An Electronic Newsletter
for the International S&T Community

To subscribe, send email to majordomo@itri.loyola.edu with text in BODY:
subscribe itrinewsbw
To cancel, do same with
unsubscribe itrinewsbw

An HTML version is at http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/ITRInews3.html
*== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *==

IN THIS ISSUE:

WHAT CAUSED THE ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS?

NSF TOKYO KICKS OFF NEW E-LETTER ON S&T IN JAPAN

ITRI FINDS THAT THE JAPANESE ARE LEADING IN GALLIUM NITRIDE ELECTRONICS, ESPECIALLY OPTICAL APPLICATIONS

SPECTRUM SPECIAL ISSUE ON EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGIES
*== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *==

This is the third issue on studies of international S&T. It is from ITRI, which has done 50 such studies, but will cover other similar projects. (Please send email on workshops,reports, or projects that should be included.)
Please forward. Duane Shelton, rds@loyola.edu,
http://justice.loyola.edu/~rds/

 *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *==

IS TECHNOLOGY THE CULPRIT? The Asian financial epidemic started in Thailand in July 1997;
a pandemic now threatens. A search for causes is constrained by one's professional blinders;
the World Bank reported in Bangkok on October 12, 1998 that it was caused by poor financial
disclosure by banks.

Here's a technology perspective. In the early 90s, Asian "tigers" emulated Japan's success by
building high tech factories for export. They became the "transplant" sites of choice for U.S. and
Japanese companies, who competed to build low-cost manufacturing capacity. This infusion of
capital over stimulated inexperienced and corrupt financial markets. That is, exponential growth in
manufacturing catalyzed irresponsible borrowing for skyscraper office buildings, luxury hotels and
apartments, etc. that could only be repaid if that growth continued. Then came the denouement: the
first slight slowdown revealed the over capacity in the factories exacerbated by the entry of the
giant PRC. When China started exporting in a big way, the Thais, Malays, and Koreans were no
longer the low cost producers -- and could not roll over those foreign loans. If this theory is
correct, we techies bear some responsibility for this debacle. What do you think?

ITRI has done several studies of the growth of electronic manufacturing in the Pacific Rim.
See http://itri.loyola.edu/em/kelly97/ http://itri.loyola.edu/kei/
http://itri.loyola.edu/em/toc.htm

NEW NSF E-LETTER. The NSF/Tokyo Office has just started "Monthly S&E Highlights from
Japan." One article reported on a Science and Technology Agency (STA) survey of over 1200
large companies showing that R&D expenditures had increased from the previous year by 8.1%.
On international comparisons of technology, 70% of pharmaceutical companies stated that U.S.
and European companies are superior to Japan. Only 40% of those in communications, electronics,
and information services stated that the U.S. is superior. For subscriptions to the newsletter contact
Ms. Kazuko Shinohara (kshinoha@nsf.gov)

IEEE SPECTRUM SPECIAL ISSUE ON EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY. The last Spectrum
special report on European technology was in June 1990; they have an interesting comparison of
the forecasts of that year with the reality of today; the HD-MAC high definition TV system was a
flop, but GSM digital cell phones are a success story. Articles include: Digital TV comes down to
Earth, Crossing the euro Rubicon, Europe's silicon star rises, Plug-and-play software hones car and
plane manufacture, Opening Europe's telephone business to competition, Europe's next mobile
phone system, Pan-European R&D, and Corporate R&D leaders reflect on their mutual European
future. http://www.spectrum.ieee.org (Click on "This Month in Spectrum." for abstracts.)

JAPAN LEADS GALLIUM NITRIDE BASED ELECTRONICS. The ITRI panel on high
temperature electronics surveyed R&D in Japan in June and presented their preliminary results on
October 11. Chair Vladimir Dmitreyev said that the US continues to lead in silicon carbide
materials and applications, but that the Japanese are building impressive research teams in the
gallium nitride field and already lead the US effort, particularly in optical applications. A free
international conference sponsored by NSF and ONR is being organized for December 7-8 in
Arlington VA. See http://itri.loyola.edu for more information.

US-JAPAN COOPERATION IN OCEAN ENGINEERING. An NSF/Tokyo report posted on
October 12 lists NSF-Japan joint research projects including geophysical observations of the deep
seafloor; behavioral ecology of the midwater community; biochemical control of larval settlement
and recruitment; subduction processes; hydrothermal systems; ocean circulation; ocean-atmosphere
interaction; underwater robotics; deep-ocean drilling; regional global change research and others.
http://www.twics.com/~nsftokyo/ssr98-24.html
*== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *==

FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS THIS MONTH

The International Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Loyola College is funded by the NSF, ONR, and other Federal agencies that are interested in international science and technology. USAID funds a business incubator development program in Ukraine that focuses on the technology
sector. http://itri.loyola.edu/itri/

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) operates an international research monitoring effort from
Edison House in London (http://www.ehis.navy.mil). It also includes ONRasia in Tokyo
(http://www.onr.navy.mil/onrasia/) Like NSF, both have series of reports posted on their
Web sites. The other armed services have offices that are co-located and will be featured next month.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is said to be the world's largest
professional organization. It has an international scope; over 300,000 members get the IEEE
Spectrum general journal monthly http://www.spectrum.ieee.org , making it one of the world's
leading technology magazines. Joe Bordogna of NSF is currently IEEE President.
(http://www.ieee.org)

*== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *== *==

Copyright © 1998 Loyola College. Partly sponsored by
NSF coop agreement ENG-9707092. Permission is
given to copy with credits. Loyola or its sponsors
do not accept responsibility for the accuracy of
information. Complaints or comments to
rds@itri.loyola.edu please.

HTML versions at:
http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews3.htm Oct98
http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews2.htm Sept98
http://itri.loyola.edu/NEWS/ITRInews1.htm Aug98