Poly designer talks of sales to U.S.

Press, 2 November 1982, Page 28

Poly designer talks of sales to U.S.

NZPA Washington Mr Neil Scott, designer of New Zealand's Poly computer, came to the United States to pick up ideas to use in New Zealand and ended up talking about exporting New Zealand equipment to America. “I deliberately didn’t bring information with me because I thought that would be the best way to get straight up people’s noses when I was travelling round supposed to be looking at what they’re doing,” he said. But about half way through his two months here on a Fulbright scholarship he found so much interest in the Poly, a computer designed specially for schools, that he had one flown from New Zealand and spent two days demonstrating it in Pittsburgh. “They spent the whole time with their tongues hanging out,” he said. Mr Scott, who is head of physics, electronics, telecommunications, and electrical engineering at Wellington Polytechnic, said he found computers in American schools running on “pretty mediocre software.” “The Poly is far superior and oriented towards education,” he said. “We built a machine that was intended to allow teachers from anywhere in the school to use the thing without having to know about computers. “What I’ve seen as I’ve travelled round has confirmed my thought that within the price scale I have not seen anything that comes near it.”

The area that was better in the United States was engineering skills that could bring costs down, Mr Scott said, and there were ideas there he would take back.

The Americans had a lot of good initial designers, he said, “but the implementation is a bit scary.” Mr Scott gave some examples of badly made American equipment (especially compared with Japanese copies), and said: “I. just hope their military system is built better.” Mr Scott said one thing that worried him in America was that “everywhere I went I’ve had statistics on how few physics and maths teachers there are in the school system now. “That worries me in terms of what the future is for America, if they breed a new generation which doesn’t understand technology.”' The lack of science and maths teachers is in fact worrying many people in the United States. Bills were introduced in both the Senate and the

House of Representatives recently with financial incentives for teachers to enter those fields and remain there, and to provide tax credits for companies to allow their scientists to teach part-time or in summer schools. The National Science Board declared last month that “American scientists no longer lead in every field of science and United States industry is significantly challenged in many areas ol technology.” Only 52,000 Americans graduated in science and mathematics last year, compared with 300,000 in the Soviet Union and 74,000 in Japan. Senator John Glenn, the former astronaut who now represents Ohio as a Democrat, said last month that 15 per cent of American maths and science teaching positions were empty.