Transcript Portuguese Research-Universities: Why Not The Best?

Portuguese Research-Universities:
Why Not The Best?
Michael Athans
Visiting Research Professor
Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica
Instituto Superior Técnico
Lisboa, Portugal
and
Professor of Electrical Engineering (emeritus)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Mass., USA
[email protected] or [email protected]
September 29, 2000
University of Porto
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Background
• Remarks limited to engineering education and research
• my hope is to stimulate debate
• Faculty member at MIT for 38 years
• supervised 40 Ph.D. and over 80 Master´s theses
• co-authored over 300 technical papers
• director of research center (LIDS) for 8 years
• several teaching and research awards
• Visiting research scientist at ISR/IST for past 3 years
• Had many discussions with engineering faculty and students
at several Portuguese universities
• perceived tension between Portuguese industry
needs/desires and university training
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My Beliefs
• University research is a noble intellectual activity
• Research universities represent a national treasure
• The societal benefits from university research are immense
• the Silicon Valley syndrome
There is nothing worse than a wasted fert ile mind!
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Impressions of Portuguese
Universities
• Well-trained and hard-working students
• Overworked and stressed junior faculty
• they strive to create research environment
• too many teaching and administrative duties
• too many examinations
• lack of institutional incentives and support
• Too few full professors; many technically obsolete!
• unfair and arbitrary promotion proceedings
• inbreeding in hiring, extremely dangerous!
The time is ripe for improving research environment
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Good Research Requires Time!
• Few people can be superior researchers
• too many trivial conference papers, few publications in firstclass journals (resume padding) are not the hallmark of
superior research
• Superior researchers are intellectual “masochists”
• they must accept that most new ideas lead to dead-ends
• they must learn to accept failure, yet persevere to keep
trying over-and-over
• they live for the rare thrill of a “breakthrough”
• Prolonged periods of personal time are required to think deeply
• high-quality research cannot be done in one’s “spare time”
• intense concentration and “well-being” are essential
• Research teams provide “idea-multiplier”
My impression of situation in Portugal:
too much equality, little promotion of excellence
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My Suggestions: Three Building
Blocks
• Create more uninterrupted time for research
• all teaching and all examinations must be conducted from
September 15 to June 15
• Provide better career incentives for Portuguese researchers and
fair rewards
• invert academic pyramid: increase number of full and
associate professors
• improve financial rewards for superior researchers
• Strive for improved university-industry collaboration
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MIT vs IST: Statistics
• Small number of full and associate professors in Portuguese
universities is unfair and contributes to abuses in hiring
(inbreeding) and promotion process
• Present system encourages “academic dictators”
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U.S. Research Universities:
The Jewel of American Institutions
• Several centers of excellence, both public and private, in
engineering, science and technology
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• University of California at Berkeley
• Stanford University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• University of Illinois at Urbana
• California Institute of Technology
• University of Michigan
....... and many many others
• All provide first-rate engineering education and excel in basic
and applied research
What can Portugal learn from these
success stories?
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Fundamental Premises
• Technological obsolescence can occur in as little as 5-10 years!
• Excellence in research is one of the ultimate roots of all
academic excellence, in both undergraduate and postgraduate
education
• Objectives of undergraduate engineering education
• teach fundamentals
• teach “how to learn”
• minimize risk of technical obsolescence
• Objectives of post-graduate education (Masters, Doctorate)
• mastery of the state-of-the art in professional subjects
• close and prolonged association between teacher and pupil
• learn how to innovate
• learn how to discover
• experience the thrill of discovery
Portuguese students should be trained for
careers and success in the global marketplace
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Good Researchers Make Better Teachers!
• Speed of technological innovation makes it mandatory to
continually move “advanced topics” into post-graduate and
undergraduate courses
• this process provides superior motivation for all students
• professors with excellent research credentials are best
suited to implement such educational innovations
• Researchers must have responsibility of monitoring long-term
industrial needs and guide undergraduate and Masters research
topics along relevant directions
• History has shown that long-term educational impact of serious
researchers is superior to that of classical “good” teachers
• distinction breeds distinction
• attitudes, as well as knowledge, are promulgated by
distinguished teachers-researchers
Advanced research is necessarily an “elitist” activity!
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Undergraduate Engineering Education:
Some Radical Recommendations
• Classes and exams: Mid-September to Mid-June
• no formal classes or exams during the summer
• Students should take only 3-4 technical subjects per semester
• at present, there are too many subjects and “labs”
• Eliminate insane practice of repeated examinations
• current system inhibits thinking and learning in-depth
• adopt weekly graded homework assignments
• give two midterm exams and a final to assign grade (no
second chances!)
• Introduce “undergraduate research opportunities” as early as
possible, as an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum
• Provide serious academic and career counseling for all students
by faculty
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Benefits for Learning
• Reduced academic load and change in examination philosophy
helps students to think while learning
• weekly homework and frequent exams are a superior
mechanism for “learning how to learn”
• intense studying only at the end of the semester is highly
counterproductive; almost always a waste of time
• Industrial summer jobs allow the students to understand
industrial needs and procedures (and make some money ...)
• industrial experience can lead to more relevant
undergraduate and postgraduate research topics
• gaps between theory and practice provide superior
motivation even for advanced theoretical research at the
doctoral level
Portuguese universities should develop
administrative mechanisms to place
students in industrial summer jobs
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Benefits for Research
• The three summer months provide uninterrupted time for deep
thinking for faculty and postgraduate student research, freed
from academic and administrative duties
• More routine research and development tasks can be done
during the 9-month academic period
• advise undergraduates of research opportunities
• monitor postgraduate student research
• plan and execute undergraduate research projects
• review literature
• write and rewrite papers and books
• write research proposals
Academic administrators MUST cherish, protect
and safeguard their precious research resources!!!
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Postgraduate Education and Research
• Postgraduate students must have adequate salary
• conditioned on satisfactory progress
• alternate between “teaching assistants” and “research
assistants”
• Single Master’s thesis supervisor; no thesis defense
• Early establishment of doctoral thesis committee
• enforce tough qualification criteria for doctorate
• frequent research reports to thesis committee
• doctoral thesis defense examination should be a “formality”
• 1-2 years for Master’s thesis; 3-4 more years for doctoral degree
• All Master´s and doctoral theses should be written in English
• Doctoral students should have no expectations for guaranteed
academic career, especially at the same university (inbreeding)
Postgraduate students are a vital link in the
educational and research process
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Research Incentives (I)
• Salary equality is a major cause for educational and
professional mediocrity
• Allow faculty one day per week for paid industrial consulting
• Provide extra salary for up to 3 summer months paid by
research contracts
• current 14 month salary should be treated as 9 month salary
• no contracts, no extra pay!
• Establish multiple professorial salary ranks to reward
outstanding teaching and research achievements
• not all professors are created equal!
There is nothing more frustrating than to work
an 80-hour week without professional
recognition and financial rewards
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Research Incentives (II)
• Reduce teaching loads for proven researchers
• 2-3 subjects per academic year should be “normal” load
• credit for graduate and undergraduate research supervision
• Increase international collaborative efforts
• Institute annual departmental/university awards for superior
teaching and research
• Provide adequate technician, secretarial and administrative
support for research contracts
• faculty members should not be accountants
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Research Philosophy
• Primary aim of research is to uncover facts of “strategic value”
• discovering more-and-more facts is not enough (especially
trivial ones)
• strive for deep insights to poorly understood questions
• exploit multi-disciplinary thinking
• welcome industry inputs
• Rely on peer review and peer pressure
• encourages humility
• in absence of peer review, mediocre people think that they
are “big shots”
• Appreciate that fundamental research requires critical mass
• research teams provide critique, exchange of ideas, promote
competition, and foster humility
• research teams are incubators of “idea-multipliers”
Create research superstars!
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University Policies (I)
• International departmental/research-center visiting committees
should have major impact and real power in assessing
educational excellence and research accomplishments
• should meet every two years
• Visiting committees should be composed of high-caliber
academic and industrial leaders (no politics!)
• should conduct confidential individual and group sessions
with students and junior faculty
• evaluate fairness of hiring and promotion practices
• help isolate “academic dictators” from mainstream process
• public disclosure of evaluations and recommendations
• University administrators must be required to pay attention to,
and act upon, recommendations of visiting committees
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University Policies (II)
• Remove politics from university administration
• only faculty should decide educational and research policy
• students and support staff do not have strategic long-term
vision
• student committees can and should provide input to faculty
decisions
• Enforce fair and impartial tenure and promotion procedures
• promote on fixed schedule, not based on openings
• must document international research reputation
• Faculty inbreeding should be discouraged; hire only the best!
• tap Portuguese talent abroad
• Strive for improved university-industry collaboration
• establish mechanisms for life-long learning
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Inbreeding has Reached Crisis Level
• Mediocre “academic dictators” use inbreeding as a smoke
screen to hide their academic and research incompetence
• current jury system is flawed; too much misinformation and
manipulation
• current system represents a “massacre” of the concept of
academic freedom and university independence
• Inbreeding is a perfect example of “mediocrity breads
mediocrity”
• Inbreeding stifles new ideas regarding teaching and research
innovations
• University and national administrative procedures are urgently
needed to stop these corrupt academic practices
• need to develop and enforce tough standards and demand
accountability
• independent visiting committees are the key to the solution
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A Partnership for Progress
UNIVERSITIES
INDUSTRY
RESEA RCH
INDUSTRY R&D
TEACHING
CONTINUING
EDUCATION
STUDENTS
EMPLOYMENT
• Strong university-industry collaboration and advanced research
can lead to Portuguese “Silicon Valley” development
• This does not mean that university researchers must solve
immediate industrial problems
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Policy Challenges
• Fair intellectual property guidelines (patents and copyrights)
• Realistic industrial liaison and contracts policies
• mechanisms for disseminating research to industry
• “company secrets” vs. open research dissemination
• Establish strict “conflict of interest” rules
• Encourage and fund research leaves and sabbaticals abroad
• Attract international doctoral students and post-docs
• Remove “burned-out” faculty from mainstream research process
• Nurture budding entrepreneurs (students and faculty)
Do not allow bureaucracy to
exti ngui sh the flame of research
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National Policies
UNIVERSITIES
GOVERNMENT
INDUSTRY
• Requires improved coordination between Education, Science
and Technology, and Commerce ministries
• increase full and associate professor slots
• formalize education/research visiting committees
• Formalize “research university” status
• not every university in Portugal can be a research university
• facilitate visiting faculty sabbaticals in research universities
• Provide R&D tax incentives to industry so as to encourage
industry-university collaboration
• Revitalize impact of Portuguese Academy of Engineering
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Recapitulation
• Change academic calendar: September 15 to June 15
• eliminate multiple examinations at the end of each semester
• encourage undergraduate research projects, as early as
possible
• Increase numbers of full and associate professors
• Provide well-deserved financial rewards to distinguished faculty
researchers
• Avoid “inbreeding”; it has reached dangerous level
• Demand international peer-review using visiting committees
• at present full professors have too much power and no
accountability
• Promote long-term collaboration among research universities
and industry, in both teaching and research
• Formalize “research-university” status
Strive for research excellence,
do not reward mediocrity
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Why Not The Best?
• High-quality advanced research training and education are in
the best interest of Portugal
• national pride
• global marketplace of ideas
• better educated citizens
• global economic competitiveness
• Spin-offs from university research environment can be unique
contributors to national wealth
• Portuguese economic health provides ideal climate for change
• costs are minuscule!
• John F. Kennedy quote:
... Others say “why?”. We say “why not!”
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Researchers of Portugal, unite! You
have nothing to lose but your
chains!
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