IEEE-USA Webinar Tuesday to Examine Whether United States is Falling Behind in Global Competition for Scientists & Engineers

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IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

Sep 08, 2014, 05:55 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Michael Teitelbaum, an expert on U.S. science and engineering workforce issues, will present an IEEE-USA Webinar on Tuesday 9 September, "Is the United States Falling Behind in the Global Race for Scientific and Engineering Talent?"

The free Webinar will run from 2 to 3 p.m. EDT. Register at http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/webinars/2014/webinar-9-9-14.html.

Claims the United States is falling behind its competitors because of shortages of engineers, scientists and other technology professionals have been appearing and reappearing for decades. Teitelbaum, in his new book, "Falling Behind? Boom, Bust and the Global Race for Scientific Talent," examines five historical periods of heightened concern about such purported or projected shortfalls.

"The current alarms about widespread shortages or shortfalls in the number of U.S. scientists and engineers are quite inconsistent with nearly all available evidence," said Teitelbaum, a senior research associate in the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and a former vice president at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Such claims continue to figure prominently in public policy debates about high-skill immigration, temporary work visas, education, spending and tax reform. Alarms about the United States falling behind other countries in terms of technology innovation stretch back to the end of World War II.

"In each of these episodes the political system responded to the alarms by rapidly expanding the supply of scientists and engineers, but only a few years later political enthusiasm or economic demand waned," Teitelbaum writes. "Booms turned to busts, leaving many of those who had been encouraged to pursue science and engineering careers facing disheartening career prospects."

Robert Charette, a technology risk management and systems engineering consultant, will join Teitelbaum. Charette is a long-time contributing editor to IEEE Spectrum magazine and authored the widely acclaimed piece, "The STEM Crisis is a Myth" in August 2013.

Charette will lead the Q&A discussion following the Webinar, prefacing his questions with data, quotations and information both supporting and denying a U.S. workforce crisis in science, technology and engineering.

Webinar participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions.

IEEE-USA serves the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 200,000 engineering, computing and technology professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE.

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SOURCE IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)