Hi everyone,

I was just wondering about the real contribution of researchers in engineering fields in the economical progress of their countries. I am talking here specifically about researchers in 3rd world countries.
To my knowledge, a researcher is also a professor, so he teachers students and also publishes articles. The problem is that most of those articles in 3rd world countries aren't used in industry ( because 3rd world countries have no industry).
Moreover, any research financed by a company can't be published.
So in the academic field we just publish to get higher rank and then when we become professors, we publish to publish and we teach students to become professors to publish and the loop goes on.
If you tell me professors in university we form good engineers, i would tell you that i doubt it's true. Because professors don't have that much knowledge in the experimental/practical field. I mean, they are more into theory. And to form an engineer, it takes more than being good only with theory.

I hope my point is clear, and i would like to know your opinions.

 

I suppose everybody that is not comatose makes some contribution to the economy.

 

I think it's a net loss. A drain on the economy.

 

All research lies on a continuum of quality and usefulness. Published articles probably fall on a bell curve, where the top 10% are really good and valuable and the bottom 10% are nearly criminal malfeasance, with the other 80% in the middle being somewhat mediocre and of varying value. This is true anywhere and everywhere.

So the question in my mind is whether the value of publications produced by researchers in 3rd world countries are any better or worse than those from anywhere else. Speaking as an American, and in my limited fields of expertise, I cannot recall a single paper from 3rd world researchers that had any impact on me or my business. But my experience is just an anecdote. The people that need to answer your question are the people paying for the work. Do they see it as a good investment?

One value of the entire process, even if many papers are crap, is that it provides a system to develop and identify the rare people that can actually make contributions. You have to endure the mediocre to enable the extraordinary. If you don't have a university system with students and professors writing and publishing papers, how will you find those very few people in your country that can really make a difference?

Perhaps it could be more efficient but I'm not as pessimistic about it as @BR-549. I think it helps a country to join and interact with the developed world in every way possible.

 

After one undergraduate and two graduate degrees, all from the University of Michigan I encountered exactly one outstanding teacher and researcher, and two above average ones. The outstanding one was a student of Arnold Sommerfeld, and had a rule of spectroscopy named after him.

 

After one undergraduate and two graduate degrees, all from the University of Michigan I encountered exactly one outstanding teacher and researcher, and two above average ones. The outstanding one was a student of Arnold Sommerfeld, and had a rule of spectroscopy named after him.

I've encountered many outstanding teachers and many outstanding researchers and a sizeable handful that were both.

I was just wondering about the real contribution of researchers in engineering fields in the economical progress of their countries. I am talking here specifically about researchers in 3rd world countries.

It's an interesting question and one that I've certainly never given much thought (the third-world aspect of it). Aside from the occasional diamonds-in-the-rough, I suspect that most third-world educational systems are ill suited to producing high quality researchers or research. Let's say that this is true, for argument's sake. So there are three possibilities as I see it sitting here typing: (1) There is some, perhaps intangible, merit in the process of research and publication and, without it, the engineering educational systems in those countries would be even worse; (2) The objectives and processes of third-world academic research should be revised with an eye toward making them more meaningful and useful to the development of such countries; and (3) academic research in third-world countries should be largely abandoned in favor of an educational model that is more appropriate to their needs and goals. I don't know which of these is the proper approach.

To my knowledge, a researcher is also a professor, so he teachers students and also publishes articles. The problem is that most of those articles in 3rd world countries aren't used in industry ( because 3rd world countries have no industry).

Even if that's the case, it does not necessarily follow that the research and its publication has no value. A professor that conducts research and publishes is more likely to stay abreast of developments in their field and incorporate it into what is being taught. Also, involving students in research is often a very good way to let them gain practical experience as well as develop problem solving skills applied to real problems that don't have obvious or easy solutions.

Moreover, any research financed by a company can't be published.

I don't know about third-world countries, but a lot of published research is either carried out by companies directly or financed by them. Certainly they don't publish everything, but they generally recognize that contributing to the broader knowledge base benefits them in many ways both direct and indirect.

So in the academic field we just publish to get higher rank and then when we become professors, we publish to publish and we teach students to become professors to publish and the loop goes on.

What fraction of students become professors? Very few. The bulk of students go out to industry, whatever that happens to mean for a given country. But a related question might be what does happen to most of the students that get an engineering degree in a third-world country? Are there jobs for them? Do they leave the country to find suitable employment elsewhere? Do they waste their education by working in jobs that don't benefit from it?

If you tell me professors in university we form good engineers, i would tell you that i doubt it's true. Because professors don't have that much knowledge in the experimental/practical field. I mean, they are more into theory. And to form an engineer, it takes more than being good only with theory.

Agreed, particularly on the last point. Many people that have spent their entire life in academia are lousy engineers and certainly can be lousy teachers, too.

 

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering about the real contribution of researchers in engineering fields in the economical progress of their countries. I am talking here specifically about researchers in 3rd world countries.
To my knowledge, a researcher is also a professor, so he teachers students and also publishes articles. The problem is that most of those articles in 3rd world countries aren't used in industry ( because 3rd world countries have no industry).
Moreover, any research financed by a company can't be published.
So in the academic field we just publish to get higher rank and then when we become professors, we publish to publish and we teach students to become professors to publish and the loop goes on.
If you tell me professors in university we form good engineers, i would tell you that i doubt it's true. Because professors don't have that much knowledge in the experimental/practical field. I mean, they are more into theory. And to form an engineer, it takes more than being good only with theory.

I hope my point is clear, and i would like to know your opinions.

I think every country should have institutions of higher learning and aspire to improve THEIR scociety. Every government needs support to study existing situations/analyze alternative options/set priorities for the future.

For example, Each country (and even each community within each country) has different access to energy sources, different electricity generation costs and challenges, installation costs, technical support costs, distribution costs/challenges. All these things can (and should) be studied and become the opposing or supporting voice for commercial development of power as projects are proposed and approved.

The definition of "research" needs to suit the country generating higher educated people (distributing PhDs).

More and more, PhD engineering research in the chemical industry is not focused on reactor design or heat transfer, but economical use of resources - models that predict the best of many different ways to make key commodities based in various raw material, fuel and distribution costs.

Good luck to you but find some connection to "making the lives of the people in your country better, now and in the future" a goal of your research and any field of engineering can contribute anywhere from setting government budgets, public policy, supporting tourism, or setting up an engineering services company (more and more common in 3rd world countries to support industry in more industrial economies).

The point is, make yourself valuable.