The New Engineer

The image and status of the engineering profession is declining as the public identifies engineers with controversial and environmentally damaging technologies. Engineers are too often characterised as being male, socially inept, politically naive and aligned with selfserving developers. They are finding themselves at the centre of controversies they don't fully understand. Increasingly engineers are subjected to law suits because the public, which has an unrealistic perception of the nature of engineering, blames them when things go wrong.

Engineering appears to be at a turning point. It is evolving from an occupation that provides employers and clients with competent technical advice to a profession that serves the community in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Increasingly engineers themselves and their professional societies aspire to be broadbased professionals. Employers are also requiring more from their engineering employees than technical proficiency.

Engineering in the modern world involves many social skills. There is also an increasing need for engineers to choose technological solutions that are appropriate to their social context and to give consideration to the longterm impacts of their work, if only because the work of engineers can have wideranging effects. Today's technologies can impact on the whole globe and they can impact on future generations. Never before has there been such a moral imperative to consider what may have been thought of as unintended consequences in the past.

This book sets out to provide a resource to help engineering students understand the social dimensions and context of engineering work as well as the social role and responsibilities of the new engineer. Part One canvasses the issues and develops the debates central to a discussion of engineering in contemporary society. Part Two shows how those debates are put into action with a detailed case study highlighting most of the key concerns for the new engineer, while Part Three develops the general discussion about engineers and the environment, engineering ethics, and engineers at risk. It also seeks to stimulate discussion within the profession about the qualities of the new engineer and to provide insights to nonengineers who have an interest in the shaping and implementation of technology in modern society.

Technology Review

Metascience (pdf)

New Zealand Engineering (pdf)

Introduction

Part I Engineering - past and present

1. The traditional engineer
   Science and Status
   Choosing Engineering as a Career
2. The engineering profession
   Career Structure
   Professionalism
   Professional vs Business Values
   Appendix
3. Engineering design and philosophy
   Preindustrial Design
   Modern Design Methods
   Engineering as Experimentation
4. Development of technology
   Technological Choice
   Technology as a Social Activity
   Technological Paradigms and Trajectories

Part II Sewerage case study

5. Cleaning up the cities
   The Battle for Sewers
   WaterCarriage vs Dry Conservancy
   Government and Social Control
6. From sewage farms to sedimentation tanks
   Sewage Experiments
   Trends in Sewerage Treatment
   A Sewerage Engineering Paradigm?
   Prospects for Change
7. Controversy - Sydney`s beaches in crisis
   Ocean Outfall Predictions
   Bioaccumulation Studies of Sydney Fish
   Manipulating the Media
8. Technology and regulation
   The Basis for Environmental Standards
   Influencing Technological' Change
   The Cost to Industry

Part III The new engineer and social responsibility

9. Technology and the environment
   Technology as a Cause of Environmental Problems
   Appropriate Technology
   Clean Technology
   Appendices
10. The role of experts
    The Basis of Expert Authority
    Defining Decisions as Technical
    Public Participation
11. Engineering ethics
    A Social Contract
    Environmental Impact Assessment
    Support for Ethical Engineers
    Appendices
12. Engineers at risk?
    Risk Assessment and Communication
    Incinerator Case Study
    Conclusions
13. The new engineer