A joint meeting with IEEE (PES, IAS, PACE) and ASME Pittsburgh Section

Offshore Outsourcing and Engineering Employment

Ron Hira, Ph.D., P.E.

Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract: The phenomenon of corporations moving high-technology jobs overseas is accelerating, and it is creating a palpable unease amongst current and future American technology workers. Examples of immediate impacts are readily available. Young people have already begun to shy away from majoring in computer science. And US technology workers are increasingly being asked to train their overseas replacements, a form of knowledge extraction that is euphemistically referred to as knowledge transfer. They have little choice because of the current state of the job market - jobs are scarce and wages are under pressure. The policy dialogue concerning outsourcing has been clouded by a portrayal of outsourcing as either a positive or negative for America. The reality of course is that it generates significant positive and negative effects.

Outsourcing advocates, very happy with the status quo, have sponsored and marketed a spate of studies to highlight the positives and downplay the negatives of outsourcing. They focus on a single objective: short-term economic efficiency. Many of these studies acknowledge the 'unfortunate but inevitable displacement of workers' as jobs are exported from America, but excitedly argue that it is simply a necessary side effect of progress. Others go as far as saying that the exporting of Information Technology (IT) jobs will actually create more IT jobs. This rosy view, shared by many corporate managers and economists, stands in stark contrast to how most technology workers view the situation. This talk will discuss what we know - or more importantly what we don't know - about outsourcing and describe many of the implications that are missed by outsourcing advocacy reports.

Place: Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP)

337 Fourth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, Phone: 412-261-0710

(ESWP is located at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Smithfield Street.

Parking is available in several of the nearby parking garages.)

Date: August 19, 2004

Time: Social: 6:00 PM, Dinner: 6:15 PM, Technical Program: 7:00 PM

Dinner: The dinner will be a buffet. The cost for the dinner is $23.00. There is no charge for attending the program only.

Reservations must be made no later than August 17, 2004. Please call either of the following at Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates.

Ms. Jennifer Montgomery, EIT, 724-285-4761, Jennifer.montgomery@burthill.com

S. Faruq Ahmed, PE, 724-285-4761, ahmed@burthill.com

Please send a check made out to IEEE Pittsburgh Section to the following address.

Ms. Jennifer Montgomery, EIT

Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates

101 E. Diamond Street

Butler, PA 16001

Speaker: Dr. Ron Hira is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Rochester Institute of Technology where he specializes in engineering workforce issues and technology policy. He is a recognized expert on offshore outsourcing. Ron spent ten years working as a control systems engineer with Sensytech, NIST, and George Mason University (GMU). He taught graduate courses in electrical engineering at GMU and has been a consultant for the Rand Corporation, the National Research Council, Deloitte & Touche, and Newport News Shipbuilding. Ron has testified before the U.S. Congress twice on the implications of offshore outsourcing. He has given dozens of invited presentations on the subject to a variety of audiences. He has appeared on Now with Bill Moyers, Lou Dobbs' Moneyline, interviewed in Newsweek and has been widely quoted in major media publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Nikkei, and San Francisco Chronicle about offshore outsourcing of engineering work.

Ron completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Columbia University's Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering also from GMU, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. Ron was recently asked to participate in the Council on Competitiveness' National Innovation Initiative and the Council on Foreign Relations' research roundtable on Technology, Innovation and American Primacy. He is a licensed professional engineer and is currently Chair of the Career & Workforce Policy Committee of IEEE-USA. He is a past Chair of the R&D Policy Committee of IEEE-USA and recently received IEEE-USA's Citation of Honor award for his work on behalf of US engineers.