Barack Obama points to Sputnik to save technology
Obama: Sputnik moment is back
By Patrick Thibodeau | Computerworld US | Published: 11:13, 08 December 2010
President Barack Obama is calling for more investment in science and technology, saying the "Sputnik moment is back" for the US, referring to the 1957 orbiting Soviet satellite now synonymous with any foreign challenge to America's technical dominance.
Parts of Obama's speech today were very similar to one made just last week by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu , who also referred to Sputnik. It was as if the two shared notes.
One of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's slides from a speech he gave last week. Source: DOE.
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The underlying message of Obama's talk Monday was to keep Congress from slashing education and science funding.
Cutting science and technology investments is "like trying to reduce the weight of an overloaded aircraft by removing its engine," said Obama.
Obama also cited a need to protect education, and pointed to a series of statistics that illustrate problems, such as falling from first to ninth place globally in the proportion of young people with college degrees.
"In the race for the future, America is in danger of falling behind. That's just the truth," said Obama, speaking at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Similar to Chu, he raised a few recent technology developments, some pointing back to China .
Among them, without naming the company, Obama cited development of the world's "largest private solar research and development facility" in China. He was likely referring to a 400,000 square foot facility built by Applied Materials.
The President also cited China's development of a supercomputer that's now ranked as the world's fastest .
Obama didn't address offshore outsourcing directly, but made it clear the other nations are competing for US jobs .
"When global firms were asked a few years back where they planned on building new research and development facilities, nearly 80% said either China or India because those countries are focused on math and science, and they're focused on training and educating their workforce," Obama said.
Last week, Chu drew attention to the US decline in high-tech manufacturing. In 1998, the US had about 25% of the world's technology export market; today it is about 12% to 13%.
