Paul suggested we use this for dissemination of flakey ideas, and I know some
of you have not seen this (written early in 1994), so here it is!
Dick Larson
*******************************************************
2014: M.I.T. Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dick Larson, E40-149a
The M.I.T. EECS class of 2014 was being presented with an informal
pre-commencement speech by Professor Rachel L. Comp.edu, Head of the EECS
Department.
"1995 was a watershed year for EECS and for M.I.T., in general. It was at
that time that the second post World War II paradigm shift in engineering
education was put in place at M.I.T. 'Engineering Science' was replaced by
'Engineering Knowhow.' As the name suggests, knowhow implies knowing for
doing. Knowing what: knowing the usuals: science and math. Also knowing the
unusuals: business management, relevant humanities and other disciplines. And
doing what? For doing designs, for building and testing prototypes, for
working cooperatively with groups, for using computers to help do just about
everything, for inventing new systems and processes. The more technically
minded used to say that M.I.T. was great at teaching analysis but poor at
teaching synthesis, so synthesis became a core motivator for the paradigm
shift."
A student's hand goes up in the audience: "Excuse me Professor Comp.edu, When
was it decided that we should all be placed in a 5-year Co-op program?"
Professor Comp.edu: "That was also 1995. It was an outgrowth of two
initiatives. The first was the 5 year Master of Engineering degree first put
into place by the department in 1994. The second was an outgrowth of a
strategic analysis done in the second half of 1994. In that analysis it was
decided to explore the consequences of a detailed study that would examine
M.I.T. as a service industry. The study committee, comprising faculty from
throughout M.I.T., identified three primary customers for M.I.T.: its
students, its research sponsors and industry. The committee also identified
its primary products: its graduating students and its research findings. The
key services provided to produce these products were education and research.
"Industry at the time was complaining that our primary product, graduating
students, were no longer optimally matched to their needs. Students often knew
lots of theory but lacked practical skills. They hadn't the faintest idea
about business, about how business was run, about their roles in the
enterprise. Their impressive math skills were often not linked in their minds
to the physical world. So EECS, building from its nationally known VI-A
Program, made that program mandatory for all of its students. Alternating
terms on campus and off campus brought new life and vitality to the department.
It was matched with a mandatory placement "in the plant" for one term every
three years of each of the EECS faculty members. This had nice side effects:
more industry-relevant research, more funded applied research programs on
campus, more consulting opportunities for faculty and - most important -
greatly decreased financial strain for the parents of the students, who now
were largely funded by their industrial partners. Industry - now very happy
with our "product" - bid up the starting salaries of our graduating "super
seniors," our fifth year graduates. The excitement generated by the program,
excitement caused by the applied hands on nature of the program, the reduced
tuition burden on parents, and the increased starting salaries, created a
doubling of applications into EECS within a four year period, 1997 - 2001.
This doubling included a larger than doubling of very qualified applicants from
under-represented minorities."
Another hand, "Professor Comp.edu: I remember that I first became interested
in M.I.T. when I visited the M.I.T. Disney Science Theme park in Orlando in
2004. How was that put together?"
Professor Comp.edu: "The services industry committee undertook an analysis of
marketing and sales. They found that M.I.T. was held in very high regard
overseas, and many foreign students had planned to apply. Due to enrollment
capacity limitations in Cambridge, the committee also found that a huge number
of potential very strong foreign applicants did not even apply, knowing
M.I.T.'s limitation on foreign students, but that is a different story.
Within the U.S., M.I.T. was less well known, except perhaps as nerd haven on
the Charles. In the 1990's, with the Sputnik scare four decades earlier and
with the cold war over, science and technology was not held in high esteem. In
fact, it was blamed for many of society's ills. So, in the first of several
joint ventures announced by President Vest in 1997, M.I.T. formed a joint
venture with Disney to create the M.I.T. Disney Science Theme Park. The word
science here, as you know, is a bit of a misnomer, since the majority of the
park's attractions focus on emerging technologies of the 21st Century. Also as
you know, many of these technologies were developed in part at M.I.T. Our
study team found that between the ages of 3 and 18, 55% of potential M.I.T.
applicants visited the Disney property in Orlando at least once, and that
placing science and technology at the same level of importance as the Magic
Kingdom, movie studio attractions and a permanent world's fair, was important
for showing kids the fun and challenges of science and technology in the world
around us. M.I.T. donated 10 faculty years of time and effort to provide the
technical oversight to design virtually every attraction in the park. The
M.I.T.'ers made sure that each attraction was "scientifically correct." The
Disney imagineers made sure that each attraction was fun. In return, M.I.T.
gets a 20% royalty on park admissions and a 5% royalty on all other sales in
the park. The park is so successful, that the Tokyo version will open in 2019
and there is talk of adding this feature to EuroDisney, which came out of the
red for the first time last year."
Professor Comp.edu: "I was one of the first to attend the Turner/M.I.T. K-12
school system in Minneapolis. I didn't switch over until sixth grade. How was
this venture put together?"
Professor Comp.edu: "Well, as you know, the U.S. Congress in 1998 passed a
national education bill that promoted competition in public education.
Vouchers allowed parents to select the schools for their youngsters, with some
schools requiring passing entrance exams. M.I.T., in its 1994 committee study,
decided that investing in intellectual capital building was an important
priority mission for M.I.T. Such an investment would produce better students
at M.I.T.'s doorsteps, but more importantly, would revitalize science and
engineering education in the U.S. As you might know from history books, the
U.S. had fallen behind all other major industrialized countries in the mid
1990's in the scientific literacy of its school age children.
M.I.T. decided to leverage its 1996 decision to utilize its Media Lab and
related resources to produce world class educational materials, in multi media
format, for grades K-12. Those materials provided the "textbooks of the 21st
Century" for a new revolutionary type of school. The M.I.T. label was like the
Good Housekeeping seal, a sign in the 1950's - 1980's that housewives and
househusbands had used to identify quality household products. The kids liked
the M.I.T. approach, as nearly all of them by the year 2000 were extremely
computer literate (and video game literate). Choosing Turner Broadcasting as
an educational venture partner was a natural outgrowth of this process, a
process in which M.I.T. decided to be at the world forefront of utilizing
modern computer and telecommunications technologies to deliver its educational
services. Turner Broadcasting in 1999 implemented widely an interactive video
format for several of its networks and invited M.I.T. to open such a network
with them via fiber optic cable as channel 144 on the new 500 channel national
system. As you know, the materials M.I.T. has developed and sold under its
imprimatur are netting $50 million per year for the endowment and scholarships.
And the tuition income from federal payments for the vouchers is fed back to
provide special educational services for minorities and disadvantaged to boost
their scientific literacy."
Another hand: "Is it true that 26-100 once had blackboards?"
Professor Comp.edu: "Yes, once all that M.I.T. had to assist professors in
teaching was blackboards, an invention that had been around for more than 500
years. In fact, someone once said that the only difference between blackboards
and cave drawings was the invention of the eraser. But with the refocusing of
the Media Lab and the core teaching M.I.T. faculty on using new technologies
for education, President Vest announced a bold initiative in 1998: To have the
core subjects in all freshmen and sophomore courses (with enrollments over 200)
use multimedia and related technologies to assist in teaching. That is why
much of first year physics is now taught in virtual reality. That is why much
of calculus also uses virtual reality, tied to physics with fancy accelerating
cars, unbelievable rollercoasters and - since this is M.I.T. - with the
proverbial water balloons falling past dorm windows. I know you all learned of
F=ma using these tools. Now you'll never miss with a water balloon! As you
know, 26-100 has been retro-fitted to be a mini Omni theatre, so that students
can experience many of the physical things that they study. Our only complaint
seems to be that some students get seasick!"
A hand pops up from the large color screen on the right wall: "Professor
Comp.edu: This is Sanjoy Patel from New Delhi. What were the factors that led
to M.I.T./India?"
"I'm glad to hear from our graduating students in India. As you might know,
there is a tremendous desire to obtain world class scientific/engineering
education thoughout the world. M.I.T. had always been blessed with many more
who want to obtain an M.I.T. education than are able to get it in Cambridge,
due to physical capacity constraints of our Cambridge campus. The 1994
committee made what was viewed at the time as an outrageous suggestion: To ban
all further M.I.T. investments in new "brick and mortar," and to focus all new
capital investments in educational technologies and services. We've discussed
some of these technologies here already. But in particular, the services
committee of 1994 found that M.I.T. was sorely lacking in distributional
channels for its services and products. Telecommunications, especially
interactive video, became the real time distribution channel of choice.
CD-ROM's, in multimedia, were the off line channel of choice. Of course, our
student body has grown 100 fold as a result. Not all have the same degree
credentials as the "usual M.I.T. graduate," but each has the capacity to
contribute to the scientific and technological base of her home country,
thereby helping to raise her country's standard of living in an increasingly
complex technological world. Moreover, Turner/M.I.T.-International has reached
remote villages in underdeveloped parts of the world, bringing a new emerging
scientific literacy to hundreds of thousands of K-12 kids in over 60 countries
to date."
A final hand: "Professor Comp.edu: My mother just graduated from the
Sloan/EECS managerial transition program. Whose idea was that?"
"The 1994 committee found that the average M.I.T. graduate had five different
employers in her lifetime and nine different job assignments. The
M.I.T.-averaged figures were just about the same for EECS graduates by
themselves. Interestingly, by the third job assignment, over 50% of EECS
graduates were no longer doing what we might call technical engineering, but
were evolving into management positions. Just as we had started working with
our "customers" in K-12, we decided that our customers were "customers for
life." We certainly treated them that way when it came to alumni giving! So
we decided to treat them that way in educational services.
With EECS, the Sloan School and with other Schools and departments, M.I.T.
opened the country's first EMO: Educational Maintenance Organization. Funded
by annual remittances that are actuarially computed, an M.I.T. graduate is
welcome back on campus up to five times (for six months each visit) during her
career to become educated in those areas that she will now confront in the next
phase of her career. The educational services of the EMO are set up to
anticipate these changes as a natural evolution during one's career, and the
program is structured so that each six month visit does not require any
additional outlay of funds. The funds have already been collected and
invested in an actuarially controlled accrual account for all members of the
EMO. Employers are so enthusiastic about the program that many pay all or part
of the annual EMO fee for their MIT-graduated employees as a tax-free fringe
benefit under their benefits cafeteria plans."
All students: "Thank you, Professor Comp.edu!"