The standard
line goes like this: Engineers are only interested in
furthering technical capabilities and improving design performance. We don’t have much concern for
how our resultant systems will be used in the real world. Or
whether our efforts will contribute to the betterment of
society, as compared to merely bringing more dollars to the
bottom line. But we have traditionally countered with the
argument that once a technical development is successful,
its applications cannot be limited — for better or worse — by
its creators.
Scientists, on
the other hand, are often seen as more concerned about the
applications of their discoveries. Zellman Warhaft, a
Cornell University professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering, explains this marginalization of engineering by
noting that engineers tend to be relegated to the position
of technical servants of corporations, governments and
society in general. When he expressed this view to an MIT
professor, the response was, “Yes, we train mercenaries.”
Mercenary might be an acceptable appellation if taken in its
obsolete meaning: paid or salaried. But current usage is in
the derogatory vein, namely, serving merely for pay.
While the degree
to which engineers can influence the uses of technology is
debatable, there are many who nevertheless believe we should
try. Aside from electing to work on projects that have an
obvious positive social value, perhaps the best way we can
exert leverage on the uses of our creations is to influence
technology policy at the governmental level. But if
engineers are to be induced to contribute to
technology-influenced policy decisions, the value of doing
so might best be emphasized while youngsters are
contemplating engineering as a profession, or, a bit later,
while they are undergraduate engineering students.
One modest
project, friendly to this objective, is under consideration
by the International Council of Academies of Engineering and
Technological Societies. It would inform high school
students about future engineering challenges, which, if
solved, would “make a difference and help others live
better — the cool thing to do.” The council plans to elaborate
on engineering challenges in energy and the environment,
robotics, communications, security, transportation, climate,
and water availability, among others.
At the
university level, the Accreditation Board for Engineering
and Technology's (ABET) EC2000 criteria stress design
courses that involve economic, environmental,
sustainability, manufacturability, ethical, health and
safety, and social and political parameters. Cornell’s
Warhaft, cited earlier, has himself designed a course,
“Components and Systems: Engineering in a Social Context,”
that involves a pair of case studies, one based on ballistic
missile defense systems and the other on energy,
transportation and the environment.
Real-World
Projects
A pair of
programs are designed to involve engineering students and/or
young engineers in projects that help solve pressing
societal problems like energy availability and water
management, and where they can observe first hand the
beneficial results of their work.
In the first,
UNESCO and DaimlerChrysler have partnered to create the
Mondialogo Engineering Award “to generate enthusiasm among
young recruits to the engineering profession and to provide
intercultural dialogue and cooperation between educational
engineering institutions in both developing and developed
countries.” In 2005, an international jury assessed
proposals from 419 multinational teams representing 1700
young engineers and students from 79 countries. Twenty-one
proposals were selected for awards on the basis of
sustainability, feasibility and projected costs. Among the
approved projects were ones for land mine detection, solar
energy for health centers in Mali, and a photovoltaic
telecommunications center in Malaysia.
Engineers Without Borders
conducts the second, an
international network that links humanitarian organizations
having a similar mission: to partner with disadvantaged
communities to improve their quality of life through
education and implementing sustainable engineering projects.
Among several projects of the U.S. branch of Engineers
Without Borders are the following:
-
The
University of Colorado partnered in a project initiated
by the U.S. Ambassador to Mauritania to install a
photovoltaic pump for use in the water supply in the
village of Bir Moghrein. Traveling 18 hours through the
Sahara desert, students, faculty and industry
participants contributed to the successful project.
-
A team from
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is
developing an inexpensive charge controller for a pedal
power generator and a low-cost inverter circuit to drive
compact fluorescent lamps for use in Maharashta, India.
-
A team from
Rowan University is currently assigned a project to
develop natural gas and geothermal resources for
heating, aquaculture and greenhouses to alleviate
economic and employment hardships of the Native American
population in Cheyenne River, South Dakota.
Whether those exposed to commendable programs like these
will lapse into a passive mode as their careers advance,
or whether they will sustain ways to employ technology
for the public good and help curtail its ill-considered
uses remains to be seen.
Resources
For more on the
societal implications of engineering, see:
-
Layton, E.T.,
The Revolt of the Engineers, Johns Hopkins Press,
1986.
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