Transcript ROLE OF AN ENGINEER TOWARDS SOCIETY

ROLE OF AN ENGINEER TOWARDS
SOCIETY
By
Dr. Dhanaraj Cheelu
Aim
• To remind each one of us, our responsibility towards
– our society and
– The upcoming engineering graduates
T
‘ oday, it is true to say that virtually every aspect of our daily lives
is enabled or aided in some way by engineers.
Engineers make things happen, they turn ideas into real products
and they provide the solutions to life’s everyday practical problems.
By
Stuart Parkinson
one of the authors of
UNESCO Engineering Report
ENGINEERING IS
EVERYWHERE
Ultra sonic knife
Cyber Knife
Sowing Seeds
Harvesting Potatoes
3D Printing - Ribs
Reading Human Brains
Separating Oil from Water
• Di Gao, a chemical engineer at the University of
Pittsburg, invented a plastic-coated cotton material
that could clean up the Gulf.
Designing Better Cars
• Marcus Ashford, a
mechanical engineer
at the University of
Alabama, has invented
a car engine with 80%
less exhaust
emissions.
Cleaning Up the Ocean
• Alexandria Boehm is an environmental engineer who
works on ways to clean up oceans near where people
live.
Designing Space Colonies
• Kimberly Jones is a civil engineer working on purifying
water so that we can one day go to Mars!!!
Controlling Computers with Thoughts
• Daniel Moran, a biomedical engineer at Washington
University, has invented a way to play video games
using only the human mind!
Listening for Cancer
• John Viator, a
biological engineer,
has invented a way
to hear cancer cells.
Any one
or
All ?
• Science
• Technology
• Engineering
-Theodore Von Karman
Aerospace Engineer
Scientists discover the
world that exists;
Engineers create the
world that never was.”
ALL
TOGETHER.
• Engineering turns Science and
Technology into something
tangible and useful to society.
• Engineering is an act
It is an act of planning and
designing something that
contributes to society by using
science and technology.
Science
Needs
Theories
Needs
Engineering
Resources
Products & benefits
Tools
Technology
Needs
Society
And
Nature
Heart to Heart
•
•
•
•
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Engineering is an act.
Engineering receives requests from society.
Not simply a product but a systematically designed product.
1-10-100 investment rule
Outstanding characteristic of engineering
The achievements of science are always filtered
through engineering when felt by society.
- Junichi Sato
President of The Japan Federation of Engineering Societies
Which of the following
directly applies to the
society?
• Science
• Technology
• Engineering
Every engineer has got a social responsibility since
engineering directly listens to the society.
top FIVE Issues
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Engineering and poverty
Engineering and war
Engineering and pollution
Engineering and urbanization
Engineering and sustainability
Engineering and Poverty
• Poverty is not only about
lack of wealth in monetary
terms; it also implies the
‘denial of various choices
and opportunities basic to
human development.
• These include
– the ability to lead a long, creative
and healthy life,
– to acquire knowledge,
– to have freedom, dignity, selfrespect and
– to have access to the resources
needed for a decent standard of
living.
Engineering and Poverty
• Present status - Today, an estimated twenty percent of the
world’s population lacks clean water, forty percent lacks
adequate sanitation, and twenty percent lacks adequate housing.
• Future status: In the next two decades, almost two billion
additional people are expected to populate the Earth. This growth
will create unprecedented demands for energy, food, land, water,
transportation, materials, waste disposal, earth moving, health
care, environmental cleanup, telecommunications, and
infrastructure.
Engineering and Poverty
• As we enter the first half
of the 21st century, the
engineering profession
must embrace a new
mission statement—to
contribute to the building
of a more sustainable,
stable, and equitable
world.
Engineering and Poverty
Engineering and War
• Science and technology have been engineered in many ways to
societies ills.
• Perhaps the starkest example of this is demonstrated by the
increase in the lethality of weapons over the twentieth century.
• Researchers at the University of Buenos
Aires have estimated that the ‘lethality
index’ – defined as the maximum number of
casualties per hour that a weapon can inflict
– increased by a staggering sixty million
times over the course of the century, with
thermonuclear warheads mounted on
ballistic missiles representing the zenith of
destructiveness.
Engineering and war
• War still kills hundreds of thousands of
people across the world each year with
about 75 per cent of war casualties being
civilians.
• In 2006, global military
spending was a massive
US$1.2 trillion. This is greater
than the combined size of the
economies of the world’s 110
poorest countries.
Engineering and war
Engineering and Pollution
• Engineering and technology is also a key contributor to global
environmental problems, such as
– Climate change and
– Loss of Wildlife.
• For example, industrial society now
emits the equivalent of about 50
billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each
year. The resulting climate change is
predicted to have huge impacts on
both humans and wildlife over the
coming decades and beyond – with
many millions of people at risk.
Engineering and
Pollution
• Indeed, a recent report by the World
Health Organization estimated that
climate change could already be
responsible for 150,000 extra deaths
every year.
• Engineering and technology are also
key contributors to the global loss of
wildlife through their role in activities
ranging from industrial deforestation
to industrial fishing.
• The rate of species extinction across
the world is now estimated to be more
than 100 times the natural level, with
the consequence that we are now in
the midst of a ‘major extinction
event’ – something that has only
happened five times before in the five
billion year history of planet Earth.
Engineering and
Pollution
Engineering and Urbanization
• Forecasts for 2050 show
that 70 per cent of the
world’s population will be
urban;
• China will have the largest
urban population at 1
billion in 2050.
• Some 6.4 billion people will
live in urban areas (the
equivalent of the world’s total
population in 2004) and most
of this population will be
concentrated in Asia (54 per
cent) and Africa (19 per
cent).
• It is not simply about putting pipes and drains in the ground but
about ‘public health’ through the provision of clean and safe
water and sanitation,
• It is not just about designing and constructing good, safe and
reliable transport but about providing ‘accessibility’ or even
‘mobility’ to employment and education and about determining
and meeting the need to transport people and freight more
efficiently.
Urbanization
• Accessible highways better connect towns and cities,
• Efficient railway lines and stations mean we can commute to
work or escape to places where we choose to spend our leisure
time,
• Good design creates residential areas and houses that are
comfortable, safe places to live.
• Sustainable development also ensures that this will not be at the
expense of future generations or the environment.
Requirements of
Urbanization
• New challenges in this direction are:
– how we can economically provide infrastructure in new urban areas
– how do we retrofit existing infrastructure
– how do we accomplish all this in a responsible and sustainable manner?
– How to deal with the environmental problems
Challenges for
Urbanization
Engineering and Sustainability
There are many reasons why sustainability should be at the top of
everyone’s business agenda, not least because the continued
survival of future generations depends on finding solutions to the
combined issues of
1. Climate change,
2. Finding an alternative to carbon-emitting fossil fuels for
energy and
3. Transport needs, and
4. Ensuring widespread access to clean water.
Corporate responsibility for sustainable
solutions
• Make choosing a sustainability option cheaper and easier for
clients and contractors.
– Build the capacity of teachers and trainers to integrate sustainability
into courses.
– Make specifying sustainability criteria in materials and processes an
effective tool for change in procurement chains.
– Embed sustainability thinking and practices into the culture of
organizations and across different professional groups.
Standing up for social responsibility
• In the year 2000, at ‘Forum for the Future’, a thirty-two
young engineers developed a vision of the engineer for the
twenty-first century including roles in sustainable
development.
Vision
• Our vision is of an engineer who demonstrates through everyday
practice:
– An understanding of what sustainability means.
– The skills to work toward this aim.
– Values that relate to their wider social, environmental and economic
responsibilities, and encourages and enables others to learn and
participate.
cOnClUsION
• Technology and Innovation alone cannot save us; such solutions
must be engineered to suit society.
• Encourage engineers to have ‘respect for life… and the public
good.