The future is in STEM fields
Last week a friend asked me: “Why many countries are now focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Why is there such an urgent need, especially at the university level?
I told him: “Because technology is changing very fast so the world of tomorrow will be very different from today. In the near future, we will face many problems with complexities far exceeding what we can handle by our current thinking and solution. We are living in an interconnected world, but our thinking is still in isolation. Unless we are changing our thinking quickly, we cannot solve the future problems. To change the thinking, we must begin with the education where young people can be taught about solving problems by innovation solutions. Students must learn the convergence of multiple fields such as life science and computer science; chemical science and physical science; engineering and arts; history and social science etc. Only by understand several cross-disciplines, they can solve complex problems that begin to happen now. “
My friend seemed confused: “But how do STEM education solve them? We have been teaching these fields for years, but I do not see the difference.”
I explained: “STEM is a very broad area with many subfields but people only think of STEM as four isolated areas instead of the convergence of many subfields together. This is a major mistake because innovations often happen at the intersection among these subfields. Only by understand the convergence of all the subfields in life science, computer science, engineering, and mathematics then students can understand the complex issues that are happening today. To succeed in the next twenty to fifty years, students must be able to look at problems differently as they are all inter-connected. Students must learn about their causes and effects and not an isolated incident. Without this knowledge, people cannot solve them by currently isolated thinking. To develop the ability to solve these complex problems, students must understand the consequence of their action in a much broader context. They must think of the world as a whole because everything that happens, even in an isolated area, will have an impact on the whole world. What happens today is the result of an isolated thinking resulting in many problems that no one and no country can solve alone. We are dealing with complex problems such as global warming, severe weather patterns, and devastating diseases that threaten everyone and every country.”
My friend asked: “But why do we start with education? Is there a better solution from other sources such as the governments and business companies?”
I explained: “It is difficult to change the thinking of these people as they are trained to think in isolation for a long time. It is easier to start with younger people because they are the future. If you look at major problems today such as global warming that creates drought and famine in many countries. How do you solve it because no country would admit that their industries and manufacturers are responsible for this problem? These problems are here today, but people could not solve them, so they only talk about them without any real solutions. But the matter is getting worst because the younger generation will have to live with these problems and suffer the consequences. To solve these complex problems, we must start with education, especially college education by developing new learning methods to build students’ knowledge and competency. College graduates of the future must be technically competent, have a lifelong learning attitude, and understand the consequences of what they do. This is why technology should NOT be taught in an isolated area but the combination of social science, ethics, and humanity. The current problem is due to the isolated thinking of technology where scientists are focusing on what they do regardless of the consequences. How many people remember when business and finance people are only thinking about profits without the consequences that led to the financial crisis of 2008. When manufacturing managers only concern about increase productivity, they do not pay attention to the pollution that affects millions of people and caused all type of diseases in the world. The use of technology without ethics is the fundamental problem that we have today because of our isolated thinking. Young people today are obsessed with technology, but they have not pay attention to the consequences of the technology wastes that they have helped created. By the convergence of these fields in STEM education, students can learn more about causes and consequences so they would be more careful than the previous generation. Today, with the Internet, students can learn anything they want from anywhere, but with the current knowledge explosion, students need to learn “how to learn fast” and “how to read more” so that they can continuously to improve their knowledge of new contexts. To do so, they need to equip themselves with these foundations because almost every innovation that happens in the future will be based on the convergence of these four fields.”
My friend was not convinced: “Are you sure the future will be based on STEM fields but not something else?
I explained: “STEM is the four pillars of the future education where innovation solutions can be found. Today people pay attention to science and technology, but you cannot implement them without engineering and math because they are all related. If you look at current technology progress, you will be amazed at the speed of innovations. A few years ago would you think a car can drive itself? But today the self-driving car is all over the place, and almost every car companies are building driverless cars. Just think about you step into the driverless car, push the button then sit down to check email, send text messages, or listen to music when the car knows the best way to take you home. It is not science fiction anymore but a reality. Last month, Uber began to offer rides in self-driving cars in Pittsburgh and soon will expand to other cities. Last week I called Uber to go to the Airport using a driverless car, and it went well. Technology changes fast and without the application of several technology fields together, driverless car, will never happen. That is why I think by studying STEM allows students to be a part of the future where they will design new transportation systems that are completely difference because the future is now.”
“Today young people play computer games on laptops and mobile phone with their friends, but soon they will play with smart robots. As the field of artificial intelligence is exploding with new complex machine learning software, smart robots could compete with people in every area. I think in another five years, we will see more artificial intelligence technology in every robot and it will change every field and every industry. As the car can drive itself, robots can do many things people do today in manufacturing, construction, office, housework, etc. I think soon people can buy robots that can cook, do laundry, sweep the floor, and take care of the children because I saw a prototype of these robots in the laboratory at Carnegie Mellon. My question is since robots can take over many jobs that people are doing today, why continue to go to school and learn the jobs that soon can be taken over by robots? Why not learning about building robots? Why not learning about Artificial Intelligence? Why not study software engineering to write complex machine learning algorithms? That is why I encourage students to study STEM because they are the career of the future.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
