The Engineer of 2020 Visions of Engineering in the New Century (2004) / Chapter Skim
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1 Technological Context of Engineering Practice
1 Technological Context of Engineering Practice
Pages 7-26
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From page 7... ...
The engineer designs devices, components, subsystems, and systems and, to create a successful design, in the sense that it leads directly or indirectly to an improvement in our quality of life, must work within the constraints provided by technical, economic, business, political, social, and ethical issues. Technology is the outcome of engineering; it is rare that science translates directly to technology, just as it is not true that engineering is just applied science.
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From page 8... ...
The familiar model is a building constructed of diverse components assembled in a fixed pattern. The other familiar model is a fluid, like a river, with a rapidly changing shape formed by local conditions.
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From page 9... ...
By the end of the 20th century, the developed world had become a healthier, safer, and more productive place; a place where engineering, through technology, had forged an irreversible imprint on our lives and our identity. The Swiss engineer Jurgen Mittelstrass once termed the present technologydominated world as the "Leonardoworld," to contrast with the time long past where human life was dominated by the natural world (Mittelstrass, 2001)
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From page 10... ...
, we may see the use of nanoscale robots, or nanobots, to repair tissue tears or clean clogged arteries. Nanobots might be used to target drugs that can destroy cancers or change cell structures to combat genetically inherited diseases.
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From page 11... ...
Bio-inspired computer researchers are already investigating virus protection architectures that mimic the human viral defense system, and pattern recognition researchers are developing algorithms that mimic the visioning processes observed in humans and other species (National Research Council, 2001)
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From page 12... ...
National Nanotechnology Initiative and in fiscal year 2004 will provide almost $1 billion in research and development funding (see Table 1)
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From page 13... ...
Moreover, as smart materials are used in advanced products, material properties based on mechanical, optical, and electromagnetic interactions become core knowledge topics that support effective engineering practice. As the physical sizes of optical sources decrease while their power and reliability continue to increase, photonics-based technologies will become more significant in engineered products and systems.
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From page 14... ...
The world will be networked with broadband communications, allowing huge volumes of information to be transmitted at high data rates for realtime collaboration between engineering design centers anywhere, reshaping our perceptions of connectedness, location, and access. As early as the 1960s, the Advanced Research Project Agency research community began to imagine a world where networks of computer workstations could connect to each other, sharing data, working in parallel on common problems, and advancing computing power to new heights (Brand, 1972; Gates, 1996; Goldberg, 1988)
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From page 15... ...
Advances in computing and simulation, coupled with technologies that mimic rudimentary attributes in analysis, may radically redefine common practices in engineering. There will be growth in areas of simulation and modeling around the creation of new engineering "structures." Computer-based design-build engineering, such as was done with the Boeing 777 and is commonly done in civil engineering, will become the norm for most product designs, accelerating the creation of complex structures for which multiple subsystems combine to form a final product.
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From page 16... ...
Advanced Imaging: Optimistic projections assuming 5 × 107 accessible population with each person requiring 82 × 109 bytes by 20102012. This is primarily based on an assumption that advanced 3D/4D imaging capabilities hold ~80% of medical storage.
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From page 17... ...
In general, though, the United States has arguably had the best physical infrastructure in the developed world. The concern is that these infrastructures are in serious decline, and hence aging water treatment, waste disposal, transportation, and energy facilities are among the top concerns for public officials and citizens alike.
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From page 18... ...
Recent evidence has shown that malicious attacks (such as computer viruses and denial of service attacks) , system overloads (as in the case of the disruptions in wireless phone service in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks)
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From page 19... ...
Drinking Water D The nations' 54,000 drinking water systems face an annual shortfall of $11 billion needed to replace facilities that are nearing the end of their useful life and to comply with federal water regulations. Wastewater D The nations' 16,000 wastewater systems face enormous needs.
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From page 20... ...
. It falls to both the public and the private sectors to develop strategies and take actions to continually update the infrastructure to keep pace with technological advances, to increase capacity to respond to the rapid growth in information and communications technology-related services, to develop and design systems with a global perspective, to work to increase security and reliability, and to consider issues of privacy (Crishna et al., 2000)
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From page 21... ...
If sustainability is pursued only in industrialized countries, where the resources are available, they will remain islands in a sea of environmentally bereft developing countries. It is becoming increasingly apparent, though, that design criteria and standards suitable for industrialized countries must be adjusted for the local conditions in developed countries if sustainability projects hope to succeed.
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From page 22... ...
has identified several areas where future investment would significantly improve services to aging patients. These include technologies, such as monitors, sensors, robots, and smart housing, that would allow elder persons to maintain independent lifestyles and alleviate the burdens placed on care providers and government programs; operational technologies that would help service providers reduce labor costs or prevent medical errors; connective technologies that would help elderly patients communicate with caregivers, families, and medical resources; and telemedicine to provide basic or specialized services to patients in remote locations or to amplify their access to a broad range of medical services.
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From page 23... ...
As valuable as such centers are, students are still largely assigned to and educated in a single department, and, as engineering disciplines have proliferated and clearly delineated specialties within those subdisciplines have evolved, providing a broad engineering education to students has become an enormous challenge. This challenge will only become more daunting as the information on new science and technology continues to explode and new and totally unanticipated technologies, requiring even more specialization, emerge in the future.
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From page 24... ...
Engineering schools should also consider organizational structures that will allow continuous programmatic adaptation to satisfy the professional needs of the engineering workforce that are changing at an increasing rate. Meeting the demands of the rapidly changing workforce calls for reconsideration of standards for faculty qualifications, appointments, and expectations.
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From page 25... ...
The rapidly changing nature of modern knowledge and technology will demand, even more so than today, that engineers so educated must embrace continuing education as a career development strategy with the same fervor that continuous improvement has been embraced by the manufacturing community. REFERENCES American Society of Civil Engineers.
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From page 26... ...
2003. Conference report on Green Engineering: Defining Principles, San Destin, Fl.
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