Engineers, development, and engineering education: From national to sustainable community development

TLDR

In 2007, Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug highlighted the growing scientific focus on global poverty and development, underscoring both the increasing attention to sustainability and the complex, contested role of scientists and engineers in development history. The paper aims to chart the history of engineering practice and education in relation to development, sustainable development, and community development, guiding educators toward addressing environmental protection and community needs. It does so by reviewing the evolution of engineering practice and education within the contexts of development, sustainable development, and community development.

Abstract

In October 2007, Norman Borlaug wrote in Science magazine that 'more than 200 science journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish papers on global poverty and human development – a collaborative effort to increase awareness, interest, and research about these important issues of our time'. Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and father of the green revolution, was demonstrating that the scientific community is at last taking questions seriously of sustainability and development. Borlaug's own contentious role in the history of 'development,' however, points to the complexity of the term and the contested role scientists and engineers have played in that history. As engineering education initiatives incorporating sustainable development practices proliferate, it becomes ever more important to understand the historical lessons of development and the contributions of engineers. This paper outlines a history of engineering practice and education in relationship to development, sustainable development, and community development to help those committed to making engineering education relevant to environmental protection and community needs to better understand the challenges ahead.