Halla’s Perfect Storm of Technology Neglect
Back in 2005, I sat in on a great
keynote speech by Brian Halla, CEO and President of National
Semiconductor, who talked about the lack of U.S. competitiveness in
science and technology. Halla tells the story of the rallying cry
among Americans that followed Russia’s launch of Sputnick
satellite in 1957, and the U.S. response with the subsequent
voyage to and landing of a man on the moon in 1969. He said the
entire nation was behind that feat and a similar effort is required
in modern times to revitalize science and technology in the
U.S.
July 20, 1969, Edwin
“Buzz” Aldrin stands beside a solar wind experiment on
the moon, with the lunar module (LM) in the background. (Source:
NASA)
In 2005, when discussing what
Americans would get behind, Halla said, “’ask anyone, if
the government spent $10 billion creating independence from other
countries for our energy, for our oil,’ would we do it? We’d do it
in a heartbeat,” he said, as was reported by Manufacturing
and Technology News.1
Of course, this was back in 2005
when gasoline prices really weren’t too high.
As I sat reading the news this week
of the US governments’ emergency financial plans to save our
faltering economy, it occurred to me that all of the strategies
seem to be stop-gaps, and do nothing to address underlying, long
term problems. Of course, I am not an economist – I try to
focus on being more in tune with fab engineers and equipment and
materials guys who know how to make things work. In light of that,
my suggestion for an ailing economy comes from a different
perspective:
Could we quickly assess how, when
and where renewable energies could be most effectively applied in
our country and make those investments more attractive to investors
– i.e., give reasonable incentives? With the right types of
investments, solar energy could reach grid parity in around 2
years. Wind energy, biofuels, electric and hybrid cars and
geothermal energy all have their roles to play in different
geographic regions and different applications. Best of all, I think
the new energy economy has the potential to address our greatest
problem right now – job creation.
The underlying problem of job loss
must be addressed. This isn’t just about manufacturing jobs
that have been lost, but engineering and research jobs as well as
many higher level jobs that are the inevitable result of a global
economy.
Instead of taking the very risky
move of printing lots of money (which will only lead to inflation)
and continuing to bail out institutions that took risks they never
should have to begin with, the leaders of this country need to
start addressing the big picture to make the economy more
stable.
I am reminded of something that
Halla freely admitted during his keynote. That whenever he gives
one of his talks about U.S. competitiveness at technical
conferences, one of the key problems is that he’s
“preaching to the choir.” This discussion of what we
have learned from the semiconductor industry globalization must be
taken to the general population.
The time is right for the U.S.
government to provide strong incentives for renewable energy to
create jobs – jobs for engineers and skilled labor. This will
fuel our economic recovery, while lessening our reliance on fossil
fuel and natural gas suppliers. This is not a partisan issue.
It’s a basic business issue involving sound investments and
adequate returns – investing in something that can feed upon
itself and inspire the next generation of frontiersmen.
Reference
K. Jacobson, “National
Semiconductor CEO Brian Halla: ‘We are Sitting in the Middle of a
Perfect Storm of Technology Neglect’,”
Manufacturing & Technology News, October 12, 2005.
Floobydust commented:
Dear Mr Halla PLease refrain from talking out of both sides of your
mouth. Your actions speak louder than words. 25% layoff and Bob
Pease gets the boot? Give me a break......
TheAnonymousEngineer commented:
There's plenty of American STEM talent out there. The whole notion
of a shortage came from a study long ago debunked. See:
www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG118/index.html What Mr. Halla is
really complaining about is the lack of talent willing to work for
the salaries he's willing to pay.
GregM commented:
The crux of the education dilemma is not money spent, but rather
what it is spent on. Technical education needs much smaller,
hands-on classes. It is the elegant school of Socrates, on how to
approach problems and issues, with facts and discovery. On to Mars
via solar power!
Greg commented:
“With the right types of investments, solar energy could
reach grid parity in around 2 years. Wind energy, biofuels,
electric and hybrid cars and geothermal energy all have their roles
…” I know it’s not the main trust of your
article, but you omitted a technology that can economically produce
large-scale results now: NUCLEAR. All that’s necessary to
make it pay off is a change in the regulatory structure.
There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to build and
license a nuke plant in 5 years or less. We could standardize on
one scalable, modular design that could provide capacity in units
of 400 MW, for example. The greenies need to stop obsessing about
an accident that happened 30 years ago (or the policy makers need
to start ignoring the greenies). Technology has progressed since
TMI.
Vherrera commented:
According to ABC News: Following the Bailout Money Trail. How Does
$8.5 Trillion Measure Up? Medicare/Medicaid - $662 Billion Defense
- $592 Billion Education - $66 Billion Homeland Security -
$41 Billion Why is it that education continue to be at the bottom
on the list? How can our students compete with other countries for
jobs in science and technology when adecuate funding is not
allocated to prepare them. Its not that our students are 'dumb',
but rather our government policies and decisions are what is making
them 'dumb'.
Jerry Roane commented:
Great piece. We are falling flat on useful education and we do not
reward our technologists as much as we do our litigators. PV solar
is a win. Couple that with advanced transportation that uses PV as
its only power source and we can go a long way toward ending our
dependence on foreign oil as well as traffic congestion. The time
has come to let the dinosaurs die and be replaced with better more
agile competitors with fresh new ideas. All the engineering
education in the world will not help if those engineers are tasked
with designing better cup holders. It is time to take our energy
position seriously and require engineering parameters of cars.
Things like legislating an ever decreasing Cd for one simple
no-cost to the government start. Each year several design
parameters need to be set for constant improvement. Those
organizations that cannot improve die off.
Tamza commented:
I hope the current economic situation (can we call it depression,
since the 'recession' started last December?) will create a certain
amount of protectionism. Free trade is fine if the benefits flow to
EVERYONE, but in this case the freer the trade the more we 'export'
jobs,, create unemployment, and eventually a HOLLOWING to the core
of our technological capabilities .. and an end to the 'service'
economy. As long as we place teachers at the BOTTOM Of the pay
grade, and financiers at the top, education will keep getting
shortchanged; the small number of concerned people will have a hard
time bringing about change. Take a look at Japan ... by following
our business methods they have DESTROYED themselves as an economic
powerhouse ... now they are struggling to get back to the old
system ... dont know if they will ever be able to.
Ed commented:
I like this idea. What I don't like are the big shots like Barrett
who talk about educating our kids in Science and Math and then run
off to support the kids in India or where ever so that they can
become the next crop of cheap engineering talent either here or
outsource. Any smart kids here want to go to the trouble and
expense of an engineering degree to join this messed up game?
Policebox commented:
First of all, the stopgap measures are needed. They are not long
term solutions, but the long term solutions will never happen if
the problems aren't held in the short term. Often enough, people
think in terms of the old saying "Give a man a fish and he will eat
for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."
Unfortunately, for the followers of this mantra, you must often
give the man several fish to give him time to learn. Let us just
hope that when the economists are done halting the slide the
policymakers will take the necessary steps to bring about a long
term solution. Second, except at the University level, the US never
did have educational prominance. The scientists that gave us our
technical revolution were mostly educated elsewhere. Even the space
program, the rockets were designed by Germans and the capsules
designed by Canadians. It is usless to say that we must go back to
a system we never had. We must create a new system that outperforms
anything that has ever existed.
TKunkel commented:
I feel your pain Brady, especially as an Illinois citizen...as we
are 47th in Job Creation!
MSimon commented:
Bring back PSSC Physics.
MSimon commented:
Unless the technologies produce results at lower costs than current
technologies they will be a waste of money. Of course of the costs
were lower no government intervention would be required. If the
technologies are not cost competitive then the rational approach is
to invest in research to make them competitive. However, the number
of research jobs will be small and the results will not be
immediate.
Brady commented:
The folks here in California should abstain from discussion here,
until we climb out of 47th of the 50 states in education. We are
disqualified on this Technology topic. Here in silicon valley, we
hire Indians and Chinese to do the science needed. Invest in our
children. (From a Virginian transplanted to silly valley.)
Tom Kunkel, President of Nextendllc.com commented:
I agree, yet propose we drill a bit deeper. Silicon Valley was
spawned by that race to the moon and since then we have also
neglected to arm our schools and kids with the basic IT tools that
resulted. As a result, we are losing our educational prominence and
our tech jobs to more qualified graduates from India and China!
