Search for the School of Science and Engineering (SOSE) Dean of Ateneo de Manila University

I.  FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR SOSE

Jim Collins, in his book, “Good to Great”, said that for a company to grow from good to great, one of the things the company must do is to identify the common denominator for its economic engine.  I think that for the School of Science and Engineering, that economic denominator must be ISI publication cost: total operating cost per ISI publication.  The aim of SOSE should be to lower the ISI publication cost.  If we agree on this economic denominator then many things must change in SOSE.

A.  Publication requirements for students and faculty

BS students should be required to have a national or international conference paper, MS students an ISI paper, and Ph.D. students two ISI papers (includes the 1 ISI paper in their masters).  Otherwise, they cannot graduate.  This was an issue last faculty day, but I think it is the only way to go.  We should not measure ourselves against UP with 100+ ISI papers per year.  We should measure against National University of Singapore with 1000+ papers per year.  Being contented with our present publication output goes
against the Jesuit tradition of magis.

We may not be able to do anything with our tenured faculty, but Ateneo can still do something in the choice of whom to hire and fire in its non-tenured faculty, based on publication output.  The promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate, and for that of
the Associate to Full Professor should also have specific number of ISI publications as minimum requirements.  In this way, faculty members have a goal to reach and a benchmark to test themselves whether they are already eligible to be nominated for the next rank.
We may need to express conference papers, book chapters, and entire books in ISI publication units, and so are the number of citations to a paper.

B.  SOSE Silicon Valley

SOSE needs buy a parcel of land in Marikina valley to be leased to Companies into Research and Development for high-technology products.  These companies can purchase teaching units from Ateneo and convert them to research units for the faculty, using the Manila Observatory model.  Students doing research for their thesis and on-the-job training can work there.  Excellent research works can then be patented or published in ISI journals.  This was how Standford University built the Silicon Valley and Hewlett
Packard was one of the start-up firms who first leased there.  Once the SOSE Silicon valley gains momentum, there is no stopping SOSE’s publication and patent engine.

The SOSE Silicon valley would be the Big, Hair, and Audacious Goal (BHAG) that would unite all the SOSE departments.  The School of Management (SOH) would also be interested and we can have venture capital from business and technology firms.  I think it is doable once we institute the publication requirements in part A.  We get the best students and faculty from all over the Philippines, so we have a right to expect the best from them. Jesuit education is not meant for people who wants an ordinary job.  Rather, Jesuit
education is for people who wants to be sent as missionaries into unknown frontiers–be that in science, arts, or business.  Otherwise, Jesuit education falls short in its aim for the greater glory of God and salvation of souls.

II.  QUALITIES OF THE NEW SOSE DEAN

I would like a person who can institute the changes in Part I.  He must have lots of publications and patents.  He must have management experience in research and technology firms.  He must have experience working in the Philippine government in terms of science and technology.  He must have numerous international linkages around the world.  He is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, because we do not want somebody who is not familiar with the Jesuit and Ateneo tradition.

III. NOMINEES FOR THE NEW SOSE DEAN

There is only one person who fits what I think is the job description for the new SOSE Dean: Dr. Greg Tangonan (BS Physics ’69).

From Good to Great: Identifying Manila Observatory’s hedgehog concept

A hedgehog concept, according to Collins (2001, p. 90), is a “single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything.”  It is as simple as curling around to become a sphere of sharp spikes as a defense against a wily fox.  The fox may know many tricks, but the hedgehog knows only one thing enough to beat the fox.  To find the hedgehog concept of a corporation, Collins suggested that we find the intersection of the following three circles: (1) What can we be the best in the world at? (And equally important—what can we not be the best at?) (2) What is the economic denominator that best drives our economic engine (profit or cash flow per “x”)? And (3) what are our core people deeply passionate about?

 

1.  The Best Earth Science Laboratory in the World

Fr. Daniel J. McNamara, SJ said that the Philippines is the world’s natural earth science laboratory.  True enough.  The Philippines experiences several strong earthquakes per year because the country lies at the volcanic ring of fire, at the border of the Philippine and Pacific tectonic plates. Every year several strong typhoons from the Pacific Ocean bombard the country.  Our country experiences extreme rainfall and droughts brought by La Niña and El Niño, respectively.  Our country lies in the geomagnetic dip equator where the geomagnetic field is nearly horizontal and the ionosphere dynamics is least understood.  Our country lies in the geographical equator, with the sun visible all year round.  Our country has many coastlines, mountain ranges, and river systems.  Clouds of all types cover our skies and some of the ocean’s deepest parts lie in the Philippine deep.  Thus, if the Philippines is the world’s natural  earth science laboratory, then the Manila Observatory can be the world’s best earth science observatory in the world.

 

2.  Manila Observatory’s Economic Engine’s Denominator: Publication Efficiency

Manila Observatory derives its income from several sources: (a) donations and endowments, (b) space rentals of telecommunication towers, (c) investments in stock market, (d) external research funds for projects, (e) support from the Philippine Jesuit Province.  But what Collins refers to by an economic denominator that drives the Manila Observatory’s economic engine is not necessarily equivalent to the Observatory’s income.  For Collins, an economic denominator is a single statistic or parameter that provides a quantifiable measure of the ideal to reach.  For the Circuit City corporation, for example, this statistic is not profit per customer, but profit per customer visit.  For Wells Fargo, it is not profit per loan but profit per employee.

So what should be Manila Observatory’s economic denominator that drives the Observatory’s economic engine?  Let us propose the following: publication units per paid hour (pu/ph).  The reason for this is that we at the Observatory don’t have a culture of writing, as observed by Dr. James Simpas.  The manuals of operation for equipments and softwares and a log of their problems are missing.  We don’t have full-length biographies of each Jesuit priest and scholastic who worked at the Observatory.  The Manila Observatory website does not feature current events at the Observatory.  We don’t publish enough papers in journals and conferences.  We don’t have compilations of minutes of meetings of each program.  We don’t have employee and administrator’s handbooks.  Program related email correspondences don’t get summarized and printed.

Most of the Manila Observatory’s corporate memory is only handed down through oral tradition, and when the repository of this tradition leaves or dies, a huge chunk of the Observatory’s corporate memory leaves or gets buried with him. So even if Manila Observatory will celebrate its 150th founding anniversary this 2015, it appears that not much has happened because there is nothing much to read.
Now, let us define our terms.  Let us define a publication unit using as follows:

1 PU = 380 word equivalents (1 word equivalent is 6 characters or spaces)

1 PU = 1 static figure, either black and white or color

0.05 PU = 1 MB file of numerical data

The first three definitions are the same, except for some modifications, as those defined in Journal of Geophysical Research.  The publication may be a book, a book chapter, a report, a journal article, a web article, or simply an e-mail correspondence.  There is no distinction between ISI or non-ISI listed publications as long as Manila Observatory is mentioned.  What is important is that researchers in each program write, write, and write, because this is the culture that we lack.

At the end of each month, the researchers of each program compile their publications and count their total publication units using character-counting tools in MS Word and other similar applications.  The program head then adds up the total publication units of the whole program and divides this number by the program’s total paid man-hours for the month and the number of program personnel working for that month.  The result is the publication units per paid hour (pu/ph), which we may also call as the publication efficiency::

pu/ph = publication efficiency = publication units/ paid hours.

The program heads then gather and define target pu/ph for each program.  Research personnel who cannot keep pace with the publication requirements would be pressured to increase his publication units or leave the Observatory.

There are many ways to increase pu/ph:

1. Avoid Facebook during work-hours.
2. Write journal articles or book chapters
3. Co-author papers with other researchers
4. Write news and feature articles for the Manila Observatory website
5. Write software programs and their documentations
6. Write equipment manuals of operation
7. Maintain data-logging instruments so that they continuously obtain data
8. Write minutes of meetings
9. Maintain a log-book for each office
10. Summarize program-related email correspondences
11. Write beyond working hours
12. Use travel time for planning what to write or how to edit
13. Read on the art of writing
14. Have a good night sleep
15. Rest during Sundays.

If each program personnel monitors his pu/ph as diligently as St. Ignatius marking dots for each time he falls to the same fault he wants to eradicate, then the research programs become filled with highly-disciplined personnel who would transform the Manila Observatory from a good Observatory to a great Observatory.

3.  For the Greater Glory of God and for the Salvation of Souls

As a Jesuit Observatory, the Observatory’s core people should share in the Jesuit passion: to use the things of the world for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of souls.

How does the Observatory give greater glory to God?  The Observatory gives glory to God when it works the frontiers of science, when it studies the earth, the sun, and the stars, expanding our knowledge of the universe across vastness of time and space, making man appear like a speck of dust before God’s majesty.  The frontier can be in many forms: data precision, equipment construction, theoretical understanding, and spatio-temporal extent.  Data precision refers to the number of significant digits in the measurement.  For example, a hundred years ago, the Manila Observatory announces the hour of the day precise to 1/300 th of a second.  Equipment construction refers to the ability to build instruments from scratch.  For example, in the time of Padre Faura, there were only two Jesuit-made Secchi meteorographs in the world and Padre Faura was able to reassemble one such instrument without a manual. Theoretical understanding refers to the application of physical principles in understanding the phenomena.  For example, at the time of Padre Faura, nobody knows the nature, origin, and behavior of typhoons in the Far East, but he provisionally assumed that they are not essentially different from huricanes and cyclones.  Spatio-temporal extent refers to the number of observation locations all over the country and the temporal range of the data obtained or the lead time for the forecasts.  For example, Manila Observatory was able to make hundreds of meteorological observation points in the country and the Observatory’s Jesuits were able to predict the coming typhoon days before their landfall–the first in Southeast Asia.

If the science ceases to be a frontier science, then the Manila Observatory, because it is a Jesuit Observatory, should move on and look for new frontiers, as Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ said.  In his address to the Jesuits in their 35th General Congregation, Pope Benedict XVI said: “As my Predecessors have said to you on various occasions, the Church needs you, relies on you and continues to turn to you with trust, particularly to reach those physical and spiritual places which others do not reach or have difficulty in reaching.”  If PAGASA took over Manila Observatory’s role as the Philippine weather bureau, then the Manila Observatory should look for new frontiers: design more precise meteorological equipments, network PAGASA’s meteorological stations to a central weather forecasting computing hub, and predict space weather and geomagnetic storms.  Similarly, the Manila Observatory can also do other things PHIVOLCS can’t do: microseismic research on earth tides (bulging of the lithosphere due to the gravitational pull of the moon and sun), seismic response of buildings using accelerometer arrays, and lithosphere-magnetosphere-ionosphere interaction.

How does the Manila Observatory save souls?  The Manila Observatory save souls primarily through the promotion of the Jesuit vocation.  Jesuits perform the Seven Sacraments to help souls attain eternal salvation: Baptism, Confirmation, Communion, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.  The Manila Observatory also save souls through its corporal and spiritual works of mercy: (a) help farmers cope with effects of climate change, (b) help the local government units map river systems and extent of flood levels, (c) identify communities at risk to natural calamities, etc.

Manila Observatory’s Hedgehog Concept

Let us summarize the three circles for identifying the Observatory’s hedgehog concept.  First, Manila Observatory can be the world’s best earth science laboratory.  Second, the Manila Observatory’s economic denominator that drives the Observatory’s economic engine should be publication efficiency defined as publication units per paid hours.  And third, Manila Observatory’s passion should be to share in the Jesuit mission of doing frontier research for the greater glory of God and salvation of souls.  The intersection of these three things is the hedgehog concept for the Observatory and for each research program of the Observatory.

Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ suggests that we provide three possible hedgehogs per program.  We can choose one hedgehog per program to be our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) that we may be able to accomplish within 5 years.