Do the math: U.S. companies face shortage of technical talent

Bill Swanson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon Company, needs a continual supply of people highly educated in mathematics, science and engineering. Speaking at the W. P. Carey School's Economic Club of Phoenix, Swanson described Raytheon's efforts to keep the U.S.'s technical talent pipeline full.

Bill Swanson shakes his head as he repeats the numbers: last year colleges and universities in China churned out 500,000 engineers, according to a National Academy of Sciences study. In comparison, the U.S. managed just 70,000 engineering graduates, far behind China or the 200,000 produced by India, a country where 65 percent of the population lacks indoor toilets.

Swanson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon Company, a $22 billion aeronautics/astronautics company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, needs a continual supply of people highly educated in mathematics, science and engineering.

"The security and prosperity of this city, this state and this country depend on engineers and scientists to continue to work their wonders in an increasingly competitive world. But where will the new generations of engineers and scientists come from to give shape to America's future?" Swanson asks.

Raytheon's employees pioneered microwave cooking and perfected the world's first operating laser. Today, Raytheon products range from electronic toll-booths to ballistic missile interception systems, and most notably, are used to track two-thirds of the world's airborne planes and run airport security systems.

For security reasons, these are not projects that can be outsourced to foreign shores. Speaking at the W. P. Carey School's Economic Club of Phoenix, Swanson said, "I have a big stake in keeping the technical talent pipeline of the United States full."

Fulfilling Raytheon customers' needs means "providing our men and women in uniform with a level of situational awareness that was once unimaginable — so that they can assess, respond, adjust, synchronize and integrate their activities faster and more comprehensively than ever before," he continues.

Fueling the technical talent pipeline

Meanwhile, the technical talent pipeline in the U.S. is far from full. For some reason, kids in the U.S. don't seem interested in math- or science-based careers. Swanson decided to go to the source for more information, commissioning a national study of 11- to 13-year-old students. Turns out that 84 percent of the kids polled would rather do just about anything — including eat vegetables, clean their rooms and go to the dentist — than do math.

This avoidance is reflected in pitiful test scores. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2005, only 30 percent of eighth-graders assessed nationally scored "proficient" or better in math. By high-school graduation, Americans "score near the bottom of all industrialized nations," he added. Swanson and his team know Raytheon's future could be uncertain if the technical talent pipeline doesn't improve.

So a year ago, they kicked off an Internet-based, interactive project called "MathMovesU." The project gets funky appeal by mingling sports celebrity testimonials with math problems and cash. "We need to strengthen our students' math and science skills well before they enter high school. It is in middle school — the fourth to eighth grade — that math and science education is so crucial," he explains.

There are several components to MathMovesU, but bottom line, kids who solve math problems posed by soccer star Mia Hamm or BMX biker Dave Mirra earn scholarships. Already, 450 students have earned $1,000 scholarships, and teachers who come up with more inviting math lesson plans have scored $165,000 in grants. Weekly math challenges keep program participation strong. The schools where scholarship winners attend also qualify for $1,000 awards.

"On one night this year, there were 18,000 kids logged on to our Web site, doing math work with us," Swanson boasted, a wide smile on his face. To spread the word, MathMovesU celebrities parachute into schools to act as substitute math teachers. Example: last month Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona surprised students at Marlborough (Massachusetts) Middle School with a lesson on how he uses numbers to rate players and plan strategy.

He told the kids, "From batting averages to a pitcher's ERA, I wouldn't be where I am today without understanding how math plays into my sport." Award-winning video-game designer Mark Skaggs was another celebrity substitute math teacher, showing students at Hawkins Middle School in Forest, Mississippi, how math figures in writing gaming code. Raytheon helped coordinate donation of a dozen new computers to the school and raffled off a Nintendo handheld video game before introducing the school's new "MATHCOUNTS" team.

In New York City, Olympic gold medalist Apolo Ohno made the rounds of radio and television talk shows, explaining the science of athletic excellence; in Huntsville, Alabama, MathMovesU helped sponsor the Sally Ride Science Festival, honoring the first American woman in space; in Tucson, Arizona, Raytheon's missile group employees served cake and handed out iPods to students. So far Raytheon also has recognized 35 "Math Heroes" across the country.

While representing a magnificent effort, Raytheon's initial year of "MathMovesU" still contributes only a tiny portion of the stream needed to fill that half-empty technical pipeline; the problem of inspiring and training literally millions of scientists, mathematicians and engineers must be shared to be solved, Swanson said.

Industry participation

Raytheon is not the only high-tech employer trying to prime the pump. IBM sponsors "Academic Initiative," General Electric's foundation sponsors a college-bound program, Intel is behind the "Education Initiative" and ExxonMobil is developing a similar project. But Swanson is also involved in another avenue of technical training, serving as co-chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum's technical talent initiative.

Its official — and cumbersome — name is "Securing America's Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics," commonly abbreviated to "STEM." STEM has an awe-inspiring goal: to double the number of U.S. citizens who are science, technology, engineering or math graduates with bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees by the year 2015.

This goal is even more urgent when figured against Baby Boomer retirements that will siphon off nearly one-third of the U.S. Department of Defense's civilian scientific and technical workers in the next few years. Swanson referenced Milton Friedman, the renowned economist, now deceased, who won a Nobel Prize in Economic Science.

A newspaper obituary included an anecdote about how a geometry teacher showed Friedman, then a student, the connection between Keats' poem, "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and the Pythagorean theorem, revealing "mathematical beauty."

Now, Swanson hopes that his work with MathMovesU and STEM will trigger that revelatory moment for many more American students. "That is the hope and the wish I leave with you today," he told Economic Club members. "Please help our students see the beauty in math and science."

Bottom Line:

• China produced 500,000 engineering graduates last year, compared to 200,000 Indian grads and 70,000 U.S. grads, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
• 84 percent of kids ages 11 to 13 polled by Raytheon would rather clean their rooms, eat vegetables, go to the dentist or empty the trash than do math.
• Through MathMovesU, Raytheon gave $1,000 scholarships to 450 students during the first year of the innovative project to spur interest in technical fields.
• IBM, Intel, G.E. and other high-tech employers have launched their own programs to steer American kids into science, math and engineering careers.