Three years ago, Ron Hira "was practically laughed out of the room'' when he warned Carnegie Mellon University graduate students and faculty that high-level engineering jobs were moving overseas to places such as India.

	Ron Hira

Tomorrow night, the 37-year-old electrical engineer and public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology expects a more sober reception when he makes another speech on outsourcing, this time at the University of Pittsburgh.

The CMU engineering undergraduate, who has testified before Congress twice on the subject and recently published a book called "Outsourcing America," estimates that tens of thousands of engineering jobs have left the country in the three years since he spoke to the CMU audience.

Dr. Hira became interested in outsourcing of white-collar jobs as he pursued his graduate studies in public policy at George Mason University.

While doing his dissertation on electronic commerce and supply chain management, he was besieged at engineering conferences with tales of engineers who had lost their jobs, often after they had trained their international replacements.

At the same time, Dr. Hira, who is ethnically Indian, saw his relatives in Bombay getting jobs as computer programmers.

In his book, co-written with his brother, Anil, Dr. Hira openly challenges those who present a positive view of outsourcing, calling New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman "the voice of the elite."

He tries to separate out the arguments over outsourcing's global effects to focus on the impact on the American economy and American workers.

"I'm happy that my cousins are benefitting," he said, "but the idea that they're benefitting and we're better off on the U.S. side is wrong."

Many economists and policymakers dispute that statement, arguing that outsourcing makes the U.S. economy stronger by improving efficiency. They also point to "insourcing" -- jobs that foreign corporations such as Toyota and Sony have created in the United States.

But Dr. Hira doubts that the engineering and computer software jobs sent overseas will be replaced by jobs paying equivalent salaries.

"While the total number of jobs might be OK, we don't know what that new mix is going to be like," he said.

In his book, he recommends that the United States consider making changes to its trade policies, government procurement practices and visas for foreign workers.

Dr. Hira will speak about his book, "Outsourcing America: What's Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs," at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Benedum Hall at Pitt.

Admission is free, and the speech is sponsored by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Ascent Systems Inc., Pitt and the University of Pittsburgh Book Center. Those interested can call 412-795-4444.