Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

European High Tech: imec

We were hosted at by imec (yes, all lower case) in Leuven. One of the more interesting aspects of the visit was a tour of imec’s clean room fabrication facilities. This machine is fairly close to one that they wouldn’t let us take a photo of–but they did tell us it’s cost: $100M euros. I was impressed. After a brief web search this morning, I believe I’ve found it here. And it looks like there’s a serious problem–they don’t produce chips fast enough. We’ll have to see how this plays out in the market.

STEM education is different

According to Physics Nobelist Carl Wieman it’s a lot like “effective coaching”. This in his testimony to Congress after stepping down from OSTP–story is here.

I couldn’t agree more. The fundamental problem with STEM education as its practiced here in the US is the notion that that effective pedagogy involves lecturing in front of a class. My best chemistry professor at Amherst College taught quantum chemistry by having us solve progressively more difficult problems, all while being available (seemed like 24/7–and before the Internet) to coach us through what seemed impossible.

Convergent technologies in Leuven….

This morning I’m giving a talk on convergent technologies within the context of brain sciences here at the imec facility in Leuven. I just went through my slides and came to the late conclusion that convergence means quite different things to various scientific consituencies…in the neuroengineering field, it might mean deploying nanomaterial electrodes to make electrophysiological measurements. In the signal transduction world, it might mean the cross-talk between the cyclic AMP and Protein Kinase C pathways. So context is all important.

In the meantime, I note from afar, that the Nationals split a double-header with the Los Angeles Dodgers–their magic number for a wildcard spot is now down to one game.

#UVA revisited….

In today’s NYT magazine, Andrew Rice’s Anatomy of a Campus Coup, here. This is a saga that wont go away. Reading the comments section is actually enlightening for once–the consensus seems to be that it wont go away because, counter to the conventional wisdom about academics, the stakes are so high.

Old Digs…

I’m waiting for a meeting in my all time favorite part of the NIH campus in Bethesda: the slightly dive-like Clinical Center basement cafeteria (now food court).  It was the locus of many an intense conversation during my postdoctoral years here. In those days the food was foul, the cigarette smoke pungent, but the science talk was great!  Well the smoke is gone, but all the rest is  still here.  Here’s hoping that the NIH sees fit to preserve the black socks and sandals atmosphere long into the future.

UVA’s Teresa Sullivan on Higher Ed…

From today’s Richmond Times Dispatch, here. Money quote:

“It’s fair to say that higher education is under attack nationally, and the attack is not purely financial,” Sullivan said Wednesday in the first lecture of the season for the U.Va. Miller Center.
“Many of the fundamental values of higher learning are being questioned,” she said, including “the essential value of a college education … and even the notion of public education as an instrument of the public good.”
Sounds to me like the Summer Crisis at UVA hasn’t completely subsided….