The debate over outsourcing has moved from American City Halls to engineering colleges in India. A new report released by Duke University, ranked this year as America’s fifth-best, has rubbished theories that the US has lost its technological edge — frequent arguments of anti-offshoring lobbies.The report, authored by Vivek Wadhwa, Executive in Residence and Adjunct Professor, Master of Engineering Management Program, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, has argued, instead, that the quality of engineers coming out of India — and China — is not really comparable with those graduating from US colleges.‘‘Varying, inconsistent reporting of problematic engineering graduation data has been used to fuel fears that America is losing its technological edge,’’ says the author. ‘‘Typical articles have stated that in 2004 the United States graduated roughly 70,000 undergraduate engineers, while China graduated 600,000 and India 350,000. Our study has determined that these are inappropriate comparisons,’’ says the report.According to the report, massive numbers of Indian and Chinese engineering graduates don’t necessarily make for the best-in-class talent industry needs. For instance, an Indian engineer may be a diploma holder or a three-year degree holder, whereas the US only churns out engineering graduates after four-year courses.Wadhwa has also pointed out that the Ministry of Education and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) release statistics with four or three-year degree holders and diploma-winners. ‘‘These numbers have been compared against the annual production of accredited four-year engineering degrees in the United States,’’ says the report.Wadhwa’s study classifies engineers as ‘‘dynamic’’ or having ‘‘high-level problem solving (skills) using scientific knowledge’’ or ‘‘transactional,’’ implying the person may have engineering fundamentals, but not the experience or expertise to apply this knowledge to larger problems.While dynamic engineers thrive in teams, work well across international borders, have strong interpersonal skills, and are capable of translating technical engineering jargon into common diction, the transactional lot ‘‘ are typically responsible for rote and repetitive tasks in the workforce.’’The dynamic engineers can lead innovation and typically have four-year degrees, but the transactional subset, more common to India, have associate, technician or diploma awards rather than a bachelor’s degree.That said, the report concludes that the US is producing a significant number of engineers, CS and IT specialists, while China with roughly four times the population of the US, and India, with approximately three times the numbers, is producing a lot less people of equal skill.
