The recent eWeek story regarding U.S. decline in science and technology (see below) is nothing new. We’ve heard this same story for twenty years. But is anyone listening?
Over the Christmas break, I did my bit to encourage passion in software development, engineering, and project management. I mentored a college student with an Arduio board. (See http://www.arduino.cc/) The Arduino is a microcontroller with inputs and outputs for controlling external devices. It’s big in university engineering departments. Awesome, dude!
We stayed up past midnight wiring circuits and slinging C++ code to exercise the Arduino I/O ports. In a rat’s nest of wires, LED’s flashed, speakers squealed, and relays clattered. Cool! When it was over, the kid had a new passion for product development and engineering principles.
Code ‘til you drop, and then do it again tomorrow! That’s my answer to declining technology in the U.S. And I suppose it’s also my preferred project management style.