Letters to the Editor

We welcome your letters and comments. Write to us at forefront@coe.berkeley.edu or at Forefront letters, 1925 Walnut St., #1704, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1704. Please include the writer’s name. Note that we cannot include all letters received and those published may be edited for length and clarity.

Dean Newton’s message about a global peace corps of engineers in our last issue [spring 2004] stimulated many responses from our readers. We hope you enjoy this, our first letters to the editor page, and that we’ll hear from more of you in the future.—Editors.


Editor:
Today was my first introduction to Forefront. I was very moved by your publication and all the wonderful research being done by the College of Engineering. Dean Newton's message on a global peace corps of engineers was particularly forward-thinking. In a period when our nation is making many missteps and enemies internationally, ensuring that our up-and-coming engineers gain worldly wisdom and share their skills to make a better world is a much-needed perspective. Other articles I found particularly enlightening were those on Berkeley awarding the most doctorates, earthquakes, bone-breaking work, and the Native American student finding his niche. Your magazine beautifully highlights what a contribution the College, its faculty, and its students are making to a better future.
—Barbara Pottgen
University Health Services
(B.A.’94 Social Sciences)


Editor:
My son is currently a student at Berkeley Engineering. From what I can tell, he is receiving a superb education, but I agree with Dean Newton about the need to broaden engineering students' horizons. I have encouraged my son to study abroad, either during the school year or in the summer. He responds that studying abroad would interrupt and delay his engineering studies and that "engineers don't do that."

His attitude troubles me, but when I review his degree requirements, I can see how he might develop such notions. His humanities requirements are so limited as to be nonexistent. Isn't it the university's job to broaden, not narrow, his outlook? He's not required to take a language or even study the history and culture of a region where—let’s say, just for the sake of this argument—technology is either flourishing or floundering. . . .

I applaud your initiative and encourage you to continue working toward a broader conception of the engineer's place in the world and the engineering school's notion of what it means to be an educated person.
—Leah Brumer
(M.P.P.’80 School of Public Policy)


Editor:
The key is experiential learning. Experience extends boundaries and broadens thinking. My background contained relatively narrow thinking and experience; the experiences I had at Berkeley with people of different cultures, countries, and ways of thinking—including value systems—were more valuable than the "book" learning.

Berkeley continues to offer significant, and diverse, experiential opportunities. However, students in an engineering "peace corps" would, in a rural setting in a developing country, be exposed to different values, different ways of approaching and solving "technology" problems, and be constrained by local resources. The Taoist "flow" around rather than the "hammer" of technology might be the path . . .
Exposure to diverse worldviews and incorporation of them into our thinking enriches our ability to design—the key aspect of engineering—which has been defined as the conscious modification of the environment. Problems are increasingly complex, requiring new ways of thinking and doing. Enriching thinking with exposure to different worldviews is thus desirable and key to continued human progress. Such initiatives can continue Berkeley's eminence in engineering education and the education of leaders.
—Peter Hodges
(M.S.’84, Ph.D.’92 ME)


Editor:
I agree [with Dean Newton] that there is a real need for students to receive a global education. Our world is a system, and students need to learn how their knowledge and expertise affect the entire system positively or negatively.

My suggestions on how this could be done include: 1) a mandatory interdisciplinary systems (earth) engineering course for all engineering students, which would provide a view of engineering applications worldwide and their effect on our earth, and 2) a public interest summer internship for engineering students in any class. Funded by industry, alumni, and the college, the internship could function like a co-op program, sending students to various parts of the world to work. . . .
—Olubukola Afolayan Jejeloye
(B.S.’99 EECS, NE)


Editor:
I think the engineering peace corps is a very good concept. I suggest it allow flexibility to include peace corps–type service in impoverished areas in the U.S. as well.
—Ralph T. Boyajian
(B.S.’74 CE)

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