Engineering a revival in R.I.?

It was heartening to read in The Providence Sunday Journal on Aug. 15 about the rapid growth of engineering education at four of Rhode Island’s universities – Brown University, the University of Rhode Island, Johnson and Wales University and Roger Williams University.  (Readers should not forget that the Rhode Island School of Design, with its famous industrial design department, could also be a part of this complex.)

This development, perhaps more than in other in recent years, could spawn the new, high-value-added economic activity that the Ocean State so desperately needs. It bears noting that the mid- and late- 19th and early 20th Century booms in the state had a lot to do with the fact that our region was at the forefront of Industrial Revolution engineering.

-- Robert Whitcomb