Webinar

Thursday, April 25, 2013 – 1:00 pm EDT
Hear about MIT’s forthcoming report looking at how innovation flows from ideas through production into the economy.  Read more… 

Free webinar but advanced registration required.

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=04052013b&utm_medium=etmail&utm_source=National%20Academies&utm_campaign=04082013WhatsNews&utm_content=&utm_term=

More and more universities are promoting hands-on, multi-disciplinary learning experiences that balance knowledge with skills development to better prepare students for jobs. My colleagues and I have been promoting this kind of learning since the late ’90s… I am so glad that finally it looks that universities are transforming their curricula and learning experiences to bridge the gap between how we teach and how engineering is practiced.

Take a look at our workshops descriptions here.

From US News. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2013/03/14/revamped-engineering-programs-emphasize-real-world-problem-solving

THE’s top 10 (last year in brackets)

1 (1) Harvard University, US
2 (2) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
3 (3) University of Cambridge, UK
4 (6) University of Oxford, UK
5 (5) University of California, Berkeley, US
6 (4) Stanford University, US
7 (7) Princeton University, US
8 (9) University of California, Los Angeles, US
9 (8) University of Tokyo, Japan
10 (10)Yale University, US

Institutions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea all rose in the THE top 100. Universities in Russia, Turkey and Brazil are also represented. 

http://www.economist.com/whichmba/reputation-matters?fsrc=nlw|mgt|3-6-2013|5208664|38085276|NA 

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/

Top 50 in engineering:  http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/subject-ranking/subject/engineering-and-IT

THE’s top 10 (last year in brackets)

• “We are moving to a more competency-based world, where there will be less interest in how you acquired the competency — in an online course, at a four-year-college or in a company-administered class — and more demand to prove that you mastered the competency.” YES!
• “… strong consensus that this “blended model” combining online lectures with a teacher-led classroom experience was the ideal.” YES!
• “The world of MOOCs is creating a competition that will force every professor to improve his or her pedagogy or face an online competitor.” YES!
• Bottom line: “There is still huge value in the residential college experience and the teacher-student and student-student interactions it facilitates. But to thrive, universities will have to nurture even more of those unique experiences while blending in technology to improve education outcomes in measurable ways at lower costs. We still need more research on what works, but standing still is not an option.” YES!

Worth reading several times…

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/opinion/friedman-the-professors-big-stage.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130306&_r=0

Why some places seem more crowded than we think? Because of how population density is calculated. In this article, the Economist presents an alternative method of calculating population density: dividing the urban population by the area taken up by cities. On this measure Bangladesh’s urban areas hold about 75,000 people per square kilometre (194,250 per square mile). This is likely the world’s highest and is over 70 times the figure derived from cruder calculations. Click on the chart to access the article.

More at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/20/breakthrough-prize-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs

From the NY Times – March 4th 2013

It was the longest, most costly manhunt in science for an elusive particle that was said to be key to the workings of the universe. For a generation of physicists, it was an appointment with history.

http://nyti.ms/W0QLhY

Worth reviewing:

 innovationfiles.org-US_is_Falling_Further_Behind_in_Research_and_Development_Funding

For more details (deadline, prize, criteria) please visit

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/SEFI-Prize-PHD-Thesis-in-2731464.S.219012680?view=&gid=2731464&type=member&item=219012680&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_nd-lk-cn