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.

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Social entrepreneurism
Thank you for sharing the visionary new class you are pioneering at Berkeley [fall 2004]. I am truly proud that my old school is able to define this vision and has already gotten results.

I received this issue of Forefront when I am thinking seriously about a career shift to "social entrepreneurism." I have been in the telecommunications field for over 25 years and believe passionately that appropriate technology has much to offer developing countries. There are technologies we have today—in particular, your article discussed wireless—that have the ability to offer vastly improved communication services at a modest cost, services that give many communities much better control over their lives. Congratulations for your progress in this area; it is in the true Berkeley spirit.
—AVNISH AGGARWAL
Fremont (M.S.’76 EECS)


Rethinking engineering
I read the account of ICT4B [fall 2004]. . . . It is clear that bettering communications is effective in the development of poor countries. So also are access to safe drinking water, road construction, health care infrastructure, accessible primary education, development of local manufacturing and services for local markets, and the empowerment of women.

A challenging study is that of the proper interaction of folks such as ourselves and the local population of these countries. For neither those who believe that we need to provide the leadership in technical development, nor those who believe that all these countries need is financial help have a sound hold on reality.

Since 1987, I and Berkeley architecture professor Charlie Huizenga have carried out an experiment called Agua Para La Vida (www.aplv.org) in remote parts of rural Nicaragua, to develop drinking water systems. We have found that, even in a field as old fashioned as water delivery, the required engineering needed to be rethought afresh, occasionally invented, and imaginatively adapted to local conditions. We have also learned about the transmission of sound technical material to youngsters who had minimal previous schooling.
—GILLES CORCOS
Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley


Global nonsense
I could not disagree more with the ideas expressed in some of the letters in your last issue [fall 2004]. . . . Obviously, all engineers have to be able to read and write in order to understand their “technical” material. However, engineers are not trained to be Peace Corps volunteers.

After graduating from Cal, I happily sat at a drafting board (not a computer as they do today) and was delighted when I received more complicated assignments. Many of my fellow employees would compliment me and often questioned, “How the heck did you figure that out?!” My answer: Thanks to the outstanding education I received at Cal.

The requirement that all graduates must pass an examination on U.S. history is good and proper, but to burden all students with a global course of study is inappropriate and nonsense.
—CHARLES FRANKLIN DE WOLF
Emeryville (B.S.’49 ME)

California’s most valuable asset
The five years I spent at Berkeley, from 1961 to 1966, were the most valuable in my life. . . . The number of Nobel laureates exceeded 15, and Berkeley was rated number one, surpassing Harvard in most fields. It made me feel happy and fortunate that I could attend such a beautiful campus filled with outstanding scholars, while my own country was still in a politically and economically underdeveloped condition.

With deep sorrow I read that the governor of California seems not to see the true value of the higher educational system. I know his dilemma in facing huge financial deficits, but the last thing the state should be doing is ruining its most valuable asset, the UC system, particularly Berkeley. There are thousands of alumni like myself residing in foreign countries who would silently play the role of good diplomats for California because they feel very proud of their time there receiving an excellent higher education. We will be greatly disappointed if Berkeley’s rating slides down to average.
—CHOUNG MOOK LEE
(M.S.’63, Ph.D.’66 Naval Arch)
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea

Beyond the ivory tower
Your last issue’s articles [fall 2004] capture the enthusiasm and commitment of Berkeley as a public institution to address some longstanding societal problems through technology. More importantly, the articles do a great job of educating the general public about cutting-edge research and how it can make potential and significant societal contributions as well as change perceptions of Ph.D.s and the ivory tower.

A friend of mine who read the stories online wrote back, "What you are doing seems very complex, but what impresses me is how practical your work is. I always thought Ph.D.s were very abstract. To see it at work—and in a region that desperately needs it—is enlightening."
—MATTHEW KAM
ICT4B researcher, Department of EECS, UC Berkeley

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