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On top of that, the people running the funding agencies and universities are, for the most part, not mathematically adept. There are good researchers, but they are buried in a sea of mediocrity, and are forced to do low-quality work in order to obtain funding. Fundamental research is frowned upon while computer-generated visualizations and unvalidated algorithms abound.
To make up for the poor education we Americans give to our own children, we have been bringing in huge numbers of foreign (mostly Asian) international students to fill our graduate programs
The essential problem is that the quality of mathematical education in the US has been declining for half a century. This decline now affects the entire scientific and engineering enterprise. To make up for the poor education we Americans give to our own children, we have been bringing in huge numbers of foreign (mostly Asian) international students to fill our graduate programs (81% of graduate students in electrical engineering are foreign). Some go on to be our leading faculty and researchers.
Yet while these students often arrive with excellent mathematical training, certainly superior to what they would get in our universities, they then must suffer through our graduate education, which is mathematically inferior to what they would have encountered in 1965.
Because scientific knowledge involves relations between quantitative variables, it is framed in mathematical formulae. By carrying a big mathematical toolbox, a scientist or engineer enhances his ability to construct scientific theories.
Given that the systems we work with today are more complex and are beset by greater uncertainty in their behavior than those studied 50 years ago (one might think of a human cell), a scientist or engineer should possess a greater knowledge of mathematics than his counterpart back then; however, he will likely possess substantially less.
To make up for the poor education we Americans give to our own children, we have been bringing in huge numbers of foreign (mostly Asian) international students to fill our graduate programs
The essential problem is that the quality of mathematical education in the US has been declining for half a century. This decline now affects the entire scientific and engineering enterprise. To make up for the poor education we Americans give to our own children, we have been bringing in huge numbers of foreign (mostly Asian) international students to fill our graduate programs (81% of graduate students in electrical engineering are foreign). Some go on to be our leading faculty and researchers.
Yet while these students often arrive with excellent mathematical training, certainly superior to what they would get in our universities, they then must suffer through our graduate education, which is mathematically inferior to what they would have encountered in 1965.
Because scientific knowledge involves relations between quantitative variables, it is framed in mathematical formulae. By carrying a big mathematical toolbox, a scientist or engineer enhances his ability to construct scientific theories.
Given that the systems we work with today are more complex and are beset by greater uncertainty in their behavior than those studied 50 years ago (one might think of a human cell), a scientist or engineer should possess a greater knowledge of mathematics than his counterpart back then; however, he will likely possess substantially less.
