Raytheon and the Business-Higher Education Forum unveiled an open-source computer modeling program July 8 focused on math and science education. The program is designed for use by educators, policy makers and researchers to aid education policy and planning decisions.
The defense industry is bracing itself for growing shortages of skilled engineers and scientists as older workers prepare to retire and are not replaced at a full rate. The program, which Raytheon engineers started developing in 2006, looks at roughly 200 variables to judge the likelihood a student will graduate with a degree in one of the "STEM" subjects - science, technology, engineering or math - and enter industry or become a teacher in one of those fields.
The program is intended to help effective educational methods rise to the top, said Raytheon Chief Executive Bill Swanson. Whereas a lot of ideas have worked locally, there is no "one size" for all educational systems. In looking at how to model the use of effective educational methods, Raytheon used the same systems engineering, modeling and simulation it uses for defense programs, Swanson said.
"We decided to use the same methods that had been applied to large, complex engineering systems," Swanson said. "These tools help us determine what systems designs will work and be cost-effective and which should be abandoned because they have limited capabilities or high cost or worse yet, just won't work over time."
The model itself looks like a group of spiders, mapping a person's education and career from birth to retirement. It looks at the short- and long-term impacts of changing certain variables and produces a graph showing changes in the number of college graduates in STEM subjects as a result.
The model also looks at variables such as teacher pay, class size, student interest in science and math, teacher attrition rates and gender differences over the course of a person's education from kindergarten to college.
Raytheon gifted the program, called the U.S. STEM Educational Model, to BHEF. BHEF in turn launched the program into open-source use, which means users can suggest changes and research to improve the model. The model is based on research including test scores and localized studies, yet more research is needed, panelists at the unveiling said.
"There are many areas where we need much more research. … to help fill in some of the gaps. In the meantime, we often make assumptions," said Brian Wells, chief system engineer at Raytheon. Raytheon and BHEF are hoping researchers and users of the program will add research. That research, and changes suggested in the open-source environment, will be reviewed by other users, speakers at the unveiling said.
The program can be downloaded for free at www.STEMnetwork.org. Vensim Simulation Software from Ventana Systems is needed to run the software.
The program will be overseen by the STEM Research and Modeling Network, a partnership between Raytheon, BHEF and The Ohio State University. The partnership got some "seed money" from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but more funding, perhaps a few million a year, will be needed in the future, depending on what other initiatives the network decides to pursue, such as educational awards, said Brian Fitzgerald, executive director of BHEF.
The BHEF is an organization of executives from Fortune 500 companies, university presidents and foundation leaders who focus on educational issues and enhancing U.S. competitiveness.
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