4
The Global Stage
Katherine Faber, California Institute of Technology, and Lourdes Salamanca-Riba, University of Maryland, facilitated a session exploring the global context of materials science and engineering, COVID-19 impacts, and the U.S. role on the global stage. Speakers included Subra Suresh, president and Distinguished University Professor of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, and Andreas Mortensen, vice president for research and professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne).
THE VIEW FROM SINGAPORE
Subra Suresh, Nanyang Technological University
Suresh shared his perspective as an American scientist leading an Asian university during COVID-19. He also offered some suggestions for improving the U.S. science and engineering workforce pipeline from the perspectives of his formal roles as director of the U.S. National Science Foundation and president of Carnegie Mellon University.
NTU’s COVID-19 Experience
NTU is a large public university in Singapore with nearly 9,000 graduate students. In the initial response to COVID-19, Singapore implemented a shutdown
that was relatively short and orderly; thanks to extensive testing, contact tracing, and widespread adherence to mask-wearing, NTU was able to resume in-person classes, team laboratory projects, and smaller meetings relatively quickly. Even amid the pandemic, the university was able to hire several tens of new faculty members and staff and saw a healthy pipeline of applications from both domestic and foreign students.
Suresh outlined some key impacts and lessons learned from COVID-19. Faculty members who were initially skeptical of online learning quickly became convinced of its utility, despite its limitations, Suresh said. He added that the pandemic underscores the continuing need for technology that can maximize collaborations, as well as for in-person human interactions.
In addition, COVID-19 exposed many layers of inequality and bias that must be addressed. Even though Singapore is a wealthy country, many students, including many foreign students, required financial assistance. Campus-wide engagement in philanthropy and leave-based donation drives helped and also fostered a sense of community.
Suresh also noted a significant shift in attitudes toward travel, speculating that researchers will utilize synchronous online engagement to a much greater extent moving forward and seek to maximize the utility of in-person interaction when travel is necessary.
COVID-19 has also brought a renewed awareness of the need for sustainable practices, Suresh said. NTU has embarked on the ambitious goal of cutting energy consumption, water use, and waste generation in half by 2025 compared to the baselines for each in 2011 for the entire campus that spans 200 hectares (500 acres) where about 40,000 people work and/or live.
Misinformation surrounding COVID-19 also exposed the importance of training students to distinguish fact from fiction, which NTU was already addressing with its pre-pandemic, mandatory “digital literacy” requirement for undergraduates. In addition, the NTU Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity, established in 2018, studies links between digital technologies and wider society, especially at the intersections of technology and human behavior. Finally, NTU has made it easier for its alumni and the broader community of Singaporeans to return to school, which Suresh said is especially helpful given the difficult job market. More than 90 percent of the NTU Class of 2020 have already found employment even during the pandemic.
Finally, Suresh noted that COVID-19 is providing unique research opportunities for insights on mental health, vaccine development, public health messaging, and public trust in science—areas that he suggested the National Academies could help advance.
The U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce
Echoing other speakers, Suresh noted that Asian universities are now competing with U.S. institutions for the best students, which has implications for industries, innovation, and economic prosperity. The pandemic has closed off many in-person channels for globalization while increasing opportunities for online exchange. For the United States to continue to be a global leader, Suresh emphasized that the country should strive to attract the in-person talent needed to drive innovation and provide a pathway for permanent residency and citizenship.
Q&A Discussion
When asked what else the United States could learn, Suresh replied that the U.S. emphasis on individual preference is very different from Asian countries’ emphasis on the collective good. Wherever there is a wide range of opinions, that difference in emphasis leads to very different decisions, which may be worth studying formally. He reiterated that NTU was able to reopen because the university followed Singapore’s prompt, well-coordinated, and well-publicized COVID-19 protection measures for distancing, masks, and digital contact tracing.
Suresh expressed doubt that the pandemic would affect Singaporean students’ willingness to study abroad. However, its population is so small that it is unlikely to make an international impact. Migration patterns of students from large countries like China, India, or Indonesia will have a larger impact on the U.S. workforce pipeline.
In response to a question from Salamanca-Riba, Suresh replied that to retain the United States’ position as a global leader, the government first must invest heavily in U.S. materials programs to ensure that their infrastructure and equipment is cutting-edge. Many Asian universities are close to surpassing or have already surpassed the United States in the sophistication of their laboratory facilities and instrumentation for both education and research. Second, he said the United States must continue to attract and accept the best possible students from all over the world. Other countries may be catching up, but with concerted effort and funding with a long-term focus, the United States can hold onto its place at the top.
THE VIEW FROM SWITZERLAND
Andreas Mortensen, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Mortensen described the measures EPFL, a public institution in Switzerland, took in response to COVID-19 and discussed possible long-term lessons for the United States.
EPFL’s COVID-19 Experience
Like the rest of the world, EPFL had to act quickly when the pandemic hit. Classes went online, travel and exchange programs stopped, and the campus emptied out except for researchers directly addressing COVID-19. Mortensen said that this process was smooth and fast, adding that the campus quickly established a sense of community and collaboration.
In the lull after the first wave, the university held carefully designed in-person exams, but by late 2020, Switzerland was experiencing a second wave, and EPFL’s educational operations were largely online. However, the institution was able to resume in-person research with strict distancing, masking, and capacity limitations. As a publicly funded institution, EPFL has largely been protected from the financial instability affecting some other schools, and its research and student population has remained stable, Mortensen said.
Possible Long-Term Effects
Mortensen outlined several possible long-term effects of the pandemic on educational institutions and research activities. First, he discussed ramifications related to distance learning. Given that faculty and students have accepted online education, it is likely here to stay, at least to some extent. However, Mortensen also pointed out some gaps: it is clear that distance learning cannot replace campus social life, and there is a need for best practices for effectively conducting exams online. In addition, he said that while the downsides of temporary online learning for higher-level students are probably minimal, younger students will be harder hit and face more challenges in adapting to campus life after so much online schooling.
Mortensen also speculated that COVID-19, which emerged suddenly as an enormous global threat and drove immediate research focus, could in some ways provide a model for how the academic community may focus its energy into collaboration around the climate crisis in future years. Finally, although the pandemic has reduced global travel, Mortensen noted that the technology that replaces this travel is in fact bringing people together, even though it does not provide the same quality of exchange as face-to-face interaction.
U.S. Implications
For the United States, Mortensen posited that the COVID-19 experience can be an opportunity to learn, grow, and ensure that universities in the United States remain magnets for international students. Students around the world are still drawn to the United States, which can keep its attractiveness by welcoming them and taking a lead role in efforts to address global challenges such as COVID-19 and climate change.
Continental Europe’s strong network of public institutions gives students and professors a more stable work environment than the private institutions in the United States, Mortensen said. At the same time, institutions outside the United States are becoming much more competitive while technology is making global collaboration easier. Ultimately, these are all positive developments, he said, although the implications for the United States will be mixed.
Concluding, Mortensen said that despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic—for example, those related to travel and exchange—the world remains highly interconnected and the academic enterprise has retained, and perhaps even grown, a sense of community across borders. He argued that the United States does have an opportunity to retain its leading role in science and engineering and attract talented students. While increasing competition with Asia and Europe is difficult, it is also an opportunity for growth.
Q&A Discussion
Faber asked Mortensen to elaborate on strategies for the United States to retain its edge in attracting top students. Echoing statements made by Suresh, he stressed the need for U.S. institutions to invest in both cutting-edge equipment and a well-trained workforce to maintain it. In addition, he suggested ensuring that universities have steady finances. EPFL is publicly funded and does not have to rely on tuition, because Switzerland as a nation puts high importance on its Federal Institutes of Technology’s missions of teaching, research, and societal impact through innovation. As a result, the Swiss government is willing to prioritize funding of those institutions, including funding of high-quality infrastructure. Switzerland also has different career structures in academia, which include platform scientists and laboratory technicians in service-oriented careers distinct from those of researchers or faculty, although he noted that defining satisfaction and success for each group can present challenges.
Mortensen also stressed the importance of prioritizing quality and depth in K-12 education. While the United States emphasizes creativity, he suggested that American schools could learn from the way European schools prioritize rigorous math and science fundamentals. Relying on foreign talent creates a rich exchange of ideas, but nurturing homegrown talent is also important, he noted.
Salamanca-Riba asked how successful online learning had been at EPFL. Mortensen replied that there was great variability both in how students were given lessons and how they absorbed the information. After professors reported that some students had given up, faculty partnered with student organizations to find new ways to help struggling students. For laboratory work specifically, EPFL was able to resume hands-on coursework and research through the enforcement of strict COVID-19 safety rules.
Ned Thomas, Texas A&M University, asked if Switzerland had a digital literacy requirement similar to NTU’s. Mortensen replied that while EPFL has recently added computational thinking as a third foundational course requirement in its core, and specific digital literacy requirements appear in individual curricula, there is not a similarly stated single campus-wide digital literacy requirement. Thomas suggested that it might be beneficial to teach how to appropriately substantiate one’s scientific claims and how to review the claims of others. Mortensen agreed, noting that the increased connectedness from COVID-19 amplifies this need.
Haydn Wadley, University of Virginia, asked if pandemic-related educational disruptions would make it difficult to ensure an adequate supply of graduate students in the future. Mortensen replied that students will have a lot of catching up to do, although it is too soon to tell how admissions will be affected, if only because the disruptions are not over yet. For now, EPFL is certifying and promoting students with passing grades only when they succeed in demonstrating that they have acquired skills taught in the courses. Wadley noted that undergraduates are missing key laboratory experiences that create relationships and teach essential skills, though Mortensen suggested there will still be ample learning opportunities for this group.