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Educating Professionals for Europe's Electronic System Businesses

EC Skills Workshop 5may14, Brussels.

YouTube@ http://youtu.be/DTxhnfqV2rs More@ http://ianp24.blogspot.com

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Educating Professionals for Europe's Electronic System Businesses

EC Skills Workshop 5may14, Brussels.

Prof. Ian Phillips Principal Staff Engineer

ARM Ltd ian.phillips@arm.com

Visiting Prof. at ...

Contribution to Industry Award

2008

Opinions expressed are my own ...

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I’ve see figures projecting shortage of more than 2B engineers by 2020 Big enough to terrify; but way too big to resolve organically

But faced with short-fall business will reorganise around those available ... IC design is 1000x more productive today than 20yrs ago! Business will adapt (or die!)

So, I believe, there will be a modest to severe shortage (as there is today) ... ... and we will manage it (as we do today) by beg, steal or borrow from others

... But those Nations developing more good quality Engineers/Scientists out of their population will be best placed to keep, and directly benefit from them

... So no reason not to improve our ecosystems to be better than the rest !

The world needs more Engineers and Scientists But the Figures are large and very debatable...

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Do Our Achievements Speak For Us ?

... Science and Engineering made the world we live in: Yet ... ... most people don’t see it, and have no idea what “we” do in it!

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The Science That Lets Us to Do ... Electronics is the pinnacle of

mankind’s ingenuity in the manipulation of matter ... Enables us all to do such

wonderful things! Dependent on Mathematics, Physics

and Chemistry The measure of what humans can

achieve by reusing the ingenuity of our predecessors ... “Standing on the shoulders of giants” (Isaac Newton)

But though it is very clever ... It is not actually Magic! It is ingenious, precise, exciting and

laborious ... And evolving. But not as Magic as Nature!

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic!” ... A.C.Clarke (Science Fiction Author)

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The Science That Lets Us to Do ... Electronics is the pinnacle of

mankind’s ingenuity in the manipulation of matter ... Enables us all to do such

wonderful things! Dependent on Mathematics, Physics

and Chemistry The measure of what humans can

achieve by reusing the ingenuity of our predecessors ... “Standing on the shoulders of giants” (Isaac Newton)

But though it is very clever ... It is not actually Magic! It is ingenious, precise, exciting and

laborious ... And evolving. But not as Magic as Nature!

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic!” ... A.C.Clarke (Science Fiction Author)

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The Threshold of Magic 1: Clarke: Any sufficiently advanced

technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Everybody has a threshold, beyond which observed Functionality is Indistinguishable From Magic1! Chemical Systems Biological Systems Economic Systems Electronic Systems

The Incandescent Light: is the for most non-scientific, but well-educated people!

... We will ALL lose if we fail to

explain the difference between Magic and Science to the Public!

... Our roles will not be recognised or valued; Teaching and Research will go; Tech. Jobs will follow.

... And Our Society will become dependent on Others.

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Unless Society Recognises (and values) what we actually do, it will never be recognised as a Career Opportunity! People will not direct their Kids in this direction Kids will not see it as an interesting, challenging, lucrative opportunity

Unless Politicians Value our contribution to our National Economies they will never prioritise our roles in it! What contribution do we make to our respective Economies? (ES in UK was quantified as 855k people; 5.4% of Economy (www.esco.org.uk))

Until We Understand our Roles in the Wider Context we will never be able to explain them to (lay) others! What successful Research/Businesses are operating in this area? What roles do they undertake in Global Electronic Systems (CPS)? What obstacles do they face?

... We have to do this Education Ourselves!

Educating Society ... Our Technologies are not speaking for us ...

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Tertiary Education (Bs, Ms, PhD) gets you onto the First Step ... Electrical Eng, Computer Sci, Maths, Physics ... Enables you to Understand the Language and the Context Prepares you to take the next (and subsequent steps) yourself Adaptability and Learning-to-Learn is a key requirement of an E/S Graduate

... Certificates matter; but not that much!

Majority of an E/S training is Through-Life (and JIT) ... Business opportunities are Capability Based; the Capabilities you have determine

the Products you can produce ... Skilled E/S are important part of that Capability A good E/S connects Knowledge (own+) and Experience to Deliver Innovation An E/S’s value is dominated by their last 3-5yrs of ‘work’ ... On-the-Job, Experience, Exposure and Formal Training; all count!

... Gov’s and Providers must support the whole-life needs of E/S! ... The right environment attracts them and keeps them

Engineer/Scientist ... “The Journey of a Lifetime” Business values Ability over the way in which it was achieved ...

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Elitism and the Engineer/Scientist ... A(nother) world where prowess matters

Around 3% of the population has an Engineering Degree ... Only ~half of this number are actually employed as E/S

That’s around one person in a Secondary Education class (a Geek!)

Around 1% of them will be ‘World-Class Leaders’... The benefits they bring to local society/economy are very real The opportunity to double/treble their number is also very real

... Alas, initiatives to realise the potential of that 0.03% of the population would be seen by society as favouring the already favoured!

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Requires a two-pronged approach ... 1. Educate Society about our roles, our contribution and the career opportunities

that our community presents 2. Assure the through-life education requirements of Engineers/Scientists is met

to maintain/enhance their global credibility

Encourage Intellectual Elitism ... May not be a politically acceptable topic But it is important for Europe’s global competitiveness; and thus for Society

... This complementary to the numerous Primary and Secondary education initiatives to

improve STEM and CS education ... All of which I applaud!

Conclusions “Bridging the supply and demand of skilled professionals in the electronic/photonic components and smart/embedded systems”...