Engineer Shortage

Massachusetts colleges are increasingly unable to meet the increased demand for computer and electronic engineers by Boston-area high technology firms, industry spokesmen said this week.

Niel Sanders, a member of the Corporate Committee of Analog Devices, a Westwood firm, said yesterday the high technology industry in Massachusetts is expected to grow at the rate of 30 to 35 per cent in the near future, but the number in engineering fields related to this industry will grow between 5 and 10 per cent during the same time peirod.

Currently, 1600 of computer science and electronic engineering positions remain unfilled within a 30-mile radius of Boston, Sanders said. Anyone with an electrical engineering degree could "walk into the door of any company in Boston, [and] they will throw gold dust at your feet," he added.

Several local electronics company executives expressed concern about the shortage of qualified engineers after Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Paul Gray announced his plans last week to file the gap.

In a speech Wednesday before the New England Chapter of American Electronic Association and the Massachusetts High Technology Council, Gray proposed an electrical engineering program that would allow six students to spend one full-time semester on campus and a second term in part-time off-campus study. The council and several high technology firms have called Gray's proposal inadequate.

MIT, Northeastern and Worcester Polytechnic Institute supply most of these engineers. "Harvard is not geared toward high-technology,"Sander said. Alexander d'Arbeloof, president of Teladyne Inc. said, "We as a company don't look towards Harvard for engineers."