This is well written, concise, and outlines a problem that most people would call “political” without being hostile to other people (while still making it clear what the problem is). Great job, I wish we had more opinion pieces like this.
Also, I agree 100%. Some people don’t like foreigners at US schools, thinking that those foreigners are taking spots away from worthy Americans. I think the only thing worse is if the foreigners stop wanting to come to US schools because of the implications about how far the American education system has fallen.
And, more critically - if foreigners are deciding to take up faculty positions in their home countries.
Countries like India, Vietnam, and South Korea have begun replicating the Chinese Thousand Talents program to attract their diasporas back to domestic academia.
Significant domains of CS such as HPC/Systems, Networking, OS internals, etc are heavily dependent on faculty, graduate students, and post-docs who are all on some sort of visa. And increasingly, at least amongst Indians, becuase the backlogs for citizenship are insane, a number have been taking sweetheart positions at INIs like the new IITs with almost US$100k in startup public-private grants on top of a $20k salary (tax free due to the income tax changes) with free housing and car and complete autonomy to consult with private sector players without IP entanglement.
Vietnam is doing something similar as well to attract Vietnamese diaspora in SK and Japan, along with the Viet Kieu in America and Australia.
Indian spaceflight program done by ISRO have very few people from IITs or any of the so called elite colleges.
Unlike china Indian colleges are really backward due to lack of research funding and a coaching industry which have gamified the entrance exams.
This is why all regional powers have a civilian space flight program - the same thing you mentioned but also it allows you to sidestep some international treaties around testing.
We can only hope this administration and its supporters are a temporary aberration that the US can claw its way back out of. Otherwise, that classic advice to sign up your kids for Mandarin class starts to sound pretty good.
Just curious, but is there any evidence that Chinese/Indian/etc will even be as open to US students as the US has been to them? I have no knowledge of what their intentions may be, but I think it’s a pretty large assumption that they would even take American students at all
Instead we are seeing increased siloing of scientific domains. The EU is cracking down on EU-Chinese research cooperation (as recent arrests and deportations in France have shown), India still has a de facto freeze on Chinese R&D and China is still enforcing export controls on ToTs to India, and South Korea and Japan are still controlling any IP generated from their industrial research fusion programs.
We're instead seeing at least 6-7 different scientific ecosystems and associated capital forming, and with collaboration being tightly controlled by governments.
Looking at the history of US leads to the depressing conclusion that this administration is not an aberration but is instead a return to the same old shit from 150 years ago.
Now apply this to the many countries across Asia, Europe and Africa with millions of citizens moving to the United States and similar countries in the West.
This is well written, concise, and outlines a problem that most people would call “political” without being hostile to other people (while still making it clear what the problem is). Great job, I wish we had more opinion pieces like this.
Also, I agree 100%. Some people don’t like foreigners at US schools, thinking that those foreigners are taking spots away from worthy Americans. I think the only thing worse is if the foreigners stop wanting to come to US schools because of the implications about how far the American education system has fallen.
And, more critically - if foreigners are deciding to take up faculty positions in their home countries.
Countries like India, Vietnam, and South Korea have begun replicating the Chinese Thousand Talents program to attract their diasporas back to domestic academia.
Significant domains of CS such as HPC/Systems, Networking, OS internals, etc are heavily dependent on faculty, graduate students, and post-docs who are all on some sort of visa. And increasingly, at least amongst Indians, becuase the backlogs for citizenship are insane, a number have been taking sweetheart positions at INIs like the new IITs with almost US$100k in startup public-private grants on top of a $20k salary (tax free due to the income tax changes) with free housing and car and complete autonomy to consult with private sector players without IP entanglement.
Vietnam is doing something similar as well to attract Vietnamese diaspora in SK and Japan, along with the Viet Kieu in America and Australia.
This is one of the reasons India has a civilian spaceflight program.
The obvious overlap with military technology aside, it's a way to retain and increase the institutional knowledge within India across a lot of areas.
Indian spaceflight program done by ISRO have very few people from IITs or any of the so called elite colleges. Unlike china Indian colleges are really backward due to lack of research funding and a coaching industry which have gamified the entrance exams.
Not really. It is a night and day difference at INIs and designated universities in India.
Chinese R&D funding is also stratified the same way Indian R&D funding is.
This is why all regional powers have a civilian space flight program - the same thing you mentioned but also it allows you to sidestep some international treaties around testing.
This post sounds a bit one sided. Maybe there should be centre of excellences elsewhere too. Let the others live near their parent’s farms as well.
We can only hope this administration and its supporters are a temporary aberration that the US can claw its way back out of. Otherwise, that classic advice to sign up your kids for Mandarin class starts to sound pretty good.
Just curious, but is there any evidence that Chinese/Indian/etc will even be as open to US students as the US has been to them? I have no knowledge of what their intentions may be, but I think it’s a pretty large assumption that they would even take American students at all
Why would moving to an even more authoritarian country be good advice? What?
The point is you'll be doing business in high technology with China, not America. Helps to speak the language when you negotiate.
I disagree with that.
Instead we are seeing increased siloing of scientific domains. The EU is cracking down on EU-Chinese research cooperation (as recent arrests and deportations in France have shown), India still has a de facto freeze on Chinese R&D and China is still enforcing export controls on ToTs to India, and South Korea and Japan are still controlling any IP generated from their industrial research fusion programs.
We're instead seeing at least 6-7 different scientific ecosystems and associated capital forming, and with collaboration being tightly controlled by governments.
Looking at the history of US leads to the depressing conclusion that this administration is not an aberration but is instead a return to the same old shit from 150 years ago.
I am struggling with the premise of this post. The analogies don’t seem to land very well
Now apply this to the many countries across Asia, Europe and Africa with millions of citizens moving to the United States and similar countries in the West.
> my kids excel, will they move away?
No, but if they power point, they might be grounded.