As Texas A&M’s Institute for Innovation and Design in Engineering (IIDE) turns 20 years old, it is important to reflect on the value of providing ready-made engineers to an industry that survives by its ability to innovate.

It is common knowledge the oil and gas business is losing many of its best people. The industry’s most experienced professionals are retiring — or are they?

Very little hiring was done in the 1990s when oil prices were low, so people in their 30s are scarce in the industry. Companies need to protect their investment.

Companies can capitalize on a fast-changing job market because “Goodbye” may not be forever.

The US economy is in shambles. Recent government bail-outs of shaky investment banking, brokerage, and insurance companies, most with dramatic exposure to huge volumes of bad mortgage debt, have raised the national debt exponentially, to a bit more than $10 trillion.

You have already heard much more than you would like about the presidential campaign in the United States. Believe me, we Americans have, too.