THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION IN THE 21ST CENTURY - EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND SOCIETAL CHALLENGES FACING THE PROFESSION

As author and journalist Thomas Friedman has declared, the world is now flat and globalization of the economy has amplified the impact of technology on modern societies in ways that could not have been predicted. The connectivity provided by the Internet has generated new markets for products and services, but also has made available labor that is often both educated and cheap. This is having a profound impact on the distribution of wealth in both the developed and the developing part of the world. That education plays a role in the prosperity of nations is not debated, but many authors argue that it is specifically the presence of both knowledge and know-how that determines how well off societies are. The education of engineers is therefore critical to every nation to ensure the prosperity of their citizens. The engineering profession in the 21(st) Century is evolving between developing and developed countries in light of certain aspects of engineering talent becoming a commodity. The 2007 Hoyt Memorial Lecture addressed the re-engineering of engineering education for the 21(st) centiny to address these changing paradigms; the focus was on the materials engineering profession and the metals processing industry.