U.S. engineers battle globalization impact

[OhioChick]

Posted : 01 Jan 2007

The U.S. engineering community is wrestling with the quickening pace of offshoring. As they work to document the extent of offshoring in areas such as chip design, experts are trying to get their arms around globalization's implications for the engineering profession and, more important, for the future of U.S. innovation.

Recent examinations of the issue by some of the profession's top thinkers have found that the United States still leads in areas like advanced chip design. But there's concern that the United States lead could be shrinking. Indeed, rising costs, competitive pressures and the global transmission of intellectual property are reshaping the engineering profession and the nature of innovation in ways that are just beginning to be understood.

Part of the debate focuses on whether location matters in engineering. Some argue that a connected world renders a company's location irrelevant. Others say proximity to clusters of innovative startups, corporate R&D labs, universities and venture capital are the pistons that drive the engine of innovation.

Both sides have a point, Charles Vest, president emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told a recent offshoring workshop in Washington. But however you view it, "globalization is the new reality."

http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800447615_765245_840c115c200612.HTM

<snip> Between 2000 and 2003, according to the National Academy of Sciences, foreign-owned companies built an estimated 60,000 manufacturing plants in China. During the same period, an estimated 400,000 U.S. IT manufacturing jobs were lost, according to presidential advisory panel statistics.

Other observers note that recent political shifts in the United States may strengthen the hand of organized labor, which provided much of the financial backing used by Democrats to recapture control of Congress. In return for their campaign contributions, labor groups will likely press lawmakers to put the brakes on offshoring as a way to preserve U.S. manufacturing jobs. What impact that might have on the future of U.S. innovation remains unclear.

[antigop]

1. Charles Vest is on the board of directors at IBM

http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2004/annual/dao.shtml

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