The Innovation Impact of U.S. Universities

The Innovation Impact of U.S. Universities is equivalent to the economic impact of U.S. Universities. This is something we care about because we aim to emulate the good practices discovered or developed by successful others as a shortcut to our own success. In other words, let’s not reinvent the wheel.

As I have discussed in both PhD in the USA and our blog, something has kept a significant number of nations from advancing their college education systems—especially at the level of graduate education. The question we must ask is why? Why are the undergraduate education systems good, but the graduate education systems deficient?

The answer to the first question is obvious but is difficult to accept. In a few words, undergraduate education is about teaching the old stuff—the stuff that has been taught for hundreds or even thousands of years. It is easy to copy the textbooks from the more advanced nations, and—in many cases—such books are reprinted and given away to students or libraries as part of foreign aid programs.

The old stuff is not necessarily so old. For example, quantum mechanics was developed at the beginning of the 20th century, which makes it one hundred years old. Is quantum mechanics important? Of course, it is! Amongst other things, it is the basis of modern electronics. If the administration of a university or the faculty of an academic department does not know this, their people are in real trouble. Another example is mechanics as presented in The Principia by Isaac Newton first published 5 July 1687. So, let’s do the math: 2020 – 1687 = 333 years ago.

However, some stuff is actually quite old—such as Algebra. The following text is taken from Wikipedia: The word “algebra” is derived from the Arabic word الجبر al-jabr, and this comes from the treatise written in the year 830 by the medieval Persian mathematician, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, whose Arabic title, Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala, can be translated as The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.

However, the origins of algebra can be traced to the ancient Babylonians, in about the year 2000 BC! This is old stuff.

This is why a student from a developing country can succeed in a graduate program in a more advanced country. The real reason, however, is not so obvious—or is it?

Why sometimes are we reticent to learn from someone that has successfully done something? Why do we refuse to copy good practices? Why would we refuse to even look?

We, humans, in order to articulate systems within our societies, use ideas. One of these ideas is money. The green piece of paper below is just that, a piece of paper. However, worldwide you can exchange this piece of paper for almost everything—help, a service, a product, or even a glass of water. That is a convention. We have all agreed that this piece of paper is worth a certain value, and therefore it has value.

one dollar

The list of ideas we use to rule our existence and our relations with others is long. Perhaps the most significant is God. Some are useful, and some are big distractions. One such distraction is the hate many people have towards the United States. Of course, this has its roots in the outrageous things that the USA has done in many nations throughout the world (invasions, occupations, and others). But does this change the fact that the universities of the United States are among the best in the world? , Of course not!

Here is where we connect with the second question. Why not graduate education? In plain and simple words, it is because the system of graduate education in most places is not good. Although the list of issues is long, we can start by emulating what works for others. At least we should take a look at the systems that are used by the successful and compare them with ours.

One catastrophic mistake that many make is paying too much attention to “budget”. It becomes such a good excuse to justify why nothing works on our side. But the root cause of the problem is not there. What do you think is the problem?

One way to see why the budget is not the problem is by looking at what it cost to develop the most remarkable advancements in history. In all cases the biggest expense was time. My favorite example is the theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein wasn’t even working for a university when he was working on this topic. Indeed, for the most part, he wasn’t even working because, during much of this period, he was unemployed. Then he finally became a clerk in the Swiss patent office (not even the manager). But he had the ingredients. Like Malcolm Gladwell explains in Outliers: a good enough IQ, and ten thousand hours of work. Well, to this list we can add a pen and paper. And of course, a well-funded and connected library is a must. But today, you can get anything you need through the Internet. This is something we cover in our conversation with Dr. Jaime Fernandez Baca, a Peruvian who works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jaime explains that if your experiment has the merits, they will run it for you. The obstacle is the fear to ask. It is the attitude. But if you are passionate, the attitude will be there for you.