How to educate the Engineers and Scientists that our society needs to maintain/extend our position in the Global Electronic Systems business. (Tube@ http://youtu.be/DTxhnfqV2rs)

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Educating Professionals for Europe's
Electronic System Businesses
EC SkillsWorkshop
5may14, Brussels.
YouTube@ http://youtu.be/DTxhnfqV2rs
More@ http://ianp24.blogspot.com

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Educating Professionals for Europe's
Electronic System Businesses
EC SkillsWorkshop
5may14, Brussels.
Prof. Ian Phillips
Principal Staff Engineer
ARM Ltd
ian.phillips@arm.com
Visiting Prof. at ...
Contribution to
Industry Award
2008
Opinions expressed are my own ...
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 I’ve see figures projecting shortage of more than 2B engineers by 2020
 Big enough to terrify; but way too big to resolve organically
 But faced with short-fall business will reorganise around those available ...
 IC design is 1000x more productive today than 20yrs ago!
 Business will adapt (or die!)
 So, I believe, there will be a modest to severe shortage (as there is today) ...
... and we will manage it (as we do today) by beg, steal or borrow from others
... But those Nations developing more good quality Engineers/Scientists out of their
population will be best placed to keep, and directly benefit from them
... So no reason not to improve our ecosystems to be better than the rest !
The world needs more Engineers and Scientists
But the Figures are large and very debatable...

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Do Our Achievements Speak For Us ?
... Science and Engineering made the world we live in: Yet ...
... most people don’t see it, and have no idea what “we” do in it!

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The Science That Lets Us to Do ...
 Electronics is the pinnacle of
mankind’s ingenuity in the
manipulation of matter ...
 Enables us all to do such
wonderful things!
 Dependent on Mathematics, Physics
and Chemistry
 The measure of what humans can
achieve by reusing the ingenuity of
our predecessors ... “Standing on
the shoulders of giants” (Isaac Newton)
 But though it is very clever ...
 It is not actually Magic!
 It is ingenious, precise, exciting and
laborious ...And evolving.
 But not as Magic as Nature!
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic!”
... A.C.Clarke (Science Fiction Author)

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The Science That Lets Us to Do ...
 Electronics is the pinnacle of
mankind’s ingenuity in the
manipulation of matter ...
 Enables us all to do such
wonderful things!
 Dependent on Mathematics, Physics
and Chemistry
 The measure of what humans can
achieve by reusing the ingenuity of
our predecessors ... “Standing on
the shoulders of giants” (Isaac Newton)
 But though it is very clever ...
 It is not actually Magic!
 It is ingenious, precise, exciting and
laborious ...And evolving.
 But not as Magic as Nature!
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic!”
... A.C.Clarke (Science Fiction Author)

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TheThreshold of Magic
1: Clarke: Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable
from magic.
 Everybody has a threshold, beyond which observed Functionality is
Indistinguishable From Magic1!
 Chemical Systems
 Biological Systems
 Economic Systems
 Electronic Systems
 The Incandescent Light:
is the
for most non-scientific,
but well-educated people!
...We will ALL lose if we fail to
explain the difference between
Magic and Science to the Public!
... Our roles will not be recognised or valued;
Teaching and Research will go;Tech. Jobs will follow.
...And Our Society will become dependent on Others.

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 Unless Society Recognises (and values) what we actually do, it will
never be recognised as a Career Opportunity!
 People will not direct their Kids in this direction
 Kids will not see it as an interesting, challenging, lucrative opportunity
 Unless PoliticiansValue our contribution to our National Economies
they will never prioritise our roles in it!
 What contribution do we make to our respective Economies?
 (ES in UK was quantified as 855k people; 5.4% of Economy (www.esco.org.uk))
 Until We Understand our Roles in theWider Context we will never be
able to explain them to (lay) others!
 What successful Research/Businesses are operating in this area?
 What roles do they undertake in Global Electronic Systems (CPS)?
 What obstacles do they face?
... We have to do this Education Ourselves!
Educating Society ...
OurTechnologies are not speaking for us ...

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 Tertiary Education (Bs, Ms, PhD) gets you onto the First Step ...
 Electrical Eng, Computer Sci, Maths, Physics ...
 Enables you to Understand the Language and the Context
 Prepares you to take the next (and subsequent steps) yourself
 Adaptability and Learning-to-Learn is a key requirement of an E/S Graduate
... Certificates matter; but not that much!
 Majority of an E/S training is Through-Life (and JIT) ...
 Business opportunities are Capability Based; the Capabilities you have determine
the Products you can produce ... Skilled E/S are important part of that Capability
 A good E/S connects Knowledge (own+) and Experience to Deliver Innovation
 An E/S’s value is dominated by their last 3-5yrs of ‘work’
... On-the-Job, Experience, Exposure and FormalTraining; all count!
... Gov’s and Providers must support the whole-life needs of E/S!
...The right environment attracts them and keeps them
Engineer/Scientist ...“The Journey of a Lifetime”
Business values Ability over the way in which it was achieved ...

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Elitism and the Engineer/Scientist
...A(nother) world where prowess matters
 Around 3% of the population has an Engineering Degree ...
 Only ~half of this number are actually employed as E/S
 That’s around one person in a Secondary Education class (a Geek!)
 Around 1% of them will be ‘World-Class Leaders’...
 The benefits they bring to local society/economy are very real
 The opportunity to double/treble their number is also very real
... Alas, initiatives to realise the potential of that 0.03% of the population
would be seen by society as favouring the already favoured!

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 Requires a two-pronged approach ...
1. Educate Society about our roles, our contribution and the career opportunities
that our community presents
2. Assure the through-life education requirements of Engineers/Scientists is met
to maintain/enhance their global credibility
 Encourage Intellectual Elitism ...
 May not be a politically acceptable topic
 But it is important for Europe’s global competitiveness; and thus for Society
... This complementary to the numerous Primary and Secondary education initiatives to
improve STEM and CS education ...All of which I applaud!
Conclusions
“Bridging the supply and demand of skilled professionals in the
electronic/photonic components and smart/embedded systems”...