Professionalism and Sudden Acceleration

Last week, it was determined that the problem with our car was not fixable. Since this was a new car, we were able to trade it in at a good price on a replacement. The cause of the problem was never determined.

The mystery problem was that the car would race unexpectedly even when the car was in neutral and there was no application of the gas pedal. Applying the brakes was not effective and the car would continue to fight the brakes and try to accelerate. This happened suddenly and repeatedly the last time we drove the car. We immediately took the car to the dealer and fortunately for us, it repeated this pattern in the service bay for the service manager. It was agreed that the fault was a dangerous one but it was not possible to replicate the fault consistently. For this reason, determining the cause was not likely. The best we could hope for was an educated guess and hope that the guess was on target. Since the last drive in that car had been one of the most harrowing experiences of our lives, we decided to trade in the car. The car is to be returned to Honda for review by the engineering staff (we hope that this is the case).

What impressed us most about this experience was how hard the Honda dealer worked to solve this problem. The problem was taken seriously; it was never implied that this was a floor mat problem or a confused driver problem. I realize that we had the advantage that the service manager had witnessed the problem but even so the temptation must have been great to replace a part and declare it fixed even though the problem has not be identified. In the final discussion, the service manager explained his best guess about the cause (possible electronic throttle issues) and told us that there was no way to know if this fixed the car. We would have to drive the car and if the problem did not reoccur then perhaps it was fixed. This uncertainly was not comfortable for us so after discussing all of our options, we decided to replace the car.

The professionalism in presenting the situation was memorable. Sometimes the real answer to a question is that the answer is not known. In many cases, this is the best answer. Knowing the real situation allowed us to make the decision that we could live with.

We decided to trade the car for the same model in this current year. After reviewing the statistics, it appears that this problem crosses brands and we hope that we just had a bad car. Sudden acceleration and similar problems appear to have been reported in a wide variety of models so it did not seem possible to avoid this issue for certain by changing models. Since our wide ride, I started reading everything I could find on this problem. At this point, I really think that there is design fault in the electronic control systems. I am not sure that we made the right decision but we do believe that we made the best decision given the known information.

We were very lucky. No one was hurt by our car; our dealer was fair and the service manager was an outstanding professional. At the present time, I think this is the best you can hope for.

If you are interested in sudden acceleration, you might find the following links interesting.

Doubt cast on Toyota's decision to blame sudden acceleration on gas pedal defect

Analysis shows over 40 percent of sudden-acceleration complaints involve Toyotas

Sudden Acceleration: It's Bad, and It's Not Just Toyota

The Growing Gap in Expertise and Application

One of our cars is very new and has now been at the dealer for repairs for nearly three weeks. Everyone agrees that there is a problem but they cannot find the source of the problem.


When we bought the car last spring the salesman proudly explained how new cars are now have systems as complex as the systems in fighter plans of a few decades ago. This was not comforting to me. I do not have access to a team of mechanics specially trained to keep these systems running. Particularly, the electronic systems are difficult to diagnose and repair. Auto technicians depend on computer diagnostic systems to help them troubleshoot these kinds of problem. And that is part of the developing problem.

For the diagnostic computer to locate a problem, it must be a type of problem that the computer has been programmed to locate. If the problem does not fit the parameters of the diagnostics program, it cannot find the problem. Yet I have heard people declare in frustration that the “computer says there is nothing wrong so there must be nothing wrong.” They will ignore their own tactile and sensory experience in deferment to a machine diagnosis. A computer diagnostics test may mean that there is no problem but it can also mean that the computer cannot locate the problem because it is not programmed to look for that problem.

Since I work in trade and industry education, I have recently discussed this issue with some of the auto technicians that I know. Not a single person I have talked to is truly comfortable working on the advanced features now common in new cars. Most of their training was focused on mechanical systems. Now many new cars depend on radio controlled systems. The new electronic throttle systems are a good example.

Consider this statement in the Automotive Industry Trends, November 2004

Typically, vehicles have as many as 80 motors and approximately 25 sensors, with over one MB of memory in the engine control system. This will grow to two MB in just a few years. No part of a vehicle is untouched by electronics, which controls an array of systems from powertrain, lighting, antilock brakes and airbag systems.

Keep in mind that this was written six years ago. Notice that these are not electronics such as car radios or power seats. These are systems that affect the safety of the car. Who is going to repair these systems?

According to ICT paper written in 2008:

Growth in automotive embedded systems (software and electronics) has been exponential since the early 1990s and the trend is predicted to continue. In 2002, electronic parts comprised 25 percent of a vehicle’s value – by 2015, car manufacturers predict this will hit 40 percent.

But the more electronic systems are added, the more they contribute to vehicle breakdowns and recalls. Researchers on the European ATESST project say a substantial share of vehicle failures today can be directly attributed to embedded systems, and field data indicates this share is increasing by several percent a year. This will reach unacceptable levels if no preventative action plan is put in place.
http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&ID=89579

Engineers are designing more and more advanced cars, yet where are the supporting training programs for the mechanics to maintain these cars? In popular electronics, when a TV remote does not work, most people simply buy a replacement. A remote is inexpensive and presents no safety concerns. This consumer model will not work in a durable good industry. Are we really going to just replace part after part until something works? How will you feel about having to pull over and “reboot” you car (turn if off and restart it) when your electronics acts up on a highway? (This is an actual recommendation for cars with electronic issues from a web site.)

Currently, vocational education programs are in need of revision and reform. At this same time, many vocational programs are closing due to lack of qualified instructors. A common reason for this is that students need computer skills to succeed in the future we are creating. This is a very short sighted view of technology. Of course we need adults who can use computers. We need adults that can use computers in a wide variety of applications beyond spreadsheets and e-mail. In Mississippi a computer program is being promoted in vocational schools that simulate a car. Instead of working on a real car, students will spend time on a virtual car. This is supposed to be an advantage because these individual will gain computer skills.

If we are really interested in computer skills for auto technicians, why not focus on the computer skills that they will need to work on 21st century cars? The answer is obvious; we do not have enough qualified auto tech teachers to do this.

What is really needed is a stronger partnership with professional engineers. At some point, in the very near future, engineers need to work with engineering educators and trade and industry groups to develop a technical education program that is current with the automotive systems they are developing in this century rather than pasting content in programs developed for the last century.

I hope this happens before I have to start shopping for a horse and buggy.

Youth organizations and Winning

My freind and I have been co-writing engineering graphic workbooks for about ten years. In the beginning, we were both teaching graphics so this was a natural extension of our work. In later years, I have moved away from that field but I still enjoy working with this subject even through the time I have to devote to it is much more limited. I was first exposed to drafting as a student in high school and I was so proud of those drawings because I felt like I could really draw even if it wasn’t art. It was a great feeling.

Every student needs to have an opportunity to learn something that gives them that same sense of success. For some this makes the difference between staying in school and leaving early. It also needs to be a real achievement, not a participation award. Unfortunately, those opportunities are dying. In an era when success is measured by standardized test scores, there are fewer and fewer programs that give students something tangible to hold on to. Even in career and technical education, the youth programs now depend on testing to determine winners at competitions.

Students no longer travel to large halls to exhibit their work, admire the work of their peers and then return home reach the mark set by their peers. Part of this is due to the over involvement of parents who rob their children of the sense of achievement by doing the work for them. Using tests helps to weed out this type of abuse. Part is this is due to cost; most organizations do not want the event to last any longer than needed so often only the judges now view the work and everyone removes their work after judging. This allows everyone to leave as quickly as possible after the awards.

For these reasons, the focus is now on the winner rather than the work. At the last science fair for which I volunteered, the projects did not even stay up long enough for the participants to view the winning entries. I never did know what the students had done to merit their awards. They did not have an opportunity to stand by their work and receive the accolades that their work deserved. The other students did not have a chance to see what a winning entry looked like.

This is a real loss. As a student, I went to several of these types of events and although I did not receive many ribbons, I was proud to be there and to be part of my group. I was impressed by that my peers had created such wonderful work and this made me believe that I could also create wonderful work because people my age had done those beautiful projects. How lucky I was to have a great drafting teacher who gave me the opportunity to learn the value of striving for improvement rather than one who just tallied up the wins. It easier to believe that you can achieve something when you see achievement as a process rather than as a strike of genius.

On Internet Trolls & Technical and Occupational Education

As many of you may know, my department at the university is slated to be closed this year. I am an Associate Professor of Technical and Occupational Education at The University of Southern Mississippi. This means that my colleagues and I will very likely lose our jobs. Since two of us are tenured faculty members and one of us is a tenured track faculty member, this has been reported a good bit in the regional news and has even merited an article in the September 28th issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (Glynn, D., When Tenured Professors are Laid Off, What Recourse?).

Up until today, I have refrained from commenting on this issue since it has received more than its due share of attention; however, today I read a comment that I cannot let pass. It was posted as a comment to The Chronicle of Higher Education article mentioned above.

Kudos for getting rid of "technical and occupational education", whetever [sic] it means. Let's teach our students some knowledge that can help them be competitive [sic] workforce, rather than demagogy.

This was from a post signed physicsprof.

I will tell you what it means.

Technical and occupational education teaches individuals to teach their trade to others. If you own a car that runs, have working plumbing in your home, can flip a switch to turn on your lights, you have benefited from the skills of someone who studied a technical and occupational field. If you have had your teeth cleaned, buried a loved one, purchased a wrought iron fence, eaten produce that was fresh and enjoyed a fine meal prepared by a chef, your life has been improved by technical and occupational education. If you are sitting on a manufactured piece of furniture to write comments on that last article you read on a working computer, you can thank someone who was trained in technical and occupational education. Over thirty occupations that affect you every day of your life are part of this field and it is one of the largest educational endeavors in the country and has been for more than two hundred years. It provides education for direct employment for thousands of individuals not pursuing a baccalaureate degree and provides others with marketable skills that make the pursuit of that degree possible without having to depend on student loans.

This field is based on the belief that every individual deserves the right to earn a fair wage as they develop from beginner to apprentice to master craftsman. It was founded by individuals such as John Dewey, Charles Prosser, Charles Allen, and Rufus Stimson who celebrated the contributions of the working class and is dedicated to making the lives of these individuals as intellectually rich as possible by developing the “head, heart and hand” of every person. I can think of no endeavor that is further from demagoguery than technical and occupational education. It empowers others rather than consolidating power and provides a path for every motivated individual to improve their status in life by becoming an active, contributing member of our society.

This is what the writer of that post missed. Such people are called “trolls” on the Internet. They live for the quick comment, the witty retort, and the barely distilled knot of opinion paraded as wisdom.

This means that instead of an active dialogue regarding how we train teachers of technical and industrial subjects, the intellectual debate has been reduced to a game of “gotcha”. Although this is true of many topics, in this case, the topic happens to be one that I know something about and have spent my life studying.

This individual could not be bothered to type a search term into Google to learn what Technical and Occupational Education is before he added his two slugs worth to the discussion.

The Internet was once hailed a brave new world where there would be a free exchange of ideas, open to all without cost or at a very low cost. Such an opportunity carries with it a responsibility; you must spend some time actually reviewing and studying the issues you write about. This is not only so that your own comments will be worth reading but it is also important for you to be a wise consumer of information on this very open market. How sad that virtual discussions so quickly dissolve into na-na taunts that would not be out of place on a kindergarten playground.

I look forward to day when we grow up enough to match the potential of our technology.

The Value of Old Books

I was in the library last week looking for an old textbook on metal working. I had forgotten how to calculate something and to my surprise, the information I needed was no longer in my current books. All of the newer books have wonderful sections on why something should be done or the theory behind an idea or practice but specific directions on how to do something is slowly vanishing.

I consider this a major problem since more and more industrial and trade workers are retiring and these skills will be lost with them. The likelihood of being able to find this information in the future is not strong since it is unlikely that these old books will be digitized since they are “so out of date”.

In many trade areas, there is now only one textbook available in the field. In some areas, we are down to zero. No matter how many years of experience a worker has, it is unlikely that he or she knows everything about all aspects of their trade. Most workers specialize and so they are very strong in the area in which they worked and less strong in other areas. Since people tend to teach what they know and use often, good methods may be lost without a book or other reference to record seldom used methods. Yet there are times when this information is still needed.

We need to start recording this information on the Internet so that it remains available. If you know something well, consider writing about it and either publishing it or posting it online. Just a few of the areas that seem to be vanishing from print include beginning pipe drafting, metal casting, and geometric constructions in drafting and safety layouts for machine shops.

By the way, I found what I was looking for in a 1942 textbook. I put in a request that the book not be discarded when the collection is reviewed for culling. I wonder how long it will remain on the shelves. I also wonder how many people realize that old books are now the best place to look for this type of applied information.

Falling on your sword

Last week senior faculty in the department of economics at my university offered to retire to save their department and the jobs of their younger colleagues. Although I admire the nobility of the gesture, this idea makes me uncomfortable.

It can easily become an expectation. Although at present, such a movement would benefit me (in my profession, I am still considered young), I worry about what this says about our culture as a whole. When will the noble gesture become a de facto requirement?

It is way too easy to assume that everyone is ready or able to retire at the same age. It is impossible to know everyone’s individual circumstances. They may not be financially able to retire. They likely have important ties in the profession that will be lost with them.

In many ways, we are responsible for creating the world we live in. Do we really want a world where employers push everyone past a certain age or term of service out the door because their benefits are expensive and times are tough? Is this not a form of age bias? Note that this does not have to be a stated requirement, once a few precedents have been set it will become a cultural expectation.

In ancient Roman, leaders were expected to take personal responsiblity for their actions and the actions of others and if they failed at an important task, they were expected to “fall on their sword” to preserve the honor of others. I wonder how many noble sacrifices it took for this to become an expectation. Based on recent conversations and blog comments, I would bet it was a pretty small number.

That practice fell out of favor. It is not always effective to solve problems by shutting out the individuals who have the most history with the issues. I hope we take the time in current situation to consider the larger picture.

Transitions & Tenure

Last spring, I achieved the famous goal of every academic. After years of work I was awarded tenure. This is considered to be the ultimate gold star.

I have worked in industry and in higher education and the hours in the university world are very long, much more so than industry jobs. The public does not see this since so much of the work takes place in locations outside the office. One year I worked more than half of the weekends of that year on a project related to my job. I do not know of many professions that require seven day work weeks on a consistent basis. In my field, most of my teaching is at night and I teach at multiple locations. This makes for a very long work day since I still have responsibilities that must be addressed during business hours.

For this reason it has always bothered me when I hear people talk about those lazy professors since it is such an unfair judgment. Only about a third of the job duties of a professor involve teaching; you must create and publish research, participate in leadership roles in professional societies, serve on government committees and work to generate grant funds. All of these are required to stay employed. It is great job but it is like an iceberg; there is more to it that meets the eye.

Tenure is difficult to earn and many professors do not make it. If you are declined for tenure, it can mean the end of your academic career because your chances of landing another job at a different university are greatly reduced. You will lose your current job if you do not receive tenure. So the stakes are very high; if you do not make tenure you are basically out of the profession.

Most people do not understand this at all. Tenure means you can keep your current job, not that you have lifetime employment. It is also protects you from being dismissed if your research is in an unpopular or controversial area. It is intended to protect academic freedom. It is not a gravy train that allows you sail off into retirement.

Universities can and do void tenure agreements. This is most commonly done when there is a financial crisis. They can close programs and dismiss the faculty in those programs to save money even if the faculty is tenured. It is customary to give a year notice if this is to take place since academic jobs searches are usually held once a year and so it is very hard to find another job in the middle of the academic year. So you can work very hard for the five to six years that it takes you to earn tenure and still lose your job.

This week my program was selected for closure. This means that my position is will likely be eliminated. I will need to look for a new position by next May. So I am at a crossroads, should I look for another academic slot or move back into industry? It is time to consider how I want to spend the rest of my working life.

In case you are interested, the closing of my program made the papers. Here are two stories about the closure:

USM terminates 3 professors
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909010317



Where will we get vo-tech teachers?
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909020301

What is Worth Knowing Revisited

This is a very interesting white paper on the status of higher education. It highlights some issues that have long been lurking in the background. The core of the idea is that there is some content that is really worth knowing and that letting students determine what they want to learn is not always in their best interest.

I thought this was a good addition to the previous posts on how we decided what content should be in the schools. (In case you are not familiar with this format once you click on the text link and get to the document, the little box in the upper right corner will make the paper large enough to read)


What Will They Learn

What is Worth Knowing?

It is the end of another term and as I think back over the many students that I have encountered in past dozen or so years, I am surprised at how little students have changed. We may have computers, cell phones, and Twitter but every spring even my most dedicated students begin to stare out the virtual window. They are wandering in Facebook, checking e-mail and reading movie reviews. This really isn't all that new; it is just that the virtual window provides greater opportunities for wandering away.

I recently heard a speaker promote this as a good thing since it shows that students are computer savvy and that they are curious about learning. I cannot agree with this. Not all knowledge is equally valuable or interchangeable. There really is some basic content that everyone should know to be a functioning member of society. Not all of this information will be picked up by a random walk though the Internet.

I was a high school student during the contract era of education. For those of you who do not remember that era, students signed a contract that committed them to complete a certain number of assignments to earn a specific grade. You could work as fast or as slow as you wished. The end result was a mad rush for everyone to finish Algebra in the last few weeks and the favored few who were done early had too much time in that class and were engaged in a dead run in some of their other subjects. This system lasted only one year. The honest truth is that not everyone is equally curious about every subject.

So how do you decide what is worth knowing for you as an individual?