Engineering workforce woes
In response to the story about Dean Sastry’s appearance on CNBC-TV [fall 2008, p. 8], I don’t know what the woman at Xerox is talking about. My company has great engineering staff, both women and Americans, and many also happen to be of Chinese and Indian ancestry. I am a bit wary of leaders in both academia and corporations along with politicians lamenting the lack of minorities in engineering; it is self-serving, perpetuates self-victimization and makes America look like a country of whiners.

I took my first trip to Bangalore in 2005 and came away impressed with the young people I met: their eagerness to learn, seriousness of purpose and real sense of moving forward. At my hotel, not even the best in town, I got my first full 10MB/s wireless Internet connection anywhere!

I think once we, as a country, start having celebrity scientists and engineers instead of just actors, singers and athletes, we will see more Americans go into engineering and the hard sciences.
—Jeffrey C. Chu (M.S.’79 EE), President & CEO, Glowlink Communications, Los Altos, California

Torture by Forefront
I am a proud Berkeley engineer and enjoy Forefront, especially the historical articles. I spent my career in the nuclear field and so had fun reading “Nuclear turns 50”
[fall 2008, p. 4].

But, having failed to convince my oldest son to accept Berkeley Engineering’s offer of admittance, I am constantly seeking means of revenge, and Forefront frequently gives me ammunition. (He subsequently earned degrees from Carnegie Mellon and Purdue and has spent his career designing internal combustion engines.) I wanted to send the wayward son a link to “The smart little engine that could” [fall 2008, p. 16], but could find only the previous edition on your website. Is there some reason why the most recent issue is not posted? There might be even better reasons to do so than alumni needling their offspring.
—Steve Slaton (B.S.’70 ME), Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired), Bremerton, Washington

From the editor:
We aim to post Forefront online simultaneously with print distribution but were behind schedule last fall. Our apologies! Go to http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/news-center/publications/forefront

Climate change chatter
From Dean Sastry’s message in the fall 2008 issue of Forefront, it sounds like he subscribes to much of the chatter over climate change. All the states in our nation are rushing to control carbon emissions, either by technological or economic means. As fashionable as global warming may be, it is not at all certain that man’s activities have had, or that his proposed changes will have, a significant effect. Appropriate measurements, not models, are absolutely necessary to determine whether these costly changes are making any difference. I’m not very optimistic because I believe this business is driven by political and emotional factors. But I believe engineers have a duty to bring out the facts.
—Anders Lundberg (B.S.’59, M.S.’61 ME), Engineer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

New directions in IEOR
Below is just one of many responses we received following coverage in Forefront [fall 2008, p. 10] and other publications of the college’s plans for the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR).

Some of us in IEOR appreciate that not everyone thinks we’re just managers, vague consultants or “imaginary” engineers. I’m really excited about the new direction of the department and the generous contribution.

Our rules, in contrast to other engineers, are centered on the people and its systems. Supply chains, transportation systems, financial systems, service systems and even urban planning can derive useful metrics from IEOR’s research in mathematical modeling, data analysis and simulation. The global perspective that IEOR takes has huge potential in the design of unique systems that can potentially outperform traditional systems.

Especially in these times, where efficiency is measured not only by the dollar but by its impact on the Earth, IEOR is facing a change. Optimization and engineering must come from a human perspective, where systems positively affect people rather than inadvertently marginalize them for the purpose of economic efficiency.
—Jarrett Bato (B.S.’08 IEOR), Soledad, California

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