EMPOWERING ENGINEERS

DOES IT MEAN THINKING POSITIVELY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT?

Er. Satya Narayan Shahi
B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering (India) MS (Manufacturing Engineering & Management (UK) Email: er.snshah@gmail.com; snshah@dor.gov.np April 2011

To address the issues of empowering engineers to fulfill their roles and responsibilities in national development Nepal Engineers Association (NEA) is organizing a three days National Convention of Engineers on April 11-13, 2011. The main theme of the great event for the engineers is Empowering Engineers for Prosperous Nepal. NEA has been organizing such conventions in every two years on relevant issues and forwarding the resolutions to the concerned authorities for their implementation. All the conventions, so far, have been given utmost importance by the state. The inauguration and closing ceremony have been addressed by the head of the state or the head of the government. This year also the convention has been planned to be inaugurated by Rt Honorable Prime Minister Mr. Jhal Nath Khanal and closing address by leader of the opposition Honorable Ram Chandra Poudel . The forth coming convention carries great importance with respect to the previous ones, especially, when the country is facing political instability resulting multi facet disastrous outcomes. The theme and sub themes are so selected that not only engineers but the whole population of the country are expected to be benefited in a great deal. The sub themes of the convention are Political Empowering, Legal Empowering, Institutional Empowering, Managerial Empowering, Social Empowering, Entrepreneurial Empowering, and Technical Empowering. The attracting part of the convention is that some of the engineers turned politicians are also expected to present their papers to share their views and experiences of their respective political lives. Engineers use their knowledge of science, mathematics, and appropriate experience to find suitable solutions to a problem. Engineering is considered an art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions. Creating an appropriate mathematical model of a problem allows them to analyze it, and to test potential solutions. Most simply, it can also be said the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and the convenience of people. In its modern form engineering involves people, money, materials, machines, and energy. Engineers being professionals bear great responsibilities for National development activities. They are definitely one of the prime drivers for the development. In other words they are the main actors to bring changes in the existing resources of the country. By its very nature engineering is bound up with society and human behavior. Every product or construction used by modern society will have been influenced by engineering design. Engineering design is a very powerful tool to make changes to environment, society and economies, and its application brings with it a great responsibility. Hence, engineering discipline is very strong and skilled driver in a social context.
1

Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand the nature where as Engineers, in most cases, try to make things that do not exist in the nature. Engineers always try to work on invention. To substantiate an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. This is how Engineers have been able to create civilizations and shown their cultural presence. History gives many examples of such creations from many parts of the globe. Modern medicine can replace several parts of the human body to keep functions intact through the use of artificial organs and can significantly alter the function of the human body through artificial devices such as bone implants and pacemakers etc. Some engineering disciplines view the human body as a biological machine worth studying, and are dedicated to imitate many of its functions by replacing biology with technology. This has led to fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics. There are connections between engineering and art, for example architecture, landscape architecture and industrial design and indirect in others. In Political science the term engineering has been borrowed for the study of the subjects of Social engineering and Political engineering, which deal with forming political and social structures using engineering methodology coupled with political science principles. Another way in which the engineer can contribute to the life of the community is to enter in to politics. There are reasons why that should change, and that will facilitate a new role for engineers. It is increasingly important that engineers play a direct role in political life because of the increasing complexity that is created. Engineers have too often chosen the isolated role of the designer, happily leaning over a drafting board and solving technical problems. Today society needs more of the gifts that engineers can bring using their enormous strengths. Some of those strengths can be listed as (1) Engineers understand numbers. Quantification is one of their strengths. Many problems require accurate and meaningful quantifying. (2) Engineers tend to speak plainly. When they understand a situation they tend to or want to explain it as it is, not as someone might want to hear it. (3) Engineers are inherently problem solvers. They like to tackle a tough problem, and come up with an answer that helps someone out. They usually bring a straightforward approach to situations. (4) Engineers are particularly able to help set standards, devise codes, regulations and eventually set up workable systems. (5) Engineers understand risk, and are often able to quantify it effectively. In the present situation, the society increasingly needs such professionals to help them to lead better life. For this, some sort of trainings or restructuring engineering education may be required so that they learn something about the non-technical areas that are of increasing importance. Some of those area may be -An ethical sense of right and wrong, A sensitivity to health and safety, as well as environmental impact, Manufacturability, sustainability, usability, A passion for lifelong learning, Social, political and economic skills, Compassion for those who are in need. This is how the engineers can be empowered to serve the nation. Empowerment should be taken as continuous process for the improvement of the efficient delivery of the engineers. Empowerment can be mathematically seen as Engineers + Education + Participation = Empowerment. To be an empowered engineer the first two
2

components can be achieved by the person himself but the third component Participation is dependent on the environmental factors like government, society, culture, attitude etc. Engineering schools should develop curriculum to address the needs of the most destitute people. This is unfortunate because the needs of the developing world for engineering solutions are likely to increase as population grows. Engineers should contribute to the relief of the hunger, exploitation, injustice, and pain of people trying to survive day by day through devising appropriate technology for them. Because appropriate technology is often perceived as "low tech" and unimportant, it is not usually addressed in engineering education or university research. Creating a sustainable society that provides a safe, secure, healthy, productive, and sustainable life for all peoples should be a priority for the engineering profession. Engineers have an obligation to meet the basic needs of all human beings for water, sanitation, food, health, and energy, as well as to protect cultural and natural diversity. Educating engineers to become facilitators of sustainable development, appropriate technology, and social and economic changes represents one of the greatest challenges faced by the engineering profession today. Finally, it is worth quoting a story about professionals. A lawyer, a physician, an engineer, and a politician were arguing about whose profession was the oldest. The lawyer insisted that law was the oldest: "Cain killed Abel, and there must have been a trial, so law is the oldest profession." "No, no," replied the physician. "God created Eve from Adam's rib, and removing the rib required surgery. So medicine is the oldest profession." The engineer demurred: "In just seven days, God created the heavens and the earth out of chaos. That was a monumental engineering task, so engineering is the oldest profession." The politician burst in: "But who created the chaos?"

Er. Shah is a Mechanical Engineer working in the Department of Roads as a Training Chief. He is also a member of Board of Governors of Nepal Engineering Council.