Engineering and engineering education are an important part of our future. A recent National Academy of Engineering (NAE) report entitled The Engineer of 2020 sees a dynamic new world evolving. It says that in 2020 innovation in technology will continue to escalate, the world will be interconnected, engineers will work in multidisciplinary teams, and social, cultural, political and economic forces will impact on this innovation. Opportunities not even thought of today will arise through new developments in nanotechnology, biotechnology and high-performance computing.
Another survey by the American Society for Mechanical Engineering (ASMA), The State of Mechanical Engineering: Today and Beyond also has some interesting things to say about the future. One of the findings is that engineers believe they will require competencies and skills way beyond what is offered in current degree programmes.
New skills
They say that traditional engineering disciplines will continue to be a cornerstone but skills in communication combined with computing will be critical for success. The future engineer will need strong analytical skills, practical ingenuity, creativity, good communication skills, economic, business and management knowledge, social responsibility, leadership, high ethical standards, professionalism, dynamism, agility, resilience, flexibility and the ability to work successfully in global, borderless markets. Whew – quite a tall order!
New technologies
Respondents identified energy as the most important engineering challenge over the next two decades. Close behind were bioengineering, nanotechnology and water. They felt that technologies like motion simulation, animation and virtual prototype creation are still cutting edge today but in future will play a much stronger role. More mature technologies such as 3D CAD, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis and project management were also seen to be growth areas.
A greater role for engineers
Overall, engineers were optimistic about their ability to meet global challenges over the next 10 to 20 years and expected to work in increasingly interdisciplinary teams of professionals to solve challenges like making solar energy economical, providing energy from fusion, providing access to clean water, reverse-engineering the brain and securing cyberspace. They reported that they look forward to a greater leadership role in bringing socially responsible, commercially successful projects to the market.
To prepare the engineer of 2020 for this challenging future, the NAE did an in-depth study on how engineering education will have to change. Among the many recommendations were thoughts that the master’s degree should become the recognised engineering professional degree and engineering undergraduate programmes should introduce interdisciplinary learning.
Here in South Africa
All this is very exciting and also quite daunting. The challenges are huge, but here in South Africa, industry is doing a great deal to make a difference to the state of engineering education. Motion Control has covered a wide range of initiatives aimed at meeting these challenges. They range from mentorship programmes and learnerships at FET colleges, such as the one at Sparrow College sponsored by Pirtek, to competitions such as the Pneudrive Challenge sponsored by SEW-Eurodrive and Pneumax, the Siemens’ Cyber Junkyard, the Sasol Solar Challenge and TUT’s FIRST Lego League. Added to this are initiatives aimed at attracting young people to engineering such as ECSA’s Engenius and Festo’s Bionic Learning Network. I was recently lucky enough to see Festo’s SmartBird and BionicOpter flying around on the UCT campus and they had the students’ undivided attention, not to mention the delegates at the IFAC conference where these flying robots circled the auditorium.
Energy saving is also inherent in virtually all new developments that we cover. At the forefront is Schneider Electric, the experts in energy management. Schneider’s recent Xperience Efficiency interactive expo was an impressive and sophisticated display, where some of the company’s world drive experts shared their knowledge. Motion Control spoke to a few key players to find out more about Schneider’s new drives platform.
The continuous technical advances in the hydraulics industry are increasing the need for monitoring of hydraulic systems, and in our cover story Hydromobile presents its new range of hydraulic flowmeters, alarms and transmitters. These are becoming standard in the design and building of power packs and other hydraulically operated systems.
Sadly our Jim Pinto column is coming to an end as he is moving his focus onto less technical areas; but we aim to keep following up interesting developments related to motion control. Two of my favourites this time are a story about tiny swarm robots that can collaborate and organise themselves into complex shapes, and the latest news from the Bloodhound project, where the EJ200 jet engine was fitted for the first time. I can hardly wait for 2016 when the Bloodhound team makes its attempt to reach 1600 km/h.
Kim Roberts
Editor
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