De STEM en 2012 a la era de la IA: de la ciencia a la política de calidad global

En febrero de 2012, publiqué en este mismo blog un artículo titulado

“Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)” (https://calidadyactitud.blogspot.com/2012/02/ciencia-tecnologia-ingenieria-y.html), donde destacaba la importancia de fortalecer la educación en ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas como pilar del desarrollo.

Entonces escribí que “el futuro pertenecerá a quienes logren integrar la ciencia, la tecnología, la ingeniería y las matemáticas en soluciones concretas para los problemas del mundo real.”

Trece años después, esa frase tiene más vigencia que nunca.

Hoy, la irrupción de la inteligencia artificial, la automatización, la gestión de datos y la necesidad de sostenibilidad han cambiado radicalmente la manera de entender el talento, la calidad y la innovación.

De la visión técnica al liderazgo normativo

Entre aquel artículo y hoy, tuve el privilegio de desempeñarme como Director del Instituto Ecuatoriano de Normalización (INEN. Esa experiencia me permitió ver de cerca cómo las normas internacionales se convierten en herramientas de política pública y cómo los Organismos Nacionales de Normalización (ONN) son actores clave para garantizar que cada país tenga voz en la construcción de un sistema mundial basado en calidad, transparencia y confianza.

La calidad, cuando se traduce en norma, se convierte en lenguaje común entre gobiernos, empresas y ciudadanos. Y ese lenguaje, que nace de la ciencia y la evidencia,  requiere profesionales formados en disciplinas STEM capaces de interpretar, aplicar y evolucionar los estándares internacionales.

En mi paso por la normalización, comprendí que las políticas de calidad solo son sostenibles cuando se fundamentan en conocimiento científico y cuando el ONN actúa como catalizador del diálogo entre academia, industria y Estado.

STEM y la inteligencia artificial: una nueva convergencia

En 2012 hablábamos de formar ingenieros, tecnólogos y científicos. Hoy, el desafío es formar profesionales STEM que comprendan la relación entre los datos, la ética y la inteligencia artificial. No basta con saber programar o modelar sistemas: hay que entender cómo las decisiones automatizadas afectan la confianza, la equidad y la sostenibilidad.

Las nuevas normas internacionales, como ISO/IEC 42001 (Sistemas de Gestión de Inteligencia Artificial) o ISO/IEC 23894 (Gestión de riesgos en IA), exigen equipos multidisciplinarios con conocimiento técnico, ético y normativo.

La infraestructura de la calidad (IC), que integra la metrología, la normalización, la acreditación y la evaluación de la conformidad, necesita ahora perfiles STEM que manejen no solo la tecnología, sino también la gobernanza digital y los impactos sociales de la IA.

Ciencia, normas y política pública

La evolución de las normas internacionales ha demostrado que la calidad no es solo un atributo técnico: es una herramienta de gobernanza. Los países con ONN fuertes y con políticas públicas basadas en normas generan más confianza, más inversión y mejor competitividad. Y detrás de cada norma bien diseñada hay profesionales que entienden tanto la ciencia como el contexto humano donde se aplica.

Por eso, hoy más que nunca, los perfiles STEM son esenciales en todos los ámbitos:

• en la industria, para asegurar la trazabilidad y la innovación responsable;

• en la academia, para generar conocimiento útil y transferible;

• y en el sector público, para diseñar políticas basadas en evidencia y calidad.

Conclusión: ciencia, ética y calidad como pilares de futuro

El artículo de 2012 fue una invitación a pensar el futuro. Hoy, desde la experiencia en normalización y en liderazgo técnico, puedo afirmar que ese futuro ya llegó.

La calidad, la ciencia y la inteligencia artificial están entrelazadas, y su convergencia exige profesionales capaces de unir el pensamiento analítico con la responsabilidad ética.

En la era de la IA, los profesionales STEM son la nueva infraestructura invisible de la confianza global.  Y los Organismos Nacionales de Normalización tienen la misión de garantizar que ese conocimiento se traduzca en políticas públicas que mejoren la vida de las personas, eleven la competitividad y fortalezcan la cooperación internacional.

La ciencia genera conocimiento, las normas lo organizan y la ética lo dirige hacia el bien común. Esa es la nueva ecuación de la calidad en la era digital.

New generation of STEM professionals

In his latest blog, Bill Troy, CEO of ASQ, asks to Influential Voices of Quality, how should we motivate young people to have a new generation of STEM professionals?

What does a STEM  professional mean? Those who will develop skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

In the month of february the USA celebrates the week of Engineering, which invites us to reflect on the importance of engineers to give every country competitive advantage through innovation in goods and services.

 

On February 22, 2012, Paul Borawski invited us to write about this topic, and my response was developed in this blog. I invite you to read my thoughts that are still inforce.

An engineer should be synonymous of "inventiveness" and should keep a balance between the use of the left side of the brain (logical) and the right side (creative). 

The misundertanding is to think that "engineers" should just have to strength the mathematical and numerical side.

Michael Gelb in his book "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps toGenius Every Day" lets us clearly see that this great engineer (da Vinci) used both sides of his brain.

Now, the question will be: What do we have to do to motive and train young people in STEM? 

We will use the basic elements of Quality:

• Use the PDCA cycle, always thinking in whom should we direct our efforts (youths), planning process, do (execute), check what have worked for us (to repeat it) and what we need to improve, and act to produce substantial improvements.
• Remember that a good engineer is good in thinking and innovating, not necessarily repeating processes without producing improvement.
• Any process of learning science and mathematics should be planned to be fun, entertaining and with processes that go from simple to complex.
• We should develop learning keeping in mind the principles of quality:  focus on our customers, demonstrating leadership in the process, involving students from the early stages, understanding the learning process, developing a systemic approach, focusing in continuous improvement, and finally developing competent and motivated teachers to communicate and learn in the process.

We must change the mindset we have about engineers. The TV serie The Big Bang Theory has achieved that goal and made us to accept them, but it has also created a stereotype. I believe an engineer is not necessarily shy and with no social skills; there are many types of engineers.

Respecting their individuality, an engineer must develop leadership, communication and management skills and mainly they should speak management language.

As a final thought I believe we must be convinced that the new STEM professionals and everybody must see that the study of mathematics and science allows us to improve our lives. We have to have fun and enjoy during this process!

César Díaz

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

In the last issue of his blog Paul Borawski, ASQ CEO, first welcomes new bloggers who join the "ASQ Influential Voices". They are 19 new voices, who joint to the 13 original voices to form a community of 32 Quality professionals working together to "raise the voice of Quality" worldwide. Personally is a challenge to be part of this group, and allows me to learn and share ideas and thoughts about Quality and its approaches.

After that introduction, Paul tells us that in the USA in February from 19 to 25 is celebrated Engineering Week and invites us to reflect on the importance for any country to develop professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM its acronym in English).

If companies and countries are going to be competitive, the strategy for achieving this is to generate real innovation, both in its processes, and the products offered to customers. One of the ways to achieve these is through STEM professionals.

Reading the various blogs that have written on the subject, I find that there is awareness of the importance of this approach, but it is vital to develop a long-term process that achieves this goal.

A reflection: Do not look back and regret, but look ahead and prepare.

Jimena Calfa in Lets'talk About Quality, indicates the reality of Argentina, I think in many countries of LA (and maybe the world) repeats the same story: fears of mathematics in the early years, little interest in these careers in college, high dropout rates during the process, and finally very few that acomplish a degree without have repeated at least one level. All of these means inefficiency across all process.

Knowing the problems some solutions might be:

- The best professionals, those who really love mathematics should be teaching from those early years (schools) and have the ability to make the process simple, fun and easy. This should be repeated along the whole process. That is the best professionals dedicated to form new human talent.

- The teaching material should be designed for younger generation and make use of interactive technologies (web 2.0).

- Teaching methods should be challenging, allowing to discover and generate self concepts, without limiting the creativity to teach everything related to STEM. Using existing technologies should not place emphasis on methods that can be developed in spreadsheets or specialized software, but to teach students to analyze the data and results and make decisions based on them.

- Always a positive environment should be generated in where learning math and science is fun and that being an engineer is not to be boring, but interesting and clever.

Another lesson learned is that never is too late to manifest the love for mathematics, statistics and science. Many Quality professionals originally had no Quality training, but then discovered or needed to develop these skills and fell in love in the process, and then became the best broadcasters to promote positively the formation of new professionals in these areas.

The various certifications that ASQ develops have played a key role, as they have promoted interest in mathematics and Quality. There are also a number of documents generated in the ASQ to promote the adoption of thinking tools for kids and learning quality.

Currently in several Ecuadorian universities are developing post graduate programs to teach statistics and its application to different professions, who at first were not focused on statistics and mathematics, leading to improved knowledge of these disciplines.

As a final thought I believe we must be convinced that the new STEM professionals and everybody must see that the study of mathematics and science allows us to improve our lives and we have to have fun and enjoy this process.

Cesar Diaz