I'm tired. I know in my soul what I must set myself out to accomplish in order to get through this. But, sometimes I don't feel I have the strength. I get tired of the hurdles. The atmosphere around here leaves a lot to be desired. But, this is something that I really want. I've taken many unreasonable steps to get to the place where I am now, but I have so far to go. I have so much to understand. The more I read and learn, the more I struggle with the realization of knowing that there is so much more out there that I don't have a clue about.

On a side note, but slightly related, a professor in the department talked to me today about the quality of PhD students that were in the program years ago. Back then, it was a fluid, dynamic atmosphere, where students and faculty communicated and inspired each other. The atmosphere fostered an energy and a spirit of excitement among everyone in the department. That was around the time that I was doing my Masters, way back in the early 90's. I remember it well. It was that kind of atmosphere that I was hoping to come back to. Unfortunately, it didn't take long to realize that excitement was dead in the department. This professor was telling me that he missed it, and was basically telling me that he wished it would return. Now, the faculty pretty much keep to themselves. Everyone has their own research. Even the grad students mostly keep to themselves. They pretty much break up into their own cliques (usually divided by ethnic origin). That is a shame.  We should all be working together, sharing knowledge, regardless of our ethnic and gender differences.  Think about how much more we could be learning from each other! Fortunately, not all are like that. There are a few grad students who make a point to communicate with other grad students outside of their normal clique. At least the faculty that are doing active research seem to regularly meet with their own students they are advising for their dissertation.

I know I must play a part in changing the atmosphere... but it's hard to know where to begin, and what I can do without stepping on toes. This is a public university, and politics play an important part here. I'll watch for a while and look for opportunities. We'll see what happens...