workshops

Perceived strengths and weaknesses in Hungarian science

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:21:55 -0700

Description

During a June 2008 workshop on the future of science in Hungary, we conducted a session on the strengths and weaknesses in Hungarian science. Here are some of the results:

WEAKNESSES

Long-term issues with education.

Diminishing quality of secondary school and university quality; brain drain; good teachers going to industry.

Hungarian science is too theoretical and inward-looking.

One participant said, "There's a special kind of vanity in Hungarian science. Scienctists are sometimes too proud of themselves... and driven by questions asked by themselves only. This is a big weakness that kills innovative thinking." (On the other hand, this attitude also encourages focus on serious problems that can only be solved with years of diligent work.) Another added, "There's a distinction in the world between two kinds of science, which doesn't exist in science: between popular science and Science. In Hungary, there's a pretentious attitude toward popular science." There are also not many industrial activities that can attract scientific research: as one scientist said, "There is no engineer from a factory to knock at my door and tell me about a problem they need solved." Finally, despite the high public profile of science, there's not enough sharing of new scientific ideas.

The innovation system isn't well-developed.

"We're innovative but we don't have opportunities," one scientist lamented. There a "lack of openness to appropriately managing research... or modern methods of managing research." Hungarian scientists and agencies use very little benchmarking, aren't yet very familiar with intellectual property rights management. The top-down approach encourages political-decision making, stifles opportunities for young people.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration is difficult.

Research institutes and government programs aren't as well-geared to supporting cross-disciplinary research as the rest of the EU. There's not much collaboration between faculties in the technical sciences and arts: departments work separately, ignore each other at the best of times, and "publicly hate each other" at the worst. "This is a nightmare in most universities: departments," one scientist said.

STRENGTHS

The (Myth of the) Glorious Past.

Some of the most famous scientists and high-tech entrepreneurs of the 20th century (not to mention filmmakers, authors, musicians, and artists) were Hungarian-born. Despite a substantial national pride in this history, participants described this as a bit of a problem. As one said, "There's more of a tradition of saying that there's a tradition."

Native innovation.

There is innovative thinking in lots of areas that comes from the socialist-era need to deal with tricky situations or inadequate resources. "There's a heritage of backyard thinking," as one participant put it. More extreme ideas come out in an environment where lots of stuff doesn't work. "In the void we have here, you can experiment more; there's a level of institutional experimentation that we have here." But this is more of a survival technique, not something that's yet used to spur innovation in business. Very few people learn how to be successful within the system.

Global connections.

Hungary's large scientific diaspora includes people who still maintain close ties to their alma maters in Hungary, take on Hungarian graduate students, and return to Hungary for conferences and other events. As a result, in some fields there is "very intensive international collaboration," and scientists enjoy "access to first-class global networks."

High theory.

"We're good in sciences where we don't need a lot of facilities," one mathematician said, "only our ideas or theories." Hungarian education also tends to be pretty board, and specialization comes later than in other European countries (though this is less so now than 20 years ago). However, this can have a long-term payoff: "Its popular to say that Hungarian education is very theoretical," one scientists said, "but that's a strength: we're not focused on just practical issues, and in the longer run that's a great strength."

Russia & Eastern Europe: Science & Technology

Source

Workshop on the future of science, Graphisoft Park, Budapest, 30 January 2008.

Singapore as a center for energy research

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:58:17 -0700

Description

During a workshop on the future of energy conducted at National University of Singapore, our experts were divided into several groups and asked to develop a model for a research center supporting transformative science and innovation. The question we put them was:

Imagine a major philanthropy has declared that they want to endow a set of institutions that will foster transformative discoveries or innovations in science. Your group has been invited to submit a proposal to create one of these institutions. These institutions can be located anywhere, and can attack any major problem or set of problems. Further, because they want to support paradigm-changing and transformative science, rather than incremental advances, they're willing to let you spend up to ten years building the program.

Two of the groups chose to develop scenarios for the future of energy research in Singapore.

SCENARIO 1: MOBILE ENERGY

The first group proposed a research center working on mobile energy. This could range from automobiles and planes, to medical implants, to sensor network components, to homes less-developed regions that don't have grids-- any energy use context that's off the grid and independent.

The research center would bring together scientists from physics, biochemistry, and mathematics, as well as people who know use domains-- e.g., people in surgery (who know implants and prosthetics), management (households), etc.-- around projects in basic research, integrative research, and applications. As one participant put it, "Energy have always used a place for unifying different skills in science."

Why could Singapore do this? Singapore already has lots of support for energy research: the NRF (National Research Foundation) already offers grants to promote energy research. As a small, highly-developed country with huge energy demands and a very mobile population, it's an ideal test market for mobile energy devices. At the same time, the country has easy access to bigger population centers (and markets) like Indonesia and India.

SCENARIO 2: ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE

The second group's proposal focused on energy and infrastructure. The coming energy crisis-- driven by the combination of rising global demand, peak oil, and growing problems in storage and transmission-- will be one of the great challenges faced by mankind in this century.

The center would focus on renewable energy, in particular solar and ocean thermal power generation systems. The core researchers would include civil, mechanics, electrical and control engineers; marine scientists; and oceanographers. Expertise would have to be tapped from all over the world, for both practical and symbolic reasons. As one participant put it, "Energy is no longer a problem faced by one country. It's a problem that touches the whole world. It's a question of getting the best use out of the nature of your sources, and distributing the rest for the good of mankind."

The group thought about locating the research center in Indonesia, but finally decided to base it in Singapore, to be close to industrial players (including Singapore's deep expertise in designing and installing large open-ocean platforms), other research institutes, government infrastructures, and the more dynamic research environment that the government is trying to cultivate. However, the center would be trans-Pacific in its research projects. For ocean thermal experiments, the center might run prototype projects in Hawaii or Japan; for solar, Indonesia, which has lots of space, would be an ideal partner.

East and Southeast Asia: Science and Technology

Source

National University of Singapore expert workshop, 24 July 2008.

National University of Singapore expert workshop

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:45:12 -0700

Description

The X2 project conducted an expert workshop at National University of Singapore on July 24, 2008, with academics from NUS and Nanyan Technological University, and members of the Singaporean government. The workshop generated a map of the future of science, with particular attention to science in Singapore.

Singapore workshop map

The major areas the experts identified as offering the greatest opportunities for Singaporean sciences included:

Real-time monitoring and control of biological systems-- in-vivo, real-time sensing of biological processes;
Energy-- in particular developing alternative energy sources
Biomimicry and biomodeling-- from the use of biological models and metaphors in engineering, to in silico drug development, to genetic medicine
Infrastructure challenges-- challenges to the production of useful and disruptive knowledge
Human-machine interfacaes and relationships-- from creating machines that humans have to conform to to use, to creating machines with the capacity for understanding humans.
Fundamental theoretical advances-- potential development of "theories of everything" in physics and biology; evolution of human learning
Molecular engineering-- nanotechnology, engineering solutions to health and energy problems at the molecular scale

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology