Dr. Peterson Savannah Council on World Affairs: U.S. Higher Education Goes Global Thursday, April 25, 2013, Coastal Georgia Center, Savannah, GA Title Slide Thank you for inviting me to talk with you this evening. Members of the Savannah Council on World Affairs are to be commended on your global focus. When you began about 30 years ago, you were definitely ahead of your time.

I noticed from your Website that each year you provide a stipend to four undergraduate students so that they can have the opportunity to study abroad in the summer. This is tremendous, and potentially life changing for the students.

Slide 2: Changing Expectations for Higher Education

In October Time ran a cover story titled “Reinventing College,” as part of a special report on higher education. Their exclusive poll revealed that 80% of those surveyed think college is not worth the money. They highlighted $900 billion in college loan debt. There is an increased focus on return on investment.

One of the stories referred to an iron triangle of what were termed the three big interrelated challenges facing America’s colleges and universities: access, cost, and quality.

Slide 3: Changing Expectations: Employable and prepared to Adapt and Lead We are in a time of changing expectations for higher education. It is no longer acceptable for universities just to enroll good students and graduate them. Today, universities are expected to ensure that graduates are both employable and prepared to adapt and lead in an ever-changing world that many times requires an interdisciplinary approach to developing solutions to grand challenges.

Slide 4: Employability A degree is a sound investment as evidenced by March 2013 coverage in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Georgia Tech had a higher financial return on investment over a 30-year period than other comparable institutions. Georgia Tech graduates continue to be in high demand because of the value of their degree, and their preparation to be innovative in developing solutions.

For two years in a row, SmartMoney magazine has named Georgia Tech as number one in the U.S. for return on investment. The magazine took the average tuition for each institution, and calculated starting salaries of new graduates as well as salaries of alumni from each institution 15 years after graduation. Georgia Tech came out on top.

Slide 5: Changing Expectations: Move research to the consumer While there has long been an expectation that our research universities would perform fundamental research, today there is an expectation that they will move that research to the consumer and enhance economic development of the region and nation to create more jobs.

Slide 6: Core Research Areas at Georgia Tech We believe that much of the research that will change our world will be interdisciplinary in nature, and as a result we continue to work to create the world’s foremost innovation ecosystem, that incorporates the pursuit of “game changing” research and moving the results toward commercialization.

This will provide our industry partners with a competitive advantage, while benefiting the economy and society.

Our industry partners often tell us that while they value the research taking place here at Georgia Tech, they especially value the access to our students. They tell us that they bring a new level of creativity and innovative thinking, and are job-ready upon graduation.

Georgia Tech’s strategic vision and plan, Designing the Future, infuses innovation and entrepreneurship into all aspects of the Institute, including research. Tech’s research and economic development activities have been organized into 12 areas — including biomedicine and bioscience, energy, manufacturing, materials, nanotechnology and national security — to align with strategic industry and commercialization opportunities in the state of Georgia.

Slide 7: Creating an Innovation Ecosystem Research universities play a key role in regional economic ecosystems. They attract business and industry, partner in research, help to get innovations from the lab to the marketplace, and educate students who often become the intellectual talent that business and industry seeks.

Georgia Tech has several programs to accomplish that goal. The Institute is taking a leading role in creating an innovation zone in Midtown, . What was a blighted location just 10 years ago is now fast becoming the center of the entrepreneurial community in the Southeast. The mixed-use area is a testament to what is possible through a partnership between higher education, the state, and business and industry.

Slide 8: Changing Expectations: Being Global Being a regional or national university is no longer acceptable. American institutions of higher learning are expected to be global in nature and to provide lifelong learning opportunities for the world using advanced technology. It is this third point that I will focus on today.

Slide 9: Global Engagement at Tech Current trends Over the past ten years, many universities have dramatically expanded their international activities, including with branch campuses and joint Institutes abroad. Today, most are finding it difficult and some are questioning the real value that is returned to the home campus. While there will not be a shift away from the importance of global engagement, the next ten years will be marked by the search for the right models of engagement.

Global Engagement at Tech There are many forms of global engagement abroad, each with a different purpose, all essential to Georgia Tech’s mission. All must carry the mark of excellence of Georgia Tech. Our brand of “One Georgia Tech” carries for international initiatives in the sense that Georgia Tech should not be a multinational (with delocalized, franchise-type independent activities – where quality is difficult to control) but rather a truly global entity, where each initiative is deeply connected to the main campus.

The main forms of Georgia Tech global initiatives abroad are: o “The Student Enrichment”: using study/work/service/research abroad to broaden our students’ education (skills, knowledge, and character). Preparing the global citizen. o “The Lab”: using specific locations around the globe as “labs” for global issues: e.g., o Trade and Logistics at Panama Canal or in Singapore o The role of information and communication technology is social, economic, and political development in Africa (M. Best’s research)

Our faculty are engaged in research around the world, and many times students are included in that work. For example, Georgia Tech faculty are creating a model to forecast flooding in Pakistan as many as 10 days in advance. They’re involved in interdisciplinary research to find new, more effective ways to fight diseases. They are working on solutions to such global challenges as air pollution, energy, and clean water all over the world, as well as big data and cyber security. o “The Network”: Partnering with the very best in a network of excellence to solve global challenges – and open new opportunities (including funding): e.g., o GT’s partnership with CNRS in France at , and vast network of EU funded research partners; the Lafayette Institute that will provide an entry point in the EU for IEN and EI2 – an international innovation portal. o Bringing international partners to Atlanta o “The (For-Profit) Service Provider” that extends our influence through Professional Education / GTPE / accreditation/ advice and consulting activities to help others develop their own programs (e.g, Puerto Rico initiative) o “The Educator Provider”, especially for the developing world: where MOOCs meet Global. If the level of education increases in the world, it will increase the overall world economy and benefit all.

Slide 10: Study Abroad Slide We are committed to offering students the opportunity to study abroad. Forty three percent of our undergraduate students have some form of international experience during their undergraduate career, including work, study, or research abroad, as compared to the U.S. national average of 10 percent. Each year when talking with graduating seniors I frequently ask them about their most meaningful experience during their years at Georgia Tech. I have yet to have someone tell me “It was that chemistry lab,” or “I really loved statistics.” More often than not, it is about an international experience. Students with an international experience on their resume are generally more marketable when it comes to finding that first job out of college. I used to think that they were hired because of their specific experience in a foreign country. I have come to realize that it is because their outlook changes.

Our world economy is becoming more interconnected as technology continues to break down barriers. Even if graduates don’t end up working for an international company or working abroad, chances are that they will interact with individuals and companies from around the world, including clients, colleagues, manufacturers, suppliers and researchers.

Slide 11: Tech’s Global Focus

Georgia Tech partners internationally on everything from research and teaching to logistics. We have several international research and education platforms, dual degree programs with numerous international universities, and more than 100 international agreements with top universities around the world. Georgia Tech has grown into one of the most globalized universities in the world, with partnerships in more than 30 countries and campuses and operations in France, Ireland, Costa Rica, Panama and China. Georgia Tech students represent 118 countries. We are committed to ensuring that our students understand science and technology in the context of different social, economic and cultural domains.

Georgia Tech is committed to leadership in improving the human condition in Georgia, the United States, and around the globe and the Institute’s global positioning strategy includes helping to educate those here in Georgia, those in our nation, and those around the world who aspire to help create a better environment for all people. I just returned from a trip to Asia where we met with potential students, alumni, and business and civic leaders in three countries. I did several media interviews, like the Donga Daily News in Seoul. Since I don’t speak or read Korean or Mandarin, I have no idea what the articles say. It could be anything! I am, however, smiling in the picture, which should count for something!

We signed an agreement in Shenzhen, China, a city with many high tech companies. Our goal is to enroll 100 new Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering students each year. If successful, we will consider expanding into computing and other disciplines. Our desire to engage in Shenzhen supports the high- level partnership founded when the mayor of Shenzhen and Atlanta’s mayor Kasim Reed recently signed memo of understanding. Both cities count on technology-driven economic development.

Slide 12: Savannah Increasingly the world is looking to research universities for the technological innovations that will bolster the economy and enrich lives; and in particular to U.S. universities, including Georgia Tech to provide lifelong learning opportunities using advanced technology.

One particularly salient example is the link between the Port of Savannah and Georgia Tech. The Georgia Tech Panama Logistics Innovation and Research Center located in Panama City, Panama is the latest addition to the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute. The strategic objectives of the Centers are to improve the logistics performance of the country and to aid in developing the logistics and trade capabilities that will enable Panama to become the trade hub of the Americas.

The Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics here in Savannah is the leading statewide resource for fueling logistics industry growth and global competitiveness. The Center is an industry focused component of the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) and has main offices in Savannah and Atlanta, but has activity in all parts of the State.

• Georgia Tech Savannah is taking a leadership role in a military transition program. Georgia Tech is one of the only institutions in the state pursuing VA approval for its professional development courses, and it is integrating a placement phase for adult learners. It allows veterans to develop the skills necessary to successfully secure a post-service job while earning their Georgia Tech Veterans Education Training and Transition Program certificate. • The Georgia Tech Savannah campus demonstrates Georgia Tech’s commitment to providing lifelong learning opportunities. This past year more than 17,000 individuals representing more than 3,500 different corporate and government organizations took part in GTPE programs. GTPE had students in its classes from more than half of the world’s countries. In an era when Facebook and Google are not yet 10 years old, think about how technology has changed the world. Think of all the jobs that did not exist even five years ago, such as the Cloud based engineer, social media manager, or an App developer. Society will increasingly look to higher education to provide professional development opportunities.

Slide 13: Profound changes on education Historically several things have had a profound effect on higher education: • the development of the Socratic method, • the Morrill Act, which established the Land Grants universities; • the GI Bill, which allowed tens of thousands of veterans to pursue a college education; • and Sputnik, which caused a whole generation including me, to refocus their education on engineering, mathematics, and science.

Recent developments on technology-assisted learning may prove to be just as important as it is dramatically changing the way we are thinking about educating our students.

While we are teaching our students to be innovative, we are also working to be innovative in how we teach our students. Rather than focusing on traditional ways of teaching, we present students with realistic and complex problems and challenge them to develop solutions in self-directed learning.

Recent developments on technology-assisted learning may prove to be just as important as it is dramatically changing the way we are thinking about educating our students.

Slide 14: Massively Open Online Courses Probably the most dramatic change to date is the creation of MOOCS, or Massively Open Online Courses. MOOCS are a grand experiment, and Georgia Tech is one of the leaders nationally. I say “experiment” because there are some unknowns: how to monetize, how to scale up appropriately, the question of credit and accountability, and how rapidly they’re changing. Just like developing any innovation, there has to be an environment where there is a freedom to fail, retool and create a revised model.

In January I participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. One of the sessions I attended was a panel moderated by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman about online education. Included on the panel were Bill Gates, the president of MIT, and the co-founder of Coursera and Udacity two of the three principal, cyber- based educational platform companies with which Georgia Tech has partnered to develop these MOOCS.

The most intriguing part of the session was Tom Friedman’s interview with a 12-year- old girl from Lahore, Pakistan. Friedman commented to her that he was more nervous than she was, because if he blew an interview with a 12-year-old it would appear all over the Internet and he would never hear the end of it.

This girl’s story was covered in the same issue of Time magazine referred to earlier. Khadija Niazi gained international notoriety because in the midst of her college-level physics exam, the Pakastani government shut down access to YouTube to block an anti-Muslim film trailer. She posted her predicament on her class discussion board and within an hour, a young man from Malaysia posted detailed descriptions of the material in each video.

A class participant from Portugal downloaded all of the videos and uploaded them to an uncensored photo-sharing site. The next day, with the help of online classmates, Khadija was able to complete the test and passed the college-level class with highest distinction.

Slide 15: Georgia Tech MOOCS A year ago at Tech we opened our first MOOC – 20,000 students registered the first day. Today we have 11 courses with more than 310,000 students enrolled – most in cooperation with Coursera. Since it began in April 2012, Coursera has enrolled 1.57 million students. Even if most of them don’t finish the courses, they will have had access to some of the best professors, course material and opportunities for online interaction around the globe. Even those who don’t finish will know more about the subject than when they started, and it could piqué their interest and inspire them to learn more.

Tucker Balch, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing, made a comment that summarizes the reach and potential impact of one course. He said “Offering my Coursera MOOC has allowed me to reach 50,000 students. It would have taken me more than 250 years to reach the same number of students through traditional face-to-face classroom instruction.” He also said “In the last semester I have taught more women and African Americans than the total I’ve taught in 10 years."

Slide 16: 3 Questions This raises a few questions. First, why is this happening now? I think it is an interesting confluence of events. While the technologies have existed for some time, what has changed is the comfort level of online activities, which has dramatically increased. The popularity of online interaction can be seen in Facebook and Twitter, on Instagram and WeChat.

I don’t have any friends that I have never met, but today’s students are very comfortable online, making friends, sharing information and chatting.

One of our students tells a story of his online Physics study group. He thought all of the participants were in his class at Georgia Tech, but one evening around 6 p.m. one of his online classmates said, “I have to get offline and go to bed.” He typed back, “It’s just 6 p.m.” The colleague typed “Not in Switzerland (check country).

Students are very comfortable switching from technology to in-person. In fact, a lot of people are. How many of you have an iPhone? I would venture to say that a number of you are texting and tweeting right now. You see people all the time texting in restaurants while carrying on a conversation with the people they’re with. People watch television, the computer and text at the same time.

The next question is, “If all of this coursework is available online, will institutions like Georgia Tech continue to exist?” The educational experience consists of three main components: classroom instruction, the project and lab experience, and student life.

Classroom instruction can be replicated online relatively easily because of today’s students’ comfort level with online conversations and relationships, and to a degree, so can project work.

Laboratory work is a little more difficult to replicate, because of the face-to-face interactions that occur with faculty, staff and other students are more and more being replaced by online interactions, this too will change.

Third, “If students can get the course material online for free, then what does tuition pay for, particularly at private institutions that charge $40 or $50 thousand per year?”

A good way to think about this is the Super Bowl. If you go to the game, you get to fight through the traffic, pay a ton of money to sit among a bunch of people you don’t know, and pay more money for a limited choice of food. If you watch it at home, you get to be among friends with whatever food and drinks you want. You get instant replay and the Super Bowl commercials. But people still go to the games. Why? Because there is something about the game experience, about being there live, about the atmosphere.

Of immeasurable value are the interpersonal relationships people develop with faculty, other students and staff while at college. There are many from my undergraduate and graduate days that I still keep up with. And, I keep up with my students as well. A campus environment offers opportunities for personal growth. At Georgia Tech, we have more than 400 student organizations, including freshman living/learning communities.

Our challenge in higher education is to think carefully about how we can create an atmosphere that has value added – that makes people want to be there.

Slide 17: Online Learning and the Future of Residential Education In March the presidents of Harvard and MIT hosted a summit on online learning and the future of residential education. Sanjay Sarma, appointed as MIT’s first director of Digital Learning last fall, said that online learning is simply a tool. He was reframing the thinking that it is a revolution or a new wave for higher education. He stated that the best laboratory for learning remains the campus, and that with new technologies, the campus experience can be enhanced. While I agree to some extent, I do believe that it is causing us to look more carefully at the role of the faculty member in the educational process. In fact, one of the real benefits of the MOOCS concept is that professors are getting an inside look at how other professors are teaching the same courses, and are able to implement new ideas. Others are supplementing what they’re teaching on campus with MOOCS.

Some are asking the question: “If students can go online to see the best physics lectures by the best known scientists, what is the faculty role?”

We’re working to combine the best resources available to educate students. Students don’t just want lectures; they want an opportunity to engage with one other and with the professors. This is changing the role of the faculty member in the classroom. Many times, students might read basic information for a class online, and then spend class time in discussions with the professor and classmates. In a recent column, Tom Friedman gave the example of San Jose State University that last fall used the online lectures and interactive exercises of M.I.T’s introductory online Circuits and Electronics course. After watching the online lecture at home or in their dorms, students would come to class and discuss the lecture, followed by problem solving and discussion. Friedman said that preliminary numbers indicate the percentage of those passing the class went from 60 to 90 percent. The blended approach of taking the best from technology and the in-person experience is increasing success rates.

Slide 18: Changing the Way We Educate Students Let me share an example from Georgia Tech. Steve Potter, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, won Regents’ Teaching Excellence and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award for 2013. He engages his students through a personal, discussion-oriented approach by exposing them to exciting research and challenging them to create YouTube videos to explain research to lay people.

We are exploring hybrid approaches that blend the best of an in-person experience with the convenience of technology, including opportunities for virtual collaboration and discussion. And, we are working to create and nurture a sense of community. It’s about creating a network of people, and ensuring the quality of the experience and the interactions.

One of the challenges before research universities today is the expectation that students will graduate with the skills to be innovators and leaders prepared to address some of society’s most critical challenges.

These are exciting times for higher education. It is important that we keep a global perspective. We are challenged to embrace new technologies, the idea of continuous improvement, and with it, a culture of risk taking and innovation. As we do so, we will not only meet changing expectations, but stay ahead of the curve.

Slide 19: Student Innovation/Ideas to Serve At Georgia Tech, we are working to create a climate of innovation across all areas of study. While you would expect a focus on innovation in one of the nation’s largest and best engineering programs, innovation is also much a part of our outstanding programs in computing, architecture, liberal arts, sciences, and business.

One way we encourage innovation is industry-sponsored student competitions. For example, a program called “Ideas to Serve” is part of our Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship in the Scheller College of Business. It is a competition for current students and recent alumni who have early stage product ideas or venture concepts geared towards creating a better world.

The 2012 second place Ideas to Serve winners were four Georgia Tech students who formed TOHL. It is an innovative pipeline installation company that provides cost effective alternatives to conventional pipeline installation methods. Their innovative “mobile infrastructure” techniques that use coil tubing as alternatives to the traditional rigid pipelines enable them to traverse even the most challenging terrain in the most disastrous conditions. TOHL is altering industries such as humanitarian water logistics, mining logistics, forest-fire mitigation efforts, and military logistics to name a few.

TOHL was selected to participate in Startup Chile, where they were able to successfully test their model. Since last April two of the founders, Ben Cohen (CE’11) and Travis Horsley (INTA’11, PUBPOL’12), won Mayor Kasim Reed’s Startup Atlanta video competition, were featured in magazines like Forbes and The Economist, and secured $250,000 in startup funds. At present TOHL has three pending installations planned in Chile and they signed an MOU with the Mayor of Juba, South Sudan, and the National Minister of Water to sub-contract the installation of water infrastructure in the region. Imagine the potential impact around the world.

Slide 20: David Ku and Students: PneumoniaCheck I will close with one more example. Dr. David Ku is the personification of someone who brings together the strengths of several fields to solve tough problems. In fact, he himself is an expert in several fields. He is the Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor in Mechanical Engineering, the Lawrence P. Huang Chair Professor in Engineering Entrepreneurship in the College of Management, and a Professor of Surgery at Emory University. He was challenged by the head of virology at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, to develop a quick and economical way to diagnose pneumonia. Pneumonia kills about 2.4 million people each year. The problem is particularly devastating in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where a child dies of pneumonia every 15 seconds.

Dr. Ku assembled a team of mechanical engineering students, graduate business students and faculty at Georgia Tech. Their first attempt was something with actuators and valves that cost about $100 a unit to produce. He sent them back to the drawing board, challenging them to come up with something that anyone could use to diagnose a child on the poorest streets of India. They did. Two years ago they introduced PneumoniaCheck, which is basically a plastic tube with a mouthpiece and a balloon like upper reservoir that through fluid mechanics separates upper and lower airway aerosols. It was designed as a worldwide solution so patients in developing nations could afford it. Dr. Ku says the device has the potential to save more lives than any other medical device. They are currently working with a distributor, and have had a great deal of interest from major corporations.

The exciting thing is that it is the result of students and faculty working together with a global focus. And, I think it is symbolic of the potential we have in higher education. As U.S. higher education goes global, the possibilities for enriching lives around the world are limitless. Thank you.