Innovation & Change: Politics or Reality?   Posted: Mar 2011 Cell phone calls in China are made on devices that carry four transmitters, a full-up CPU, 4G connectivity to the Internet and sophisticated applications. Notwithstanding one’s position on intellectual property and poaching, the Chinese have made the leap from imitators to innovators. Often, the ink is barely dry on new communications standards and devices are already well into development.

Mike Violette, P.E

We are in a keen position, in our little corner of the testing and certification business, to witness the development of these devices first-hand, participating in product rollouts coming out of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing. The crucible that creates these highly integrated and ridiculously compact products is a hyperbole-warping landscape of research parks, industrial areas and concentrated high technology zones.

America has her work cut out for her. A recent article by Norm Augustine, retired Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin appeared on Forbes.com, Danger: America is Losing its Edge in Innovation (January 20, 2011). Augustine opens his piece with a paean to engineering in the developed and the developing world.

“I’ve visited more than 100 countries in the past several years…almost every adult I’ve talked with in these countries shares a belief that the path to success is paved with science and engineering.”

Science and engineering are the backbone of our society, but they don’t get enough play. In the popular media, I pass on Lady Gaga (gah!) and the posturing by the overpaid clowns on the court and pitch. Instead, my favorite spots include the recent round of Intel pieces that highlight engineers as rock stars. You’ve seen them: the guy who helped invent the USB bus: A Hero!

Meanwhile the debate in caucuses in Washington is strident, obstreperous and essentially void of engineer-speak, save recent efforts by the POTUS. You can’t swing a dead cat inside the Beltway without hitting a lawyer, but just try to find someone with a BS, MS—or all the rare—a PhD in the sciences. Can we spark innovation without deep understanding of technical matters in our elected officials? (In our little Washington Labs Academy corner of the world we’re fighting the good fight when we can by inviting local politicos to our events and courses and trying to ensure they are at least aware of the engineering manpower supply issues we face.)

Continuing, Augustine writes that “In a global, knowledge-driven economy there is a direct correlation between engineering education and innovation.”

We believe that statement and we witness it in our travels and communications with our colleagues around the planet. We are reminded by our Asian associates of the never-ending drive for technological innovation where competition is fierce, societies are monolithic (which leads to some good, some bad) and hunger trumps whining.

We can’t agree more with Augustine’s conclusion that “Global leadership is not a birthright. Despite what many Americans believe, our nation does not possess an innate knack for greatness.  Greatness must be worked for and won by each new generation.” Outside the US, at least at this time, there are a great many of my acquaintances and friends that want to come to the United States. It is still seen as the land of promise…and hard, noble work.

It can continue to be that way, if we let politics give way to constructive, logical discourse and the role of science and engineering in our development. Hey, it could happen…

Mike Violette, P.E.  

Questions? Comments? Please email Mike at mikev@wll.com