Ryan Yamada

Pic 1

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer


When I heard the learn'd astronomer

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;

When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much

applause in the lecture-room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

- Walt Whitman

American Competitiveness

Introduction

American Competitiveness, as I interpret it, includes three basic ideas:

1. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are the engine of US economic growth.

2. Continued economic growth depends, in part, upon a qualified, well-trained STEM workforce .

3. Innovation requires long-term, consistent investment in educational institutions, human capital, and technological infrastructure.

4. Federal, state, local, and private funding of basic and applied research, as well as development, are needed.

5. Any grand strategy for the United States of America will need to place particular importance on American science and partnerships across the world.

6. True American competitiveness will not occur while there is discrimination against women and minorities, poverty, and an artificial division between science and faith successfully created, manipulated, and perpetuated by segments of society whose interests are served in keeping the body politic divided.

7. No single discipline will have all the answers - coordinated effort from business management, law, the social sciences (economics, political science, psychology) the natural sciences, computer science, and engineering, education, the humanities (science and technology studies, history) medicine, human resources, operations research, systems analysis, and many other fields will need to be synthesized if the project is to have a chance of success.

Links

Council on Competitiveness