Engineering snacks to whet your appetite
Posted by John Hunter on May 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
Getting clean water is a huge issue for billions of people each day. This is a well known issue that engineers and others have attempted to address. While much has been done, much is left to be done. Such a large and critical issue requires many people to help implement and maintain solutions.
Related: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health – The PlayPump System – High School Inventor Teams @ MIT – Engineering a Better World – Water and Electricity for All
Filed under Global, Society | Tags: appropriate technology, engineering, making a difference, mechanical engineering
Posted by John Hunter on June 9th, 2008 | No Comments »
Speaker urges revolution in engineering education
“America faces the very real prospect of losing its engineering competence in an era in which technological innovation is the key to economic competitiveness, national security and social well-being,” said Duderstadt, who is president emeritus of the University of Michigan, where he is a professor of science and engineering.
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In an address titled �Engineering for a Changing World,� Duderstadt pointed to warning signs of daunting challenges for engineering.He cited the off-shoring of engineering jobs, inadequate investment in long-term engineering research, inadequate innovation in engineering education and declining interest among students in careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
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Even more, it must expose engineering students to varied aspects of a well-rounded liberal arts education. More education in the humanities and social sciences is necessary to produce young engineers with a deeper comprehension of the cultural and historical forces within which scientific and technological advances have emerged.Such an expanded educational horizon will provide students with the ability to see their engineering pursuits as part of a larger picture of the sociological, economic, political and environmental dynamics that are shaping the 21st century.
Giving students an understanding of the impact of science, engineering and technology on shaping the quality of life in the world will �infuse them with a new spirit of adventure� for engineering research and practice, he said.
Duderstadt said the nation�s universities must be committed to �creating a new breed of engineer that is better able to respond to the incredible pace of intellectual change� and to thrive in the modern global knowledge-based economy.
For the United States to maintain an edge in engineering innovation, it�s also critical to �elevate the status of the engineering profession,� he said. That will require engineers to take on more visible roles in influencing public policy through leadership in government and business.
Related: Engineering for a Changing World – NSB Report on Improving Engineering Education – Engineering Education Study Debate – Changing the Face of Engineering Education – Innovation Through Engineering Education – Science and Engineering in Global Economics
Filed under Education | Tags: engineering education, making a difference, Society, The Economy
Posted by John Hunter on April 4th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
You cannot look into the eyes of a child who is dying from a disease caused by drinking dirty water — something that rarely, if ever, happens in the United States — and not feel changed. You cannot stand before her parents without thinking, “I’m an engineer. There must be something I can do.”
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A year later, I returned with 10 engineering students from the University of Colorado. We devised a rudimentary pumping system, bringing water to the people of San Pablo. Today, the village’s young girls go to school and are healthier.That trip was a transforming experience, not just for the villagers, but also for me. Intuitively, we engineers like things big — expansive bridges, colossal dams, massive tunnels. My experience taught me that small-scale engineering can have the most impact on people’s lives.
When I returned to Boulder, I began building something else: Engineers Without Borders — USA. The organization was formed out of the conviction that engineers have a leadership role to play in addressing some of the world’s most serious problems: contaminated water, poor sanitation systems, expensive or harmful energy sources.
In a world focused on bigger and newer, there is growing recognition that small-scale engineering can play a major role in helping end the cycle of poverty that persists among almost half the world’s population. Studies by the World Bank and United Nations suggest the most basic technology is critical to bringing more than 3 billion people out of poverty.
Today EWB-USA counts more than 11,000 student and professional engineers as members and works in 43 countries on 300 projects involving water, sanitation, energy and shelter. Whether it’s combining sustainable technologies with advanced construction techniques to bring affordable housing to pockets of the world, drilling drinking water wells in Kenya, constructing fog collectors in the Himalayas to harvest fresh water or installing solar panels to provide energy for a remote hospital in Rwanda, we are healing communities throughout the globe, giving people dignity and hope for better lives.
Engineers without Borders is another vivid example of the benefits engineering brings to society.
Related: Engineering a Better World – Scientists and Engineers Without Borders – Kick Start Appropriate Technology – Engineering with People in Mind
Filed under Innovation, Society, The Economy, The National Interest | Tags: appropriate technology, engineers, Engineers Without Boarders, making a difference, Society
Posted by John Hunter on February 29th, 2008 | No Comments »
Engineering school’s growth targets societal needs
The primary role of engineering as a discipline is to use scientific knowledge to do useful things for society. So in academia, engineering serves as a bridge between the natural sciences on one hand and the humanities and the social sciences on the other. Engineers are, of course, involved very closely with natural scientists in seeking new scientific knowledge. But, engineers also work closely with humanists and social scientists in examining the implications of technology. At a liberal arts university, engineering plays a central role not only in research but also in teaching. It is our responsibility as engineering educators to make sure that all of our students, whether they are majoring in engineering or not, are technologically literate.
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The School of Engineering already has significant research programs related to human health, from the development of nanoparticles for drug delivery to innovative approaches for treating diabetes. But we have even bolder ambitions. As President Shirley Tilghman has often noted, biology is experiencing a revolutionary shift, one that calls for multidisciplinary collaboration. At the vanguard of this shift are unrivaled researchers at Princeton in the Department of Molecular Biology, the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. While we have substantial collaborations now with our colleagues in these life sciences, by deepening, expanding and leveraging these collaborations the School of Engineering can become a world-class center for biological engineering.
Filed under Education, Society, The Economy, The National Interest | Tags: engineering education, making a difference, Society
Posted by John Hunter on June 26th, 2007 | 10 Comments »
MIT’s Amy Smith on appropriate engineering, Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, California. Food, water, medicine — in the developing world, these basic needs can be impossible to meet. Amy Smith and her students design smart, low cost tools to improve the life of the poorest in our world.
I remember traveling with my father as he worked on appropriate technology projects while I was growing up. Engineers can make huge difference to truly improve people’s lives. The video does a nice job of explaining how combining engineering know how with a passion for improving people’s lives have a huge impact. Amy Smith is a MacArthur Fellow (2004-2009)
Related: KickStart (article on Kickstart: Stanford Engineering to Social Innovation) – Segway Inventor working on bringing water and electricity to the world’s poor
Filed under Society, The Economy | Tags: appropriate technology, design, making a difference, Society, webcast