Introduction
Engineering is the act of recognizing a problem, formulating the ideas to solve it and implementing the proposed solution. Soon, the engineers will be required to employ new tools and technologies at the same time incorporating social, economic perspective in problem-solving. The different engineering professionals need to work together as a team to achieve the desired goals. Most of the problems are also becoming more and more complicated, and this needs the engineers to widen their scale beyond the technical aspect.
The engineers are expected to work and socialize by asking questions concerning other engineering professions and non-engineering professions to enable their exponential expansion in knowledge. The engineering profession requires that engineers should work in teams, communicate with the varied audience and involve themselves in the public policy discussions. This report discusses the three perspectives of engineering; social, global and professional. Each of them is discussed widely by giving relevant examples that suit the situation ("The Engineer Of 2020," 1)
Societal Perspective
Engineering practice cannot operate on its own or in a vacuum. It has to be attached to the society or community in a way. Engineering practices on macro scale depend on the world’s depletion of natural resources as the population grows. On the other hand, the social issues in the central key in engineering as engineers are expected to work efficiently and effectively. On a greater extent, engineering affects the political and economic relationships among nations and individuals. The existence of project management, multilingual influences, intellectual property, cultural diversity, moral and religious repercussions, national security, cost-benefit strains and global impacts will continue to motivate the engineering practice.
Population and Demographics
The world’s population is growing rapidly and it is projected that by 2020, the world’s population will approach eight million and most of the increase in population will come from undeveloped and developing countries. A developed nation is the one whose gross national product is greater than or equals to $ 10,000 per person. Most of these people will reside in urban centers in the countries that have no economic, social and physical structures that support the growing population. These factors of population growth will present several challenges to the society, and the engineers are there to develop constructive solutions to this issues ("The Engineer of 2020", 12)
Health and Healthcare
The rise in population with time will affect the health care delivery systems. Through the proper development of innovative ideas that cares highly individualized cost-effectiveness, volume production, new engineering technologies and sustainability the advanced medical technologies of that are accessible to the population may be implemented. The work of engineers is also believed to be a witness in towns when the air pollution is mitigated, hazardous wastes reduced; deliberate diseases avoided and other social factors affecting human health are solved. With the improved standard of living in the developing nations, the life expectancy goes up. The area of focus of the aging population is on health and health care and quality of life. There will be a few working population, and this creates the economic problems of keeping the old. More demand will shift to the aging population and thus hikes the labor force stress, and increase in political instability. The engineering practice has to be implemented in these areas that compel working by economical need ("The Engineer of 2020", 13)
Global perspective
The rising global economy
The world’s economy is closely linked to the advancement in the technology itself. Some years back, the use of ships and other navigation tools for business was unimaginable. With the emergence of communication technologies, such as telegraph, mobile phones, radars, etc. made a gateway into the business world with fewer worries. Moreover, the maturation of internet, optical fibers and the advanced global telecommunications networks of satellites across the world has brought new horizons and territories of multinational trade. This kind of communication is being catalyzed by the rising standards of education capabilities in countries such as India and China. This is also attributed to the presence of highly skilled employees/workers with good science and engineering backgrounds in these countries and beyond who are capable and willing to work despite the wages that are below those in the developed countries. Research and statistics show that China is producing twice many graduates in mechanical engineering compared to three times the graduates in all fields in the United States of America. In the new era of global technology, the high valued services such as technical consulting, electronics designs, applied research, aerospace design, X-ray assessment, and accounting can be done cheaply outside these developed nations and the outcomes simply transmitted back to the developed countries. For example, the semiconductors can be designed in India and China and the design implemented anywhere in the world through manufacturing. This team of engineers functions across multiple languages, multiple zones, and multiple cultures. The effect of sharing information ties cultures together, knowledge, economies, both in positive and negative perspectives (The Offshoring of Engineering, 23)
Impact on security
The youth politically unstable nations experience bulge. These youths are most prominent in Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Mexico, the countries of the Middle East and all the developing nations. The recent youth bulge was experienced in countries like Gaza, Sri-Lanka, Northern Ireland and Iran. This was due to many idle youths that are unemployed and hence accelerating political unrest and threats. This creates the need for more security measures and military services both at home and abroad. With the immigration departments being strict on foreign engineers, the country will have to train more engineers of their own to address the insecurity issues. This will impact on actual population trends, and global economy (The Offshoring of Engineering, 24)
Professional Perspectives
The system perspective in engineering has generated a new sub-discipline of engineering such as photonics, microelectronics, and biomechanics. The presence of large systems of devices networked together required the establishment of a systems perspective. The function of this idea is to bring harmony and synergy among components from a larger theme. This calls for the widening of the scope in engineering to come up with different specializations with their professionals. These professional has to achieve their targets by working in teams and complexity (Landels, 21)
Working in teams
The increased scales of systems and complexity in engineering have a call for collaborations among different professionals. The necessary attributes needed involves the ability to communicate using technology, excellence in communication and taking into account all the complexities that are related to the global market and the social aspect. Issues concerning, receptive change, mutual respect and flexibility are very essential in their association. For instance, it is known that engineers may come together in a group or team concerning each area of expertise when there is an issue to be resolved but disperse after the achieving it only to reunite later to a new challenge. There is a need to incorporate other disciplines subjects into engineering such as psychology, business, and other social sciences. This will help impart skills that help them in ensuring efficacy and multicultural aspects (Provenzo, 40)
Complexity
All engineering disciplines need to incorporate social parameters into their complex systems for work analysis. An engineering challenge is influenced by political, legal, market and will define the way the problem will be addressed. The idea of knowledge sharing that is coupled with technology can achieve a new approach in customer-seller relationship. Therefore, the engineer should possess such elements of communication and market to enable the selling of the technical products that were created. The new ideas and equipment in manufacturing and producing a certain product and the knowledge of using them will have the influence to embed adaptive features to the production process ("IEEE Code of Ethics", 23)
Conclusion
Engineering is a technical profession which has the ability to solve technical problems. The procedure for solving problems in engineering involves; problem definition, formulation of ideas or propositions and implementing the same ideas that solve the issue. In practical life situation, engineering has the social, global and professional perspective. The social parameters in engineering involve the interaction of engineers with other disciplines. In the global perspective, the ways in which the Engineers operate at the global levels are considered. This involves the engineering profession beyond culture, race, language, and religion. In this view, most of the engineering problems are addressed perfectly with rapid growth in technology. Lastly, professional perspective in engineering entails one’s specialization and diversification. The world at large consists of many systems that have separate operating details and there, each engineering professional has to attend to each area.
Work Cited
"The Engineer of 2020". (2004): n. pag. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
The Offshoring of Engineering. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2008. Print.
Landels, John G. Engineering in the Ancient World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Print.
Provenzo, Eugene F. Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2009. Print.
"IEEE Code of Ethics". IEEE Potentials 23.2 (2004): 32-33. Web.
