Technical Degree Research Articles

How Recent Graduates View Their Jobs

Successful recruiting and retaining of R&D professionals depends upon a company's ability to address the needs of recent graduates in their work environment. These needs can be identified by assessing job perceptions of new professionals, and an understanding of these needs can suggest strategies to maintain job satisfaction, provide motivation and encourage creativity. In the case of recent graduates, job perceptions change rapidly as employees make the transition from academia to industry. Recently, I investigated how job perceptions change as recent graduates adapt to the work environment. The relative importance of various factors was determined at three points early in a professional's career: during the recruiting process, upon starting the first job, and after gaining experience in industry. The results are interpreted in terms of needs related to technical work, career advancement and quality of life. Two groups of recent graduates employed in the chemical industry were surveyed and interviewed for comparison. First, 18 recent graduates were surveyed who were employed at the W. R. Grace Washington Research Center and who graduated with their last technical degree between January 1985 and January 1989. This group consisted primarily of chemical engineers and chemists with bachelor's-, master's-, and doctoral degrees. Second, I interviewed 10 Ph.D. chemical engineers who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985-1986 and who were each employed at a different R&D laboratory. While the database for this investigation was limited, the consistency between the two groups suggests that the results represent important trends. Further, the general conclusions concerning job perceptions and needs are not specific to a single company or a single graduating school, but I believe represent characteristics of the current generation of new professionals. This belief is based on the observation that recent professionals from different companies and from different schools expressed similar opinions and concerns about their jobs, although job-related specifics varied from person to person. The common factor among all the respondents is that they were all employed in R&D functions at major chemical companies. Factors Affecting Job Decisions Respondents were asked to rank 12 factors as to the influence they had on their job decision. Based upon the responses, the factors fall into categories of high, moderate and low levels of relative importance (Table 1 not included). Geographic preferences and personal or family considerations are important job-decision factors, as is the competitiveness of the salary offer. The type of initial project, the impressions made by direct management during the interview, and the perceived potential for career advancement can be influential. These results confirm the importance to the interview process of location, salary and technical work environment. Of particular interest is the finding that management involvement is a key factor in job decisions. Of moderate importance are factors related to employee benefit programs, the company reputation, and the degree of initial project responsibility. The first two factors suggest that job decisions are influenced by company policies. The last factor emphasizes the importance of independence to the graduate. Factors of least relative importance are the freedom to publish, potential for travel and social environment. Hence, these factors would not be expected to have a strong impact on the job decision. Initial Job Expectations Initial job expectations were assessed by surveying recent graduates about job perceptions when they started their new job. These perceptions were established by prioritizing a second set of 12 factors on a scale from 1 to 3, with 1 representing the highest importance. Figure 1 shows the 12 factors ranked top to bottom from most to least important The bars represent the deviation of the average response for each factor relative to the mean response of all the factors combined. …

How Securities Analysts See Industrial R&D

RD however, they are confused by it, and they can't quantify it. The is this: in 36 interviews of securities analysts with major brokerage and independent research firms over a period of three months, could not find a single analyst who said he had ever made a buy/hold/sell recommendation on the basis of RD but can't recall a situation where R&D has had an impact on per-share Even in the case of pharmaceuticals -- so dependent on the technical creativity of their R&D departments --industry analysts talked in terms of marketing, not R&D, although they all acknowledged that these are research-driven companies. The major exception was genetic engineering companies. Many analysts -- such as Fred Greenberg, a partner with EGS Partners, in New York City -- cited the fact that positive recommendations for these companies have been largely based on R&D. Although securities analysts are surely one of America's most inaccessible clans, most of the analysts that agreed to extensive interviews were surprisingly candid. Most held key positions in their firm's research departments, and were either members of the New York Society of Securities Analysts, Registered Representatives, or both. Seven were chemical or chemical specialties industry analysts, six were pharmaceutical industry analysts, four specialized in electronics, three watched computer companies, four focused on biotechnology companies, three studied the aerospace industry, and another three tracked oil and gas. Other analysts observed telecommunications companies, food and tobacco, machinery, publishing, household and personal products. Three admitted only to watching high tech companies. The median number of years employed as an analyst was six, with a similar median for the number of years in their specific positions. Less than 10 percent had technical degrees. To understand analysts, one must appreciate their role from the buyer's point of view. Analysts are paid to predict the future of the companies they watch so that their constituencies -- other members of their firm, institutional money managers and individual investors, investment bankers, corporate financial officers and treasurers, and other members of the financial community -- can optimize their investment strategies. While the bottom line of their calculations is usually a prediction of the next quarter's earnings, they also supply additional information so that their recommendations can be rationalized. (This article does not discuss the attitudes of investment banking analysts because their primary role is to analyze companies for the purposes of financing acquisitions or sale.) Wolfgang H. Demisch, managing director of UBS Securities and an aerospace industry specialist, sets forth the case for most analysts of technically oriented manufacturers: I personally think that the accusations that analysts think only about R&D that is going to result in higher profits within the next quarter or two is hogwash. The biotech industry, where there isn't a nickel in earnings, shows that those companies are being valued at something much more than their earnings. …

Romanian Scientists Rush To Condemn Elena Ceausescu

One of the strangest chapters in contemporary science diplomacy involves the celebrated but now apparently fraudulent scientific career of Elena Ceausescu, the wife of Romanian chief of state and Communist Party chairman Nicolae Ceausescu. The deception—credit for published material she never researched and technical degrees granted but never earned—was long-lived, generally known, but unchallenged. Western scientists and their Eastern bloc counterparts, by their silence, maintained her charade in the hope of protecting the careers and the families of Romanian scientists and engineers subject to the regime. The deception was critical to Elena's ego, to the maintenance of her power in the Romanian communist hierarchy, and to Romanian-American relations between 1965 and about 1984. At that time Romania's policy of defiant independence of the Soviet Union was working to the apparent advantage of the western powers. But it turns out, too, that the tilt of Romania toward the West was also a deception. The Ce...

Forestry Education in China

The administration of forestry activities in the People's Republic of China is centrally controlled through the Ministry of Forestry. Forestry education is planned and carried out as an adjunct to the national plan for forestry to meet specific human resource needs. Their educational delivery system is analogous to that in Canada with programs offered at vocational, technical, and bachelors degree levels, and graduate studies for both Masters and Ph.D. degrees at selected universities and colleges. However, recruitment of students, assignment to specialties, and placement of graduates offer interesting contrasts.

Technology and Magic

Technology and Magic

石炭灰中の有価物回収に関する内外技術動向

It is the most desirable to recover the valuables from coal ash and to utilize all the coal ash with the treated residue, regarding coal ash produced in large quantity in the future as ground mineral materials already delivered in factory.For the above purpose, I reviewed the various metal (Al, Fe, Ti) recovery processes from coal ash, and compared their features on the basis of the literature. And I discribed briefly present technical status in Japan.As the process which seems to be economical, I can list up Direct Acid Leaching process, Hichlor process, Fluorination process, and Calcinter process. Considering technical maturity degree, pollution problem, and site condition for delivery of lime, EPRI's DAL process is thought to be the most easy to commercialize.I introduced briefly DAL process on the basis of the report of the study results, and explained the remarkable feature.

The Challenge of Mai Chung: Teaching Technical Writing to the Foreign-Born Professional in Industry

Because of the growing numbers of foreign-born technical professionals in American industry, the need for appropriate on-site instruction in the English of Science and Technology (EST) is becoming urgent. However, what the working professional needs from a course in writing EST differs markedly from what the university student in a technical degree program needs. This article identifies the most important of these differences and their implications for course design and materials development. It also argues that recent research on the dynamics of reading technical English can be used to inform the teaching of the technical writing skills that non-native speakers of English require in industry settings. The main work I am doing is programing in data base system. Except to writing the program I have to put comments to my program shortly and clearly. When design a new command we are required to do the system documentation about the system is designed for the walk through. It is hard for me to write down and let people understand what I intend to do neatly and straight forward.

Adult Writers: Some Reasons for Ineffective Writing on the Job

Many researchers have addressed the problems of student writers, but as of late 1979, when I surveyed 254 topand mid-level managers, we still had little information about the problems of adult writers. The respondents were among the thousands of people who earn technical, legal, and scientific degrees, move into management, and find not only that they must write as part of their jobs, but also that promotions frequently depend upon their ability to communicate clearly and exactly. Ineffective writing can slow their rise through managerial ranks and, perhaps, prevent their reaching top executive positions. Some even change career directions because of writing problems. The survey indicates that two elements-one technical and one attitudinal-by fueling each other, sabotage the writing of many otherwise competent people. Although they are generally proficient in grammar and punctuation, these managers lack knowledge about the value of preparation or planning before writing the first draft. If they know that they should plan their documents, their ignorance of any method by which to do it causes anxiety, defensiveness, and reluctance to approach writing tasks until the last minute. As a result these professionally trained people produce disorganized and ineffective writing. Repeated criticism of documents that do not properly convey their messages very likely causes these people increased anxiety about writing and greater reluctance to approach the next writing task. The long run costs to business from inept writing have been estimated in the millions in slowed productivity, confused instructions, inexact reports, and defaulted contracts. The costs to individuals in diminished confidence, blasted hopes, and unfulfilled ambitions are incalculable. However, when I planned the survey, I was more interested in ferreting out problems in writing technique and language structure than in identifying attitudes. After all, adults in responsible positions, many with advanced degrees, had outgrown their adolescent anxieties, right? Wrong. Writing anxi-

Influence of substrate or product inhibition on the performance of enzyme reactors

For the design of an enzyme reactor a detailed knowledge of the kinetic parameters of the catalyst under operational conditions is essential. For technical applications high initial substrate concentrations and high degrees of conversions are desirable, in order to save reactor volume and energy in recovery processes. Most of the kinetic data available in the literature have been derived from dilute solutions under initial rate conditions. These data cannot be extrapolated with confidence for technically interesting concentrations because substrate as well as product-inhibition may occur, which would not be observed in dilute solutions and by initial rate measurements. Because of this difficulty effective and fast methods to obtain significant data for technical applications have been developed based on-line rate determinations. Such extensive treatment has proved necessary for the following enzymes: alanine dehydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase and alpha-glucosidase, indicating that we are dealing with a general phenomenon.

HUB SIZE SELECTION CRITERIA FOR CONTROLLABLE PITCH PROPELLERS AS A MEANS TO ENSURE SYSTEMS INTREGRITY

ABSTRACTIn a CP propeller the size of the hub largely influences the reliability of the system in operation. Accurate choice of the hub—size provides the best means to prevent the system from structural propeller failures and is therefore the best method to ensure reliability and optimized performance.Recent failures of high—power CP propellers, of which one Navy propeller had a serious mission failure, could have been avoided if a larger hub had been adopted.The paper contains two tools, available also to nonspecialists. One allows clear recognition of the technical degree of difficulty of all types of propellers and the other is a scale to determine the degree of load of each CP propeller hub. Information is given concerning the influence of the hub/diameter ratio on the hydrodynamic performance.

Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women

It has long been recognized that consumption behavior represents mainly joint household or family decisions rather than separate decisions of family members. Accordingly, the observational units in consumption surveys are "consumer units," that is, households in which income is largely pooled and consumption largely shared. More recent is the recognition that an individual's use of time, and particularly the allocation of time between market and nonmarket activities, is also best understood within the context of the family as a matter of interdependence with needs, activities, and characteristics of other family members. More generally, the family is viewed as an economic unit which shares consumption and allocates production at home and in the market as well as the investments in physical and human capital of its members. In this view, the behavior of the family unit implies a division of labor within it. Broadly speaking, this division of labor or "differentiation of roles" emerges because the attempts to promote family life are necessarily constrained by complementarity and substitution relations in the household production process and by comparative

Marketing strategy in socialist industrial enterprises

Based on a number of samples taken in the Hungarian central organs of economic management. Describes interactions between national planning and market forces. Documents how Hungarian enterprises are interested in their annual profits and states that the three main features are, that efficiency: depends on economic productivity success; is characterised by the technical degree of productivity; can be expressed by the degree of long‐range competitiveness. Finalises that the results can be analysed from the enterprise's market strategy and these should be seen at the level of the enterprise and the national economy.

DOING A DEGREE AT A TECHNICAL COLLEGE‐‐WHO DOES AND WHY? (I)

This article presents some of the findings of a research project on students who do degree courses at technical colleges. The aim was to discover what sort of students apply to technical colleges and to investigate the motivation behind their application. The research showed that the students (excluding those doing sandwich courses) are similar to university students in age, sex, social class and type of secondary education but that their ‘A’ level achievement was inferior. Most of them applied to go to university but were rejected. The technical college degree course is shown as being a second‐best alternative for students already strongly motivated towards gaining a degree.

Evaluation of Current Training of Economists for Positions in Industry

F IRST, let me say that my evaluation will be primarily for the training of Ph.D.'s in agricultural economics rather than Masters. A Master's degree in agricultural economics a few years ago was a good degree. However, today when we look at it, if we are not careful, it is a consolation prize of those who cannot go forward for a Ph.D. Most schools now are emphasizing training on the advanced degree and have neglected the Master's degree. It is being used as a preparation degree and not for specific training. One or two disciplines still have a good degree as a Master's. A Master's in business administration is a terminal degree and does qualify a person for a job in industry. A Master's in engineering is still one that we can use very much. Other degrees that are meaningful in our field are operations research and some technical degrees. As I look at the Ph.D. coming out of departments of agricultural economics, I think they are doing a good job in the following areas: 1. Welfare economics and agricultural policy. This is particularly true with policy dealing with the farmer, the protection of the farmer, and the perpetuation of our agricultural sector. Very few are well trained to deal with the economics of the total movement of products from farms to consumers but again I would stress that the training in agricultural policy is good. 2 International economics. Most professors now who are getting ahead with names are spending some time in foreign countries. Most universities are now allocating considerable money in international economics. Even I spent six weeks in a foreign country and, therefore, was an expert. Some of the analysis coming out of international economics leaves much to be desired, if some decisions are being made by a company on foreign investments. However, this area is getting sufficient attention I believe at this time.

The Integrated Course in the Foundations of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University

The integrated course known as Educational Foundations grew out of a concrete problem situation in Teachers College. For years there had been a requirement that every candidate for the Master's degree should have taken eight points of the thirty-two called for, in what has recently come to be named the Division of the Foundations of Education. Practically, this meant three courses chosen out of the history of education, the philosophy of edu cation, educational psychology, educational sociology, educational economics and comparative education. The requirement of so-called general courses reflected the idea that the Master's degree in Teachers College should not be a narrow, technical degree, devoted entirely to professional specialization. On the contrary, it was expected that the total experience leading to the degree should contain broadening elements?that which would lead the student to see his profes sional work in relationship to the society in which it was to be carried on and as dealing with a system of social and individual values which were to be fostered by his activity as teacher or school administrator. In the early years of the College, this broadening experience was thought to be provided through courses in the history and philosophy of education and educational psychology, but as the College expanded in teaching personnel and in offer ings many other courses came to be accepted as satisfying the requirement, so that by 1934-35 when the new integrated course was first undertaken, a student's program might show a course in the History of Education in the United States before I860, one in educational economics and still another in the psychology of adolescence, as adding up to eight points in the Foundations of Education. Under such circumstances it became difficult to show that the courses