Transcript Engineering and the Challenges Facing Development

Engineering and the Challenges
Facing Development
S.I.K. AMPADU
Challenges facing the world
Challenges
 Climate Change
 Rapid increase in population
and urbanization
 Poverty Reduction
ENGINEERING IN SOCIETY 2013
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Climate Change- causes
negative consequences of the path of development
It is a non deniable fact that burning oil
and gas during the last decades, starting
with the industrial revolution, has and is
increasing the greenhouse effects which
has led to a global warming effect with
serious consequences
Climate Change-Melting of ice
• In less than 30 years
the arctic ice
presented a melting
of 950,000 square
kilometers, which
represents a loss of
20% of its surface
• Leading to rising seal
levels posing dangers
to coastal cities
Climate Change-effects
• weather patterns,
– More regions affected by droughts.
– Increased numbers of heavy daily rainfall
– Increases in intensity and duration of tropical storm and
hurricanes.
• changing currents
• Receding ice,
• Rising sea levels
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Climate Change and Weather Patterns
stormy weather due to climate change has dramatically
increased during the last decade in several parts of our planet,
causing
• great damage
to cities,
• infrastructure
and
• even loss of
life
Climate Change Effects
• changes species distribution due to
increasing acidification
Increasing Population and
Urbanization
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Increasing waste management problems
Increasing traffic problems
Urban slums (Sodom and Gomorrah)
Increasing crime
Global Poverty
• Despite this
– in 2008, the World Bank estimated that 2.6
billion people lived on less than $US2 a day
– in 2005, 1.4 billion people lived below US$1 a
day
• From 2007-2009, Africa
– Unemployed increased from 23.6million to 27
million in 2009 (sub-Saharan)
– Working poor (<US$1.25per day) increased from 168
to 205 million (Africa)
– Vulnerable employment: 211 to 236 million (Sub
Saharan)
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The Millennium Development Goals
Poverty challenges are summarized in MDGs adopted
by the Millennium Assembly in 2000
The 8 Millenium Development Goals
 Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
 Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
 Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
 Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
 Goal 5: Improve maternal health
 Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
 Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
 Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
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Issues facing Engineers
• How to engineer the world so as to prevent
an environmental catastrophe caused climate
change, and
• How to engineer our cities to make them
liveable
• How to engineer the large proportion of the
world’s increasing population out of extreme
poverty, disease and environmental
degradation
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Engineering the Solutions
• Engineers use scientific knowledge and mathematics to
create technologies and infrastructure to address
human, social and economic issues, and challenges on
the other
Solutions to Challenges
Challenges
Climate Change
Solutions
• -INNOVATION
Rapid increase in
Sustainable Infrastructurepopulation and urbanization SUSTAINABILITY
Poverty Reduction
TECHNOLOGY
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Solutions to Climate Change
Problem: Burning fossil fuel causes greenhouse effects
leading to global warming
make use of
natural energy
sources such as
• wind,
• tides,
• waves,
• ocean currents
and
• sun energy
Engineering and Society
The overall aim of the course is
• to inculcate in students an appreciation of the
fact that the purpose of engineering is to
solve societal problems.
• encouraging students to draw a link between
their chosen field of Engineering and the
application of this field to the issues that
confront the day to day lives of people
Fieldwork
1. Identify study community, (preferably the
community which students come from)
2. Identify one development challenge/issue facing
the community
3. Investigate the nature, characteristics and scope
of the development challenge
4. Investigate what your chosen programme of
study actually entails including the different
applications of their chosen field
5. Indicate how you will solve the problem with
your chosen field of engineering
Analysis
• Students should analyze the information
collected
• and draw a link between how to use the
knowledge in their programme of study in the
University (i.e. chosen field of study) to
address the community challenge.
Reporting
Students should then prepare a report on their
findings. The report should have a clear structure:
• an introduction,
• description of the community and the problem,
• description of how the problem may be solved
using knowledge from their programme of
study
• conclusion and recommendations.
Submission and Defense
• School reopens on 16th August
• Submit your bound report on 26th August
2013 to your HoD
• Prepare a power point of your report and
make a presentations of the results of their
fieldwork to staff and students between 2730th August 2013