Statement of David B. Leeson for the American Electronics Association Before the Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities Mr. Chairman and Members of this Distinguished Committee: My name is David Leeson. I am the founding president of California Microwave, Inc., a manufacturer of telecommunications and defense electronics equipment. The company was founded 15 years ago and employs approximately 1,200 people. I was educated at Caltech, M.I.T. and Stanford, and a substantial portion of my graduate education was supported by federal and industry fellowships. I received my Ph.D. degree in 1962. I am a member of the Board of Directors of the American Electronics Association (AEA) and am appearing before you today on behalf of that organization. The American Electronics Association represents over 2,000 growing high technology companies throughout the U.S. The Association's membership includes all segments of the U.S. electronics industry, including computers, telecommunications, defense, instruments, semiconductors, software, research, and office systems. Association numbers among its members many of the largest electronic manufacturers, a majority of AEA's member companies are relatively young innovative organizations employing fewer than 500 employees. In aggregate, AEA companies employ over 1,000,000 Americans. While the The electronics and information technology companies are major contributors to the industrial development of the United States, both through the creation of jobs within the industry and through the improvement of the productivity of all other sectors of the These same technology companies are also key resources in the national defense. The industry has had a phenomenal growth rate of 17% over the last decade, and currently ranks ninth among U.S. industry categories. By the end of the century electronics and information technology industries are expected to economy. rank second. Sales of the top 100 electronics companies increased 46% between 1979 and 1981; this is reflected in the creation of a substantial number of U.S. jobs within the industry. Additionally, the electronics and information technology sector is a bright spot in the continuing creation of innovative and entrepreneurial new companies which have proven the ongoing source of economic growth in the U.S. economy. In addition to ongoing need for capital and a favorable regulatory climate, the electronics industry requires a reliable and growing pool of brainpower and know-how. In many portions of the industry, each innovative engineer can create 25 to 50 additional jobs. It is on this leverage potential of the technology-creators--the electronic/electrical and computer engineers--that I would like to focus today. Math, Science & Engineering Education The first issue I would like to address is the question, "What is the industry view of the magnitude of the problem in math, science, and engineering education?" Both in absolute terms and by comparison to our trading partners and military competitors, the U.S. electronics and information technology industry is experiencing a growing shortage of the specific skills needed to maintain and expand our position in the world economy. Projections for these specific, leveraged skills show a growing problem. As I am sure you are aware, our international competitors are far outpacing the United States in the number and proportion of electronic engineers who are graduated each year, five times the number graduated by the U.S. For every one million population, the Soviet Union annually graduates 260 electrical engineers, Japan 163, and the U.S. 67. For every 10,000 population, 70 in the U.S. and 400 in Japan are engineers. Engineering accounts for only 7% of the total undergraduate degrees awarded in the U.S., but 21% for those in Japan, 35% in the Soviet Union, and 37% in West Germany. The magnitude of the problem continues to increase--in spite of the respite provided by the current state of the economy. A survey of its members conducted two years ago by AEA projected a shortfall between our need for additional electrical and computer science engineers and the new supply from colleges of some 20,000 annually through 1985. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates electrical engineering jobs will increase 150,000 by 1990. AEA is aware of a number of related educational issues, including problems of low technology content of elementary and high school programs. In our members' view, the problem of providing a sufficient flow of electrical/electronic and computer engineering graduates constitutes a bottleneck which demands our first attention. Engineering Faculty Shortage In the estimation of AEA's Blue Ribbon Committee on Engineering Education, some two out of every three qualified applicants to undergraduate electrical/electronic and computer engineering programs cannot get into U.S. colleges and universities. Once turned away, these qualified resources are lost to the U.S. The most serious current problem restricting the increase in electrical and computer science engineering graduates--those specialties of highest need to electronics--is the shortage of faculty and instructional equipment in undergraduate programs. Faced with a current 10% or some 2,000 to 2,500 engineering faculty vacancies, many colleges and universities are capping enrollments. Half of these faculty positions have been vacant for over a year. Vacancies approach 50% in some high tech specialty areas, such as solid state, digital systems, and computer engineering. This country needs 1,000 new engineering faculty each year over the next decade just to remain steady. We are producing only 450. The engineering faculty shortage is primarily caused by two factors: low salaries and inadequate teaching laboratories. There is no incentive for a U.S. citizen with a bachelor's degree in electrical or computer engineering to get a graduate degree and teach. That same B.S. level student can go immediately from college into industry and start at an annual salary between $23,000 and $29,000. Going on for four years of costly graduate study likely brings a salary decrease if one wants to teach: at most universities, an assistant professor of engineering begins at between $19,000 and $26,000. A recent study of southwest colleges showed that engineering faculty members who left academia for industry raised their salaries $13,588 or 55 percent. Equipment Shortages In addition to low academic salaries, inadequate teaching laboratories make engineering professorships unattractive to U.S. citizens. It is not unusual for a college's instructional equipment to average 20 years of age or older. As the president of one Fortune 500 company remarked after touring a university engineering department, "The only time my engineers will see |