I wonder just how much is being done to solve the declining enrollment problem in electronics. I suspect there are individual efforts in schools to do something, but I have never heard of any national effort. I have spent the last few years and not a small amount of my own money to get the word out, but nothing big has happened. Maybe it never will and besides, who really cares except for a handful of us.
Yet, I kept feeling some action was required. Last year with the cooperation of Austin CC, I helped write and submit a proposal for an NSF grant to study and help solve this problem. It was not awarded. Despite the favorable feedback we got from the reviewers, no funding was available. I was astonished. Is it just me that thinks this is a critical problem?
The NSF is a great organization providing funding for all sorts of advanced technical and educational research. Their Advanced Technology Education (ATE) group does a great job funding various projects for CC level technology education. I have worked on such grant projects before and I work on one now. It is terrific work. Over the years, the competition for the limited NSF funding has gotten greater. I don't know what the ratio of submitted proposals to funded proposals is but it must be huge, 10 to 1 or more I bet. Unless you have a great idea and a superior proposal, your chances are slim.
What I have to wonder is why declining enrollments was not a critical topic worth funding. Are the NSF reviewers even aware of the problems and potential stakes of losing this kind of education? Or do they think we already know why enrollments are going down hill but we are just not doing anything about it? Who knows. I have met and worked with some NSF reviewers and they are a very smart, astute bunch. They do a good job of picking the best ideas. But they may be one step removed from industry and academia where the real problems exist. Hopefully they will realize at some point that the projects they are actually funding are those designed to assist programs that are fast disappearing. What good is that?
Anyway, we rewrote the proposal and submitted it again for a prelimenary review this past April. We are hoping that we will be invited or encouraged to submit a full proposal in October for funding in 2006. That is already too late for many of you who have already lost your department or are being downsized. Yet, if it is funded, at least we can do some more formal research about the problem and develop some practical solutions that can be implemented quickly in schools that are hurting.
Just so you know, some one is trying to do something. Wish us luck.
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