SoCal Minds

For SoCal engineers, reports of salary bounty ahead

From Harvey Mudd

With an undergraduate education costing as much as a cool quarter million bucks or so these days, guess it makes a lot of sense for parents and students to pay hefty attention to what all this schooling eventually results in, in terms of pay. So, it's been said before, but a web site focused on some aspects of collegiate economics has underscored it again: If midcareer salary surveys and their results matter, it pays to be an engineer who was educated in California, where the Mudders and the guys and gals in Pasadena score in the No. 1 and No. 4 slots, respectively, with places like Dartmouth, Princeton and Harvard in between em. There also are online rankings for liberal arts schools and their students' later-life pay. Guess studies like these, as well as the annual 'best' ratings by magazines and others, need to be taken with due skepticism, particularly since only those who are faring particulary well with their paychecks are inclined to answer salary surveys and there are other caveats galore about data and rankings. But, go figure, none of that's going to stop the water cooler chatter, is it?

When it comes to midcareer pay, here's Mudd in your eye

Here's the financial low-down on collegiate salary survey from CNN Money

Click here for PayScale's 2010-11 annual college salary report

2 different ways to answer, sort of, 'Quien es mas macho?'

From LACMA & Harvey Mudd

With the weather promising to be as fine as it can be, it should be the perfect time to man up, so to speak, in a smart Southern California fashion by taking in some oorah activities in the next few days. On Sunday, for example, jog don't stroll over to Wilshire Boulevard to catch the opening of the 'Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins.' The iconic American artist, back in the day, got himself in unending hot water for his sexy paintings, his bracing realism and his then outre teaching methods, including, gasp, nude models -- naked men posing for classes with women in them and naked women in classes with men in 'em. His life and works, including the recently Los Angeles acquired 'Wrestlers,' (shown at right) have prompted lots of speculation about his sexuality but there's little doubt about his mastery and place in U.S. artistic accomplishment.

If on-screen manliness calls more, though, better hurry to sign up for the Monday bash in Claremont for the release of the Starcraft II. The top-selling, much praised video game -- which has proved to be a huge-grossing global seller -- has beaucoups ties to Southern California, especially to Westwood, Irvine and Claremont. It's not exactly on every adult's screen. But the scheduled debut, which will include top competitors, food, beverages, T-shirts and prospects for scoring early-bird copies of Starcraft, is touted as one of the gaming events of the year. There's a fee to attend but the event will be streamed online; all the necessary links at the Mudders' page.

In Claremont, Pasadena possible pride on a fiscal note

From Harvey Mudd

It was a buzzword of the MBA crowd, a term of pride for the Wall Streeters in their go-go heyday. So here it is popping back up in a different setting and potentially exciting some schools, parents and alums, perhaps. ROI. There we said it. 'Return on investment.' If that fiscal measurement rings the chimes as an academic achievement, well, then, the folks in Pasadena and Claremont have an accolade to wear proudly. The whole concept turns on schools' costs, what grads will disclose as to what they really make and whether long projections of earnings accurately reflect reality. But based on data that an outfit called PayScale crunched, MIT grads get the best ROI, a calculated 12.6% return that could total a cool $1.9 million over 30 years; Caltech comes in close behind at 12.6%, too, but $1.64 million. The Mudders followed after Harvard, with the West Coasters racking up a 12.5% ROI and a $1.62 million return. As befitting an economic analysis of scholarly ROI, the Wall Street Journal succinctly says that if the measure matters most, be an in-state student attending a public school (9.8% average annualized ROI) or go to a private school (9.1%) but think hard about being an out-of-state student at a public school (8.4%). Data was amassed from 1.4 million graduates of 852 public and private institutions.

Caltech, Harvey Mudd score high on ranking by return on investment

How the WSJ breaks down the ROI info

Click here for the fuller PayScale ROI list

A global outlook, with powerful possibilities, video, water

From Harvey Mudd, USC & LMU

Besides exposing them to big-time academics, serious scholarship and abundant sunshine, schools across the region have gone deep on steeping their students in global ideas, issues and concerns. And what results for young folks and their profs can be nothing less than nifty as separate, recent instances show:

• In Claremont, sophomore Alice Conant has synthesized a whole lot of different ideas and practices and hit on what many say is a potentially electrifying idea: She and her mentor, Harvey Rubin, a professor of medicine and computer science at Penn, have taken note of the ubiquity of cell phones globally, but especially in the Third World and even in some desperately backwards parts of the planet. Well, for the cells to work, they need antennas scattered across the landscape, each such tower connected, of course, to modern, dependable power supplies. So why not, the student has asked with a chorus of scholarly 'hallelujahs' behind, tap some of that cell tower electrical power for other life-saving uses. Like? Powering a few refrigerators that then could store vaccines against deadly diseases that otherwise would ravage undeveloped areas. Or maybe a little shared wattage could drive pumps and wells so potable water supplies would be available. Proponents say this plan, which is undergoing some testing this summer in Philadelphia, could prove to be a huge boon to the 3 million people who die annually around the world after drinking bad water or the 2 million who succumb to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Could cell phone juice zap disease, provide fresh water to world's needy?

Click here for blog post on how tapping cell tower power could provide vaccines, water

• In Exposition Park, some media savvy alums hope to make 10-10-10 not just a mantra but a globally memorable moment. They have built up connections and a campaign across the planet to get volunteers to work together to shoot videos that capture human lives as they exist this fall, and, by sharing them online, to contribute to greater global understanding and cooperation. The one day on earth project, its Trojan film-making proponents say, recognizes that video has become a universal means of communication and a kind of literacy that can build communities.

Get ready to record videos to make 10-10-10 a memorable date

• In Westchester, a grateful mechanical engineering prof from a small village in Bangladesh learned about a problem in his homeland that shocked him into action. Seems thousands in his native country suddenly were seeing drastic changes in the pigmentation of their skin. And they were dying. In fact, he found out, tens of millions of poor, thirsty folks imperiled their health and lives with a simple act that he had come to take for granted after he moved to this country, earned his advanced degrees and joined the faculty: drinking water. Officials in Bangladesh in the 1970s, it turns out, had sought to get people to stop consuming surface supplies, sipping from disease-ridden sources such as ponds. So they dug wells in tubes, tapping underground aquifers, which, for a time, provided sanitary, seemingly safe water. Only problem was that the tube wells were contaminated with poisonous arsenic. And now the wells provide the chief supply to tens of millions. The prof has won grants, set up a pilot program to purify supplies, helped spread the word and he has helped directly those poisoned and needing medical aid.

Prof seeks to aid homeland with dire drinking supplies laced with arsenic

Generous donors shower millions on area institutions

From the Huntington, Harvey Mudd & Cal Poly Pomona

The lights don't go on for free at the intellectual institutions across the region, so students, researchers and members of the general public have cause to celebrate that donors have shown such generosity in recent days with the folks in San Marino, of course, capturing the big headline of the moment.

 That's because they have reported that their six-year fund-raising campaign, which had a goal of $175 million, has all but ended and brought in an unexpected $240 million  with gifts still getting tallied and the official close of the books on Wednesday. Outreach to new, varied and different donors -- the Chinese American community, for example -- boosted giving, as did the receipt not just of cash, pledges and an increase in the institutional endowment but also significant, sizable collections and valuable displayable items.

Besides reeling in major donors, the institution also recently received a smaller, fishy present from Disneyland in Anaheim: 250 koi, valuable creatures that needed to be relocated and saved from a hotel pond.

In Claremont, meantime, the Mudders are saying many thanks for a $1 million donation to their Global Clinic program from some grateful, late parents who appreciated how their son put in practice all he learned while helping and working with others from spots in Central and South America, Asia and Europe.

And lastly, in Pomona, the business administration and hospitality management folks are appreciating the $2 million pledged by a prominent alum , who said he felt the need to give back to his onetime school not only for the education he received but also because it was the place where he met his wife.

Student's blog is briefly apple of Steve Jobs' eye

From Harvey Mudd

Steve Jobs proved again on Monday that all he needs to do is stand up with an Apple device of some kind and the business press gushes forth with billions of electrons and barrels of ink of fawning attention. So it's nice to know that the Apple exec (shown, l, in a Monday Reuters news photo at the iPhone4 unveiling) also can be generous in sharing that monumental spotlight on occasion as he did recently by geeking out on the blog of a computer science student in Claremont. Junior Jason Garrett-Glaser (shown at right) got hundreds of comments and thousands of hits, attention that has just as swiftly died down, after Jobs referred to the student's assessment of a video format that can employed for online streaming. Garrett-Glaser has worked for several years on the open source x264 video application that YouTube, Facebook and Hulu also favor. On his online developer's diary, the Mudder analyzed VP8, a Google proposed option that he found lacking compared with available, industry standards. Jobs answered a media inquiry as to whether Apple might adopt VP8 with just a link to the student review.

Apple exec answers media query with reference to Mudders' online review

Bah, which schools are happy, stressful, got buzz?

From Claremont McKenna, Pomona & UCLA

What's with the zeitgeist in Claremont? Or maybe the question should be, What's with the American fascination about ratings, rankings and lists -- aside from the media manufactured attention grabbing that these gigs generate? Just in time for the academics to boast about or belittle the various annual ratings and rankings by certain publications, there are a couple of cyber lists that are worth a mention for Friday water-cooler fodder. Says the Daily Beast, based on criteria that barely eke beyond the risible, Southern California campuses, especially those out in Claremont, are among the Happiest, while others are the most Stressed Out. Let's cut to the chase: Claremont McKenna tops the bliss list, followed by Harvard, Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Scripps, with Caltech (8), Oxy (12), UCLA (13), UCI (16), Pitzer (22), UCSB (28) and USC (31) following. On the other hand, the high anxiety crowd is said to be topped by Stanford, Columbia and MIT, with Caltech (9), USC (18), UCLA (30) and UCSB (41) following. Not quite sure of what to make of another set of measures that are said to tap the 'buzz' detectable online, in social media and other ways about schools, though Pomona shows up No. 6 on this list, which also mentions Oxy (45), Claremont McKenna (66), Harvey Mudd (80), Pitzer (92) and Scripps (93), allegedly following the tops of Wellsely, Williams, Colorado College and Oberlin; among the universities, UCLA hits this list at No. 14. And while deciding what to make about the U.S. News & World Report and other such list-mania that's popping up, well, a good dose of perspective from the Bruins on the topic, put together by the always readable Claudia Luther. By the way, we're not linking here to every school's post on this topic, just a sample few.

In Claremont, just one of the kvelling reports on the Happiness list 

From Pomona, a favorable nod from monitor of the 'net 'buzz' about schools

Click here to see the 'Beast' list of Happy schools

Click here for the 'Beast' list of Stressful campuses

Bruins put magazine, publications' school ratings in perspective

On a gray Monday, cheers for campus do-gooders

From UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Cal State Fullerton & Harvey Mudd College

OK, OK, it's axiomatically true that no good deed goes unpunished. But lots of little shout-outs here for Samartians of all stripes at campuses across the Southland. The Haitian ambassador stopped by Westwood to not only talk about his nation's rebuilding strategies but also thank Bruin medical personnel who assisted in the recent quake relief. Speaking of Haiti, a novel Lion fund-raising effort involving brown paper bags and cut out paper dolls continues to raise money for temblor aid, even as other volunteers from campus pitched in for a clean-up at nearby Westchester High School over the weekend. In Fullerton, the school says the thank you to a couple who are $1 million-plus supporters of the arts and the art department by naming a key art space for donors Nicholas and Lee Begovich. And out in Claremont, cheers to students who volunteer to spread the word about technology through a 'science bus' program that annually visits with poor, minority elementary school kids. It's also good to know that the Mudders remember well their own, as occurred recently in a memorial conference for mathematician and inconoclast Melvin Henriksen.

$14.9 million for more study of genes, the brain

From UCLA & Harvey Mudd College

Call it millions of measures of stimulus for the brain. The Bruins say they've won $14.9 million in federal stimulus funds to establish a new center that will expand the school's ongoing investigations into how our genes and the environment interact and act to affect our brains and how those processes can go awry and cause a range of maladies, including autism, attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Some of the money will go to expand and equip research space so that some 180 investigators and trainees can conduct large-scale studies on how genes turn on and off, leading to neuropsychiatric disorders. Meantime, aspiring engineers and scientists out in Claremont got a $1 million boost from a big Southern California cemetery operator, whose charitable foundation put up funding for undergrads' scholarships.

Stimulus funds will help build out Bruin research on neuropsychiatric disorders

$1 million in scholarships for Mudd science, engineering students

Local colleges get low marks on sustainability

From Claremont McKenna College

Here's a way to either demonstrate research independence or maybe how to tee-off the homeys: The folks at the Roberts Environmental Center have turned their scrutiny from corporations, industries and even nations and focused now on the sustainability practices of top liberal arts colleges nationwide. They gave top marks for green thinking and doing and social consciousness and vision to Williams (A+), Bucknell (A-), Amherst (B+), Colorado (B+) and Gettysburg (B+) colleges. But the researchers zinged local institutions, giving mediocre marks, at best, to: Pitzer (C), Harvey Mudd (C-), Scripps (D) and Occidental (D-). Ouch. To be clear, in methodology terms, the study relies on publicly available information on sustainability issues, particularly as places post it on web sites. Nations, industries and corporations have gotten clued in to internet reporting of this information because of an international, industry-supported initiatives. Colleges have their own similar programs but the researchers criticized schools for their haphazard, fuzzy efforts on sustainability and transparency. By the way, U.S. News and World Report rankings were used to determine which were the top 50 liberal arts colleges. And the researchers left their own institution out of the study and they clearly say why.

Criticism for haphazard, fuzzy public reporting of work on green, social consciousness issues 

The Chronicle of Higher Education take on sustainability study