The Next M.I.T.? ~ NYTimes on “100 Under 50”

Nice piece by Joyce Lau in the NYTimes on Who’s the Next M.I.T.?...

"Last week, two new rating systems -- from Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings -- looked exclusively at schools less than 50 years old for the first time. [...] Times Higher Education claims that its list “provides a unique insight into who the future Harvard and Cambridge universities may be.” The magazine released its “100 Under 50” list last Thursday. The top spot went to the Pohang University of Science and Technology, or Postech, in South Korea. [...] Also highly ranked were the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland; the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST); the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST); Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France; and the Irvine and Santa Cruz campuses of the University of California. Three British institutions -- the University of York, Lancaster University and the University of East Anglia -- rounded out the top 10. [...] The BRIC developing nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- barely featured. Only Brazil made an appearance [...] Russia, India and mainland China had no schools on either list."

Why Nations Fail ~ Inclusive vs Extractive Politics

MIT News spotlights economics professor Daron Acemoglu and his Harvard colleague James Robinson and their new book Why Nations Fail...

"Why do some nations, such as the United States, become wealthy and powerful, while others remain stuck in poverty? [...] Politics makes the difference. Countries that have what they call “inclusive” political governments -- those extending political and property rights as broadly as possible, while enforcing laws and providing some public infrastructure -- experience the greatest growth over the long run. By contrast, Acemoglu and Robinson assert, countries with “extractive” political systems -- in which power is wielded by a small elite -- either fail to grow broadly or wither away after short bursts of economic expansion. [...] To test this reading of history, Acemoglu and Robinson use a variety of “natural experiments” (some developed in collaboration with MIT economist Simon Johnson) to examine how, other things being equal, contrasting political institutions alter the economic trajectories of countries."

Here in Acemoglu's own words...

Masdar Progress ~ Abu Dhabi's Proto-Ecocity...

Al Jazeera's earthrise spotlights Masdar... And here's GlobalPost's take via DailyMotion...
UAE Powerland Masdar City by tvnportal

African Science ~ Challenges and Opportunities...

Our Harvard KSG colleague Calestous Juma spots Science in Africa: The view from the front line in Nature News about the state of affairs and challenges facing African researchers...

"Many labs are poorly equipped, and science students get little practical research training because research centres are often separate from universities. Financial and logistical support for science is typically divided between many ministries with little coordination, and some states rely too much on intermittent foreign funding. Even when research is successful, it is hard to push developments to the marketplace. And poor governance -- from corruption to ineffective bureaucracy -- stymies progress in many nations. Despite these hurdles, some African nations can point to notable achievements, in individual institutes and in areas of research. They will need to build on these advances if they are to have any hope of tackling the problems facing Africa today, such as poverty, rampant infectious diseases, the impacts of climate change and the lack of clean water and energy. [...] science and technology leaders say that they are trying to develop and sustain capacity in the research that can most help their nations to develop. [Plus it's key to] reverse the brain drain that is robbing Africa of many leading scientists and engineers."

African Reaspora ~ Diaspora Academics Return

Thanks to Harvard's Calestous Juma for spotting this piece by Megan Lindow in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Academics in African Diaspora Reach Back to Help Universities Rebuild, about those who left chaotic conditions looking for ways to support colleagues who stayed. For various historical reasons, African academics...

"...fled ugly political situations and poor working conditions on the continent or have been drawn by better opportunities elsewhere. This brain drain has proved catastrophic for African countries, which collectively spend some four billion dollars a year hiring foreigners to replace professionals who leave, according to the United Nations Development Programme. Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone, among other countries, face critical shortages of expertise, in part because they have lost tens of thousands of doctors, scientists, and professors to the United States and Europe. Some African universities, however, are finding new ways to tap the expertise of the diaspora, which includes world-renowned academics in engineering, medicine, and literature. The trend is particularly strong in Nigeria, where higher education enjoyed a golden age during the oil boom of the 1970s before economic and political woes overburdened the university system and drove promising academics away. Now, as the country begins to stabilize, many academics who fled are helping to rebuild, some returning to Nigeria and others engaging from afar."

Perhaps Calestous is too modest to trumpet things, but he's been instrumental in founding the Kenyan Victoria Institute of Science & Technology, thus practicing what he preaches! Plus there's a nascent blog supporting The Return of the Diaspora to Africa called Reaspora!

Athens of America ~ Boston's a College Town!

Reading about what makes a place a Global City got me looking at Boston more closely. One especially interesting visualization is this map by Bill Rankin of educational institutions in the core region. This is why Greater Boston's known as the Athens of America...

William Barton Rogers ~ MIT's Visionary Founder!

MIT founder William Barton Rogers was born 205 years ago today! Thanks to MIT archivists Elizabeth Andrews, Nora Murphy, and Tom Rosko for highlighting the life and career of this true education visionary and one of my personal heroes! Just a sampling of the retrospective, looking back at the vibrant 1840s...

"In New England he found an intellectual and social culture more to his liking: people who valued education and hard work along with financial enterprise. [...] Boston was soon to be characterized as the “Athens of America” and the “Hub of the Universe.” Local families strove to maintain their leadership role in the industrialization of New England and the United States. Progress depended in part on the continuing improvement of machinery and technology for those industries. And it was interest in science and technology where William Barton Rogers and the leaders of New England industry and education connected. A number of the New England elite were intrigued by his new ideas for a technical and scientific education different from the traditional classical college curriculum where Latin and Greek reigned supreme."

Boom times inspired a true visionary to found our epic Institute!

Rural India ~ Knowledge@Wharton + WSJournal

Cool to see what Wharton is doing in emerging markets, including this Rural India collaboration with the WSJournal...

"Knowledge@Wharton is delighted to unveil a new initiative that aims to shed light on one of the most intriguing areas of the global economy: rural India. In collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, we are pleased to offer a unique collection of interviews, articles, analysis, video and opinion pieces to help you learn about the contradictions, opportunities and difficulties in a region that is home to some 700 million of India's 1.2 billion people. We know this in-depth content will be of interest to many, especially since Monday's Indian budget announcement showed that rural India will be the focus of this government's five years in office. Some of the material has been specially commissioned for the site, and some is from the archives..."

Fantastic! Great stories on transportation, housing, microfinance, retail and consumers, health, mobile phones, and more. I wish MIT Sloan were as on the ball about such things.

Conditional Cash-Transfers ~ Savvy Welfare...

The Economist spotlights Quid Pro Quo ~ Anti-Poverty Programmes, noting that "Doling out cash with strings attached is a good idea, but no panacea". Conditional Cash-Transfers (CCTs) are social payments given only if recipients ensure some beneficial act occurs, for instance, they send their kids to school or improve nutrition. On the positive side, they note...

"These programmes have swept across the developing world. In 1997 Mexico was one of only three countries to have a CCT programme. By 2008, as the World Bank documents in a new report, virtually every country in Latin America had one. So did Indonesia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Cambodia, Pakistan and Kenya. Some of these programmes are huge: Brazil’s Bolsa Familia serves 11m families."

But all is not universally glorious, since...

"...there is little evidence that CCTs raise educational standards (as opposed to attendance); and while children may go to clinics more, that does not mean their nutrition or immunisation rates improve. The programmes may not be to blame. The problem may lie with the dire quality of schools and clinics [since] a quarter of Indian schoolteachers were absent on any given day. CCTs, for all their advantages, cannot do much about that."

Visualizing Complexity ~ Lovely Maps & Graphics!

HUMMUS 2050 co-creator Sigi Atteneder pointed me to the really lovely maps and graphics by Philippe Rekacewicz and colleagues at Le Monde diplomatique. Most are straight maps of geography crossed with other dimensions of interest, for instance, this view of displaced people planet-wide... But I also found this visualization of the complex UN of special interest...

Understanding University Leadership ~ Advice From Presidents-Emeritus

MIT's Stephen Immerman suggested that Bob Simha and I add two recent Chronicle of Higher Education pieces to the reading list for our Understanding MIT class, thinking ahead to our next installment of the seminar this Fall 2008.

1. What I Might Have Told My Successor: A former university president looks back on 19 years of lessons learned at the top, by Stephen Trachtenberg, who served as president of George Washington University for nearly two decades.
2. Why Presidents Fail -- and How They Can Succeed, by Harry Peterson, president emeritus of Western State College of Colorado and author of Leading a Small College or University: A Conversation That Never Ends.

William Barton Rogers ~ MIT's Founding Father

Very cool that MIT's homepage today honors and spotlights our Founding Father, Willam Barton Rogers! His persistence and bold vision for a new kind of Institute lead to MIT's formal birth in 1861 and operations in 1865 (after the US Civil War). Rogers stayed intimately involved with MIT for the rest of his life, including personally selecting and recruiting the remarkable Francis Amasa Walker as President in the early 1880's.

MIT-Masdar Symposium

Today is the MIT-Masdar Symposium, an unveiling and celebration of MIST, the Masdar Institute of Science & Technology and joint-engagements between MIST & MIT. This morning Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company/Masdar, described the founding vision of the Initiative and Institute. Among his comments: "We're started small, just like MIT in 1860s." "We both learn by doing." He emphasized that "vision without action is absolutely meaningless." So with a "$15 Billion initial investment" to create MIST and pursue "every facet of clean technologies" through a "number of investment vehicles, including a $250 Million cleantech fund" they are "applying scale & capital." To sum up, Dr Al-Jaber quotes Frank Ghery saying... "In Abu Dhabi we can do things which are unthinkable anywhere else." (Which is a bit worrisome since MIT is suing Ghery for incompetence.)

Following Dr Al-Jaber, Falah Al Ahbabi, General Manager of the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council showcased Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, the urban plan and growth vision for Abu Dhabi generally, including the Masdar ecocity. Fascinating! Here's a rendering of the overall plan for Masdar...

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST)

MIT is collaborating with and helping build the brand new Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) in Abu Dhabi in the new greencity, Masdar.

Fred Hapgood's Great Events List...

Every week Fred Hapgood updates his list of Boston Science & Engineering Lectures. It's pretty impressive indeed! And I highly recommend it.

Bold Saudi Research University ~ KAUST

Yesterday at MIT I attended a overview of programs at the new KAUST university in Saudi Arabia. Huge development effort, billions of dollars in startup and endowment capital, bold plans. I hope they have the intellectual and social flexibility to pull it off. No Muddy Charles Pub on their campus, I imagine.