Most engineers know there are many ways to hide malicious code and design within architecture. Yet, most subscribe to an engineering code of ethics, the thought of such a betrayal analgous to a Medical Doctor using their skills to commit murder.
Yet in terms of policy is our Government undervaluing the national loyalty of most US citizen engineers? Are they enabling U.S. Scientists, Technologists, Engineers and Mathematicians to use their skills in support of infrastructure that is within the national interest?
Software has become the central ingredient of the information age, increasing productivity, facilitating the storage and transfer of information, and enabling functionality in almost every realm of human endeavor. However, as it improves the Department of Defense’s (DoD) capability, it increases DoDs dependency. Each year the Department of Defense depends more on software for its administration and for the planning and execution of its missions. This growing dependency is a source of weakness exacerbated by the mounting size, complexity and interconnectedness of its software programs. It is only a matter of time before an adversary exploits this weakness at a critical moment in history.
Watch a Washington State Governor utter blatant falsehoods on the current state of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics labor market as well as pretty much dismiss out of hand someone speaking up who clearly has the career qualifications in a town hall meeting.
With friends like these who needs enemies? The IEEE-USA issued a statement supporting turning our University system into a glorified green card machine. They also have literally teamed up with a corporate lobbyist organization, the SIA, to issue their policy position. The IEEE-USA claims to be concerned about career and labor issues for it’s United States citizens, American members. Why would they betray their own members and issue policy that is a notorious and obvious method to flood the US labor supply and cause further erosion of U.S. engineers’ careers?
The “free green card” proposals also comprise a response to the academic lobby, as U.S. universities have seen their foreign applicant pools for graduate programs shrink in recent years. Students in other countries are less interested in study here these days because the U.S. job market is poor while opportunities back home are burgeoning. This is causing academics to panic, since their lucrative federal research funding depends on having the “bodies” to work in the labs. Graduate study at the PhD level is unattractive to American students because the graduate assistant stipend is so low, as is the salary premium paid to PhDs…
