Bill Frazier's thought-provoking viewpoint paper 'A Transformative Epoch in Materials Science & Engineering and Manufacturing' places MS&E and manufacturing within broader societal context that researchers engaged in purely academic / scientific work often tend to overlook. The paper blurs the boundaries between the purely technical / technological and the societal / demographic. Using numeric data from trusted sources, he highlights the relationship between a nation's GDP and education level of its populace. He identifies global Political, Economic, Social and Technological forces – PEST for short – as pervasive and transformative that challenge knowledge management and productivity within MSE and manufacturing landscape. He cites data using journal publications as a metric on intellectual productivity in MS&E that show that China contributes 46% of the global MS&E journal output whereas the USA contributes 7.4%. He ponders how the documented decline in manufacturing workforce in industrialized nations would impact and be impacted by the MS&E workforce.
Against a backdrop of increasing global population and urbanization, intensified demand and competition for energy, natural resources, food, and decreasing fertility in the wealthiest nations, he offers responsible practice of MS&E and manufacturing professions as a viable solution to many technological challenges humanity faces. He writes that digital revolution, knowledge management, and the development of advanced technology (e.g., in 'Superstar Companies') will shape humanity's future. He writes that adaptability to change brought on by PEST will test MS&E's resilience. In a broader context, Bill shows that the productivity (GDP) of a country is directly related to the degree to which the country supports democracy, equality, tolerance and acceptance and values education, diversity, freedom of thought, and rule of law.
We can trace the origin of the thoughts and insights Bill shares in his viewpoint paper in the distilled knowledge and wisdom accrued in a long and distinguished career dedicated to serving the nation's needs in MS&E and manufacturing in defense and civilian sectors.
This paper is free access to download and read now through the end of April here. I hope you will enjoy reading the paper as much as I did!
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Rajiv Asthana
Professor
UNIVERSITY WISCONSIN-STOUT
Menomonie WI
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