"whizbang" wrote in message
m...
Sylvan Morein disgusted father of Bob wrote
in message ...
[snip]

You've just discovered the essential problems with my poor son, Bob.
He's
what we called "an asshole know-it-all" when I was growing up. And like
all
asshole know-it-alls, he's usually wrong. As you and others here have
shown.

[snip]
"I don't really have a replacement career," Morein said. "It's a very
gnawing thing."

I don't know him or you but I know something about universities. They
do routinely coopt the ideas of gifted grad students, then pass them
around to other grad students currently in their favor. Somebody
needs to upset the applecart now and then and he should be proud for
trying to buck the system where few others have had the courage.
Academia above the law? They'd like to think so, wouldn't they. It's
too bad he didn't get his doctorate. Knowing how much bull**** I went
through for my Masters, I wouldn't minimize the amount a doctoral
candidate must endure. You obviously dislike this guy for reasons of
your own, but putting academia up on a pedastal in order to put him
down does everyone a disservice.

Thanks, whizbang. We actually won at the trial level. At the appellate court
level, the bench was split 2-1, with the President Judge dissenting.

My experience leads me to believe that many, perhaps a majority, of
supervising faculty in technical fields lack the people skills to adequately
relate to students over which they hold absolute power. Unfortunately, the
U.S. judiciary has a long history of nonintervention in the educational
process. But any establishment that is not supervised by the law tends to go
rotten. This has happened with unions, religious establishments, military
commands, foundations, authorities -- it's endless.

At Drexel University, I was the first graduate student to independently
create patentable work. As the work differed in character from most
electrical engineering, it was difficult to understand. While one of the
leading international authorities in control systems engineering endorsed
the concept, other people, both in and out of the department, were irate
that they could not understand the article written about it. These people
claim to be very talented, but I would suggest that anyone seriously
interested in pushing the boundaries of knowledge choose a different
university. Drexel just doesn't have what it takes.

It isn't clear from the article, but the patent actually was granted. It is
a method of designing digital filters for analysis of radar signals, or more
generally, the state estimation problem. Around the time I filed a formal
complaint with my advisor, the company charged with obtaining the patent in
both our names dropped the ball -- and didn't tell me. I didn't find out
until the trial. Care to guess why that happened?

Brian L. McCarty, who forges the name of my dad, "Sylvan Morein", is a very
sick guy.

"Robert Morein" wrote in message ...
"whizbang" wrote in message
m...
Sylvan Morein disgusted father of Bob wrote
in message ...
[snip]

You've just discovered the essential problems with my poor son, Bob.
He's
what we called "an asshole know-it-all" when I was growing up. And like
all
asshole know-it-alls, he's usually wrong. As you and others here have
shown.

[snip]
"I don't really have a replacement career," Morein said. "It's a very
gnawing thing."

I don't know him or you but I know something about universities. They
do routinely coopt the ideas of gifted grad students, then pass them
around to other grad students currently in their favor. Somebody
needs to upset the applecart now and then and he should be proud for
trying to buck the system where few others have had the courage.
Academia above the law? They'd like to think so, wouldn't they. It's
too bad he didn't get his doctorate. Knowing how much bull**** I went
through for my Masters, I wouldn't minimize the amount a doctoral
candidate must endure. You obviously dislike this guy for reasons of
your own, but putting academia up on a pedastal in order to put him
down does everyone a disservice.

Thanks, whizbang. We actually won at the trial level. At the appellate court
level, the bench was split 2-1, with the President Judge dissenting.

My experience leads me to believe that many, perhaps a majority, of
supervising faculty in technical fields lack the people skills to adequately
relate to students over which they hold absolute power. Unfortunately, the
U.S. judiciary has a long history of nonintervention in the educational
process. But any establishment that is not supervised by the law tends to go
rotten. This has happened with unions, religious establishments, military
commands, foundations, authorities -- it's endless.

At Drexel University, I was the first graduate student to independently
create patentable work. As the work differed in character from most
electrical engineering, it was difficult to understand. While one of the
leading international authorities in control systems engineering endorsed
the concept, other people, both in and out of the department, were irate
that they could not understand the article written about it. These people
claim to be very talented, but I would suggest that anyone seriously
interested in pushing the boundaries of knowledge choose a different
university. Drexel just doesn't have what it takes.

It isn't clear from the article, but the patent actually was granted. It is
a method of designing digital filters for analysis of radar signals, or more
generally, the state estimation problem. Around the time I filed a formal
complaint with my advisor, the company charged with obtaining the patent in
both our names dropped the ball -- and didn't tell me. I didn't find out
until the trial. Care to guess why that happened?

Brian L. McCarty, who forges the name of my dad, "Sylvan Morein", is a very
sick guy.

If there truly is a university seriously interested in pushing the
boundaries of knowledge, I'd like to know about it, and some of the
highly acclaimed institutions are among the worst offenders when it
comes to suppressing unusually brilliant minds. For one thing, an
interdisciplinary approach is often required when it comes to
groundbreaking work because of the well worn intellectual ruts and
deadends rigidly enforced by the orthodoxy in any given field.
Academic institutions generally frown on mixing disciplines, and when
someone comes along who insists on finding his or her own way (which
might include such an approach) they do all they can to discourage it.
They much prefer "manageable people" who aren't big on original
thinking. I've long been disappointed with the mentality of your
average academician. They are supposed to represent our brightest
minds when in fact too many of them aren't even that intelligent and
are complete conformists.

"traveler" wrote in message
om...
"Robert Morein" wrote in message
...
"whizbang" wrote in message
m...
Sylvan Morein disgusted father of Bob
wrote
in message ...
[snip]

You've just discovered the essential problems with my poor son, Bob.
He's
what we called "an asshole know-it-all" when I was growing up. And
like
all
asshole know-it-alls, he's usually wrong. As you and others here
have
shown.

[snip]
"I don't really have a replacement career," Morein said. "It's a
very
gnawing thing."

I don't know him or you but I know something about universities. They
do routinely coopt the ideas of gifted grad students, then pass them
around to other grad students currently in their favor. Somebody
needs to upset the applecart now and then and he should be proud for
trying to buck the system where few others have had the courage.
Academia above the law? They'd like to think so, wouldn't they. It's
too bad he didn't get his doctorate. Knowing how much bull**** I went
through for my Masters, I wouldn't minimize the amount a doctoral
candidate must endure. You obviously dislike this guy for reasons of
your own, but putting academia up on a pedastal in order to put him
down does everyone a disservice.

Thanks, whizbang. We actually won at the trial level. At the appellate
court
level, the bench was split 2-1, with the President Judge dissenting.

My experience leads me to believe that many, perhaps a majority, of
supervising faculty in technical fields lack the people skills to
adequately
relate to students over which they hold absolute power. Unfortunately,
the
U.S. judiciary has a long history of nonintervention in the educational
process. But any establishment that is not supervised by the law tends
to go
rotten. This has happened with unions, religious establishments,
military
commands, foundations, authorities -- it's endless.

At Drexel University, I was the first graduate student to independently
create patentable work. As the work differed in character from most
electrical engineering, it was difficult to understand. While one of the
leading international authorities in control systems engineering
endorsed
the concept, other people, both in and out of the department, were irate
that they could not understand the article written about it. These
people
claim to be very talented, but I would suggest that anyone seriously
interested in pushing the boundaries of knowledge choose a different
university. Drexel just doesn't have what it takes.

It isn't clear from the article, but the patent actually was granted. It
is
a method of designing digital filters for analysis of radar signals, or
more
generally, the state estimation problem. Around the time I filed a
formal
complaint with my advisor, the company charged with obtaining the patent
in
both our names dropped the ball -- and didn't tell me. I didn't find out
until the trial. Care to guess why that happened?

Brian L. McCarty, who forges the name of my dad, "Sylvan Morein", is a
very
sick guy.

If there truly is a university seriously interested in pushing the
boundaries of knowledge, I'd like to know about it, and some of the
highly acclaimed institutions are among the worst offenders when it
comes to suppressing unusually brilliant minds. For one thing, an
interdisciplinary approach is often required when it comes to
groundbreaking work because of the well worn intellectual ruts and
deadends rigidly enforced by the orthodoxy in any given field.
Academic institutions generally frown on mixing disciplines, and when
someone comes along who insists on finding his or her own way (which
might include such an approach) they do all they can to discourage it.
They much prefer "manageable people" who aren't big on original
thinking. I've long been disappointed with the mentality of your
average academician. They are supposed to represent our brightest
minds when in fact too many of them aren't even that intelligent and
are complete conformists.

That's my impression also.
In my opinion, virtually all of Drexel's thesis have little or no original
content.
While I make no claim that my work was brilliant, it has original elements
that attracted several authorities outside of Drexel to professionally
endorse it as competent, useful work.
My advisor's reputation was less than stellar. However, I did not realize
that in attempting to find a replacement advisor, I'd run up against a
network of office politics.

One of our expert witnesses on the subject of academic administration was on
the staff at Temple. It turned out that Drexel compared rather poorly to
Temple in this degree.
At Temple, considerable personal support and flexibility is extended to
individuals who demonstrate ability.
By contrast, the environment at Drexel, at least in the ECE (Electrical and
Computer Engineering) Department, is highly punitive toward students.
This is subject to variation depending upon which subgroup of the ECE
Department one works in.
In terms of hospitability, I rate the following subgroups from best to
worst:
1. Image processing
2. Electrodynamics
3. Digital
4. Systems

The systems group, led by Moshe Kam, had, when I was there, a 50% attrition
rate for seekers of the Ph.D. By contrast, the other groups had success
rates on the order of 90%, for those who passed the qualifying exam.
Although Moshe Kam was not my advisor, he was, as assistant department
chairman, in the chain of responsibility. I hold Moshe Kam to be most
responsible for the failure of the ECE Department to resolve the dispute in
a way that would have allowed me to complete the Ph.D program.

Stay away from Drexel!