STEM

STEM education is vital—but not at the expense of the humanities

Submitted by Stefanie Botelho. Kentucky governor Matt Bevin wants students majoring in electrical engineering to receive state subsidies for their education but doesn't want to support those who study subjects such as French literature. More...

Why is it hard to increase diversity in STEM fields?

By Michael Svec. Current statistics from the National Science Foundation on women and minorities in science and engineering suggest that the demographic composition of scientists and engineers does not reflect the large diversity of the American population. Over 70% of scientists and engineers in the United States are white, 12% Asian, 6% Hispanic, and only 5% black. More...

Liberal arts grads earn about $10K less than science grads

As students start classes at colleges and universities across the country, new research shows that despite much naysaying, liberal arts degrees do lead to successful careers. Read more...

More than any other city on the planet, Paris is the world’s center for mathematics

A unique mathematics community has once again been confirmed and outstanding with the announcement of the 12th French winner of the Fields Medal in 2014.
A long tradition of mathematics
The century of Louis XIV was also that of Descartes, Fermat, and Pascal. At the time of the Revolution, Laplace, Lagrange, Legendre, Condorcet, d’Alembert, and Monge were the leading figures in mathematics. They, in turn, were followed by Fourier, Cauchy, Galois, Poncelet, and Chasles − a line of succession just as impressive, if less often invoked, as that linking France’s writers. We forget that at the outset of the 19th century more renowned foreign scholars arrived in Paris for its scientific culture than for its literary dazzle. By the end of the century and into the early 20th century, the capital hosted prominent personalities such as Jordan, Borel, Lebesgue, and Lévy, among others or a genius such as Poincaré, whose portrait photographed by Smith was first published in October 1889 in the American Journal of Mathematics.
The 1930’s saw the founding of the Bourbaki group, which revolutionized Mathematics, preparing the way for the prodigious expansion of the 1950’s and beyond. The reasons for that expansion are many: an increase in the theoretical research that underpins practical applications in every economic sector, in parallel with the explosion of computer science and robotics; the “mathematicization” of economic analysis; the flexibility and diversity of the system of mathematical research, which had been freed from some of the constraints of the university system by the emergence of other sources of financing; the autonomy of mathematical researchers, who are less dependent on large budgets than researchers in some other disciplines; the arrival in France of Russian mathematicians; the prestige in France of pure intellectual research; and the commitment of great mathematicians to the freedom of thought and criticism such as Alexandre Grothendieck (1928-2014), who was stateless for a long time before being made a French national in 1971 and who was trained and worked in France. Considered the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century, he turned down the Fields Medal in 1966 on political grounds.
Over 4 000 mathematicians work in the academic sector in France, and around 10% are researchers in public research organizations such as the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA), and the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). More...

Paris est, sans comparaison avec aucune autre ville de la planète, la première place mathématique du monde

Maillage unique au monde de la communauté mathématique française et excellence confirmée avec le 12e lauréat français de la médaille Fields en 2014.
Une longue tradition mathématique
Le Siècle de Louis XIV est d’abord celui de Fermat, Descartes, Pascal ; quant aux mathématiciens de la Révolution, Laplace, Lagrange et Legendre, Condorcet, d’Alembert, Monge, puis leurs successeurs, les Fourier, Cauchy, Galois, Poncelet, Chasles nous rappellent une vérité quelque peu éclipsée par le prestige traditionnel des écrivains en France. Les étrangers venaient à Paris, au moins dans la première partie du XIXe siècle davantage pour sa vie scientifique que son rayonnement littéraire ! La fin du XIXe et le début du XXe a connu des individualités prestigieuses, tels Jordan, Borel, Lebesgue ou Lévy, ou encore un génie comme Poincaré dont le portrait photographié par Smith, fut publié pour la première fois en octobre 1889 dans l’ American Journal of Mathematics.
Dans les années trente, se crée le groupe Bourbaki, qui révolutionne l’esprit des mathématiques, préparant le terrain pour l’expansion formidable des années 50, dont les raisons sont très nombreuses : multiplication des recherches théoriques (et des chercheurs) qui fondent les applications pratiques dans tous les secteurs avec l’explosion de l’informatique et de la robotique ; « mathématisation » des analyses économiques, souplesse et diversité du système de recherche en mathématiques affranchi en partie des contraintes universitaires classiques grâce à des financements très variés ; respect de l’autonomie des chercheurs, moins dépendants de gros budgets que dans d’autres disciplines ; accueil en France de certains mathématiciens russes ; prestige de la recherche intellectuelle « pure » ; engagement de grands mathématiciens en faveur de la liberté de penser et de critiquer tel Alexandre Grothendieck (1928-2014) qui, longtemps apatride - il obtiendra la nationalité française en 1971 -, a été formé et a exercé en France. Considéré comme le plus grand mathématicien du XXe siècle, il refusa en 1966 la médaille Fields pour des raisons politiques. Voir l'article...

Humanities Need a STEM

The Promise of Interdisciplinary Education: Blending STEM and Liberal Arts

Humanities vs. STEM, Redux

Debunking the STEM vs. humanities debate

Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen