CH –VI Contemporary Issues in Engineering

1. Globalization and Cross Cultural Issues

2. Public Private Partnership
3. Safety, Risk and Benefit Analysis
4. Development and Environment
5. Conflict and Dispute Management

NRS IOE 1
What is an engineering ?

NRS IOE 2
 What is an engineering ?
• Engineering is the field or discipline, practice, profession and art
that relates to the development, acquisition and application of
technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge about the
understanding, design, development, invention, innovation and use
of materials, machines, structures, systems and processes for
specific purposes. There are of course many definitions.
• The term ‘engineering’ derives from the word ‘engineer’ used in the
1300s for a person who operated a military engine or machine –
such as a catapult or, later, a cannon.
• The word ‘engine’ in turn derives from the Latin ingenium for
ingenuity or cleverness and invention.
• The terms ‘art’ and ‘technical’ are important because engineering
also arranges elements in a way that may, or may not, appeal to
human senses or emotions, and relates also to the Greek technikos
relating to art, craft, skill and practical knowledge and language
regarding a mechanical or scientific subject.
• Prior to the development of the different fields of engineering,
engineering and ‘technical’ were originally closely connected,.
• The military connotation declined giving way to civil engineering,
mechanical, chemical, electrical and electronic and later, fields that
continue to develop with the development of knowledge (apart from
some curious exceptions suchNRSas IOE the Army Corps of Engineers3 in
 Contemporary issues
• Many engineering faculty members struggle with ways to
thoroughly integrate the consideration of contemporary issues
and the connection between engineering and global or societal
impacts into traditional engineering curricula.
• two methods have been used in senior technical elective level
engineering courses, and involve either the development of a
comprehensive public policy for future engineering activities or
the critical analysis of proposed legislation or policies that
impact engineering. In performing their projects, students need
to consider environmental, economic, public perception, and
safety when appropriate.
• The students also gain an appreciation of what they will be able
to do with the knowledge they have acquired in school.

NRS IOE 4
 "Grand Challenges,"
• President Barack Obama greets science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
leaders including National Academy of Engineering President C. D. Mote Jr. during
the 2015 White House Science Fair, in the Map Room of the White House, March
23, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza). In a letter of
commitment presented to President Barack Obama , more than 120 U.S.
engineering schools announced plans to educate a new generation of engineers
expressly equipped to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing
society in the 21st century.

• These "Grand Challenges," identified through initiatives such as the White House
Strategy for American Innovation, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
Grand Challenges for Engineering, and the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals,
• include complex yet critical goals such as engineering better medicines, making
solar energy cost-competitive with coal, securing cyberspace, and advancing
personalized learning tools to deliver better education to more
individuals.
NRS IOE 5
Challenges

NRS IOE 6
Some Engineering issues

NRS IOE 7
NRS IOE 8
 An engineer
• People who are qualified in or practice engineering are described as
engineers, and may be licensed and formally designated as
professional, chartered or incorporated engineers. As noted above,
the broad discipline of engineering includes a range of specialized
disciplines or fields of application and particular areas of
technology. Engineering itself is also differentiated into engineering
science and different areas of professional practice and levels of
activity. The engineering profession, as with other professions, is a
vocation or occupation based upon specialized education and
training, as providers of professional advice and services. Other
features that define occupations as professions are the
establishment of training and university schools and departments,
national and international organizations, accreditation and
licensing, ethics and codes of professional practice. Surveying is
closely professionally connected to engineering, especially civil
engineering, and it is interesting to note that George Washington, Th
omas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were all surveyors before
going into politics.

NRS IOE 9
 Challenge of engineering
• develop public and policy awareness and understanding of
engineering, affirming the role of engineering as the driver
of innovation, social and economic development;
• develop information on engineering, highlighting the
urgent need for better statistics and indicators on
engineering (such as how many and what types of
engineers a country has and needs – which was beyond
the scope of this Report);
• transform engineering education, curricula and teaching
methods to emphasize relevance and a problem-solving
approach to engineering;
• more effectively innovate and apply engineering and
technology to global issues and challenges such as
poverty reduction,
• sustainable development and climate change – and
urgently develop greener engineering and lower carbon
technology.

NRS IOE 10
 proposed new technology should include
• What are alternative ways to accomplish the same
ends? What advantages and disadvantages are
there to the alternatives? What trade-offs would be
necessary between positive and negative side
effects of each?
• Who are the main beneficiaries? Who will receive
few or no benefits? Who will suffer as a result of
the proposed new technology? How long will the
benefits last? Will the technology have other
applications? Whom will they benefit?
• What will the proposed new technology cost to
build and operate? How does that compare to the
cost of alternatives? Will people other than the
beneficiaries have to bear the costs? Who should
underwrite the development costs of a proposed
new technology? How will the costs change over
time? What will the social costs be?
NRS IOE 11
 proposed new technology should include
• What risks are associated with the proposed new
technology? What risks are associated with not
using it? Who will be in greatest danger? What risk
will the technology present to other species of life
and to the environment? In the worst possible
case, what trouble could it cause? Who would be
held responsible? How could the trouble be undone
or limited?
• What people, materials, tools, knowledge, and
know-how will be needed to build, install, and
operate the proposed new technology? Are they
available? If not, how will they be obtained, and
from where? What energy sources will be needed
for construction or manufacture, and also for
operation? What resources will be needed to
maintain, update, and repair
NRS IOE
the new technology?
12
 proposed new technology should include
• What will be done to dispose safely of the new
technology's waste materials?
• As it becomes obsolete or worn out, how will it be
replaced?
• And finally, what will become of the material of
which it was made and the people whose jobs
depended on it?

NRS IOE 13
ethical, social, economic and scientific considerations
• whether certain hazards should be entertained at all;
• how to maximise benefits to society through taking account of
advances in scientific
• knowledge and technology while ensuring that undue burdens with
adverse
• economic and social impact or consequences are not imposed on the
regulated;
• how to achieve the necessary trade-offs between benefits to society
and ensuring that individuals are adequately protected;
• the need to avoid the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on the
freedom of the individual.
• REDUCING RISKS, PROTECTING PEOPLE
• decision-making process

NRS IOE 14
 Risk/ benefit consideration in public
transportation
• Safety (accidents)
• Pollution (use of fossils fuels , lubricants,
maintenance and repair )
• Losses of useful land etc
• Environment and ecological impact

•
15
Trend of accident
 Development
Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

NRS 22
Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

NRS 24
Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

NRS 25
Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

NRS 26
Industrialization vs. protection of the environment
Despite the price run up in the past decade, and notwithstanding the
massive increase in demand from larger and wealthier populations,
metals are more affordable now than they were for most of the past
century.
· There has been a general increase in affordability in both the US (left
hand scale) and India (right hand scale).
· Metals affordability is 10 times higher for the US currently than it is
for India. This spread is about the same as it was in 1900.
· Metals affordability increased by more than an order of magnitude
since 1900 in both the US and India.

NRS 27
Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

NRS 28
Food affordability
 Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

• Industrialization in the name of growth

• loaded tremendous pressure on environment. Industrialization & environment in
the developing countries tries to run hand to hand.
• But knowingly or unknowingly, industrialization ran faster without caring for
environment to win the race.
• The pace of industrialization has increased several fold in last decade.
• Rapid industrialization to meet the public need has detoriated the environment to
its fullest extent during lseveral decade.
• Industrial effluents, polluted air, noise pollution, Green House gas effect etc not
only a concern for human habitat but also a concern for the forthcoming disasters.
• In order to lead a healthy life we are detoriating the environment in shadow.

NRS 30
 Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

• Human comfort in one form for short duration causes discomfort in long run.
• Of the late industries as well as human being at individual understood the basics &
now concentrated on long run & durability.
• As described above, World over, the industries are becoming increasingly
concerned about achieving and demonstrating their environmental performance
because of the growing compulsions from tough legislations and mounting public
pressures.
• Environmental disasters such as Bhopal tragedy, Rhine pollution , Chernobyl
disaster, acid rain damage ,Ozone Layer Depletion has led to growing public
pressures on governments all over the world
• started imposing stringent legislation with severe penalties in environmental issues
environmental & safety system.

NRS 31
 Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

• These standards do not lay down specific environmental performance criteria,

these are system standards.
• Which describes the management of environment based on company’s
environmental policy , objectives and targets defined on the basis of their
significant environmental effects
• Industry is becoming increasingly concerned about achieving and demonstrating
sound environmental performance because of growing compulsions from stringent
legislation and Mounting public pressure.
• not long ago, when the harm caused in environment due to human and industrial
activities was no body’s concern.
• Pollutants affect not only living environment but also social, cultural, political and
aesthetic values. In the recent years there is a growing alertness against this
environmental pollution.

NRS 32
 Industrialization vs. protection of the environment

• The continued increase in the pollution coupled with the industrial revolution has
had the vital impact on natural resources.
• The resultant deterioration of environment and fast depletion of natural resources
threaten the sustainability of economic development.
• One of the most pressing and complex challenges facing by our generation are to
search out a workable synthesis between economic development and
environmental behavior.
• So friends we need to compromise our needs to maintain a harmony between
these two entities
• i.e Industry & Environment.

NRS 33
 Engineers and military

• military engineering, the art and practice of designing

and building military works and of building and
maintaining lines of military transport and
communications. Military engineering is the oldest of
the engineering skills and was the precursor of the
profession of civil engineering.
• Modern military engineering can be divided into three
main tasks: (1) combat engineering, or tactical engineer
support on the battlefield, (2) strategic support by the
execution of works and services needed in the
communications zones, such as the construction of
airfields and depots, the
NRS 34
 civil engineering
civil engineering, the profession of designing and
executing structural works that serve the general
public. The term was first used in the 18th century to
distinguish the newly recognized profession
from military engineering, until then preeminent.
From earliest times, however, engineers have engaged in
peaceful activities, and many of the civil engineering
works of ancient and medieval times—such as the
Roman public baths, roads, bridges, and aqueducts; the
Flemish canals; the Dutch sea defenses; the French
Gothic cathedrals; and many other monuments—reveal
a history of inventive genius and persistent
experimentation.
NRS 35
 Science and technology for medicine

1. discovery of X-rays by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

(1845-1923) in 1895 made it possible to look at internal organs of the
body.
2. it easier to diagnose broken bones, cancer, and other diseases.
3. Willem Einthoven (1860-1927), a Dutch physiologist, invented the first
electrocardiograph.
4. This device records the electrical activity of the heart muscles, making
it possible to monitor for heart problems.
5. In the mid-century catheters—thin hollow tubes that can be used to
drain fluids or put in medicine—were inserted into the heart and liver.
6. have come in imaging, enabling physicians to see the organs without
opening the body.
7. Technologies include ultrasound imaging, computerized tomography
(CT-scans), positron-emission tomography (PET scans), and magnetic
resonance imaging (MRIs). Diagnostics, while still an art, has become a
science too.

NRS 36
 Science and technology for medicine

• Modern medicine can replace several of the body's functions

through the use of artificial organs and can significantly alter
the function of the human body through artificial devices
such as, for example, brain implants and pacemakers.
• The fields of Bionics and medical Bionics are dedicated to the
study of synthetic implants pertaining to natural systems.
• Conversely, some engineering disciplines view the human
body as a biological machine worth studying, and are
dedicated to emulating many of its functions by replacing
biology with technology.
• This has led to fields such as artificial intelligence, neural
networks, fuzzy logic, and robotics.
• There are also substantial interdisciplinary interactions
between engineering and medicine.
NRS 37
 Science and technology for medicine

• Both fields provide solutions to real world problems.

• moving forward before phenomena are completely
understood in a more rigorous scientific sense and therefore
experimentation and empirical knowledge is an integral part
of both.
• Medicine, in part, studies the function of the human body.
• The human body, as a biological machine, has many functions
that can be modeled using Engineering methods.
• The heart for example functions much like a pump, the
skeleton is like a linked structure with levers, the brain
produces electrical signals etc.
• contribution in the field of medicine.

NRS 38
Science and technology for medicine

• These similarities as well as the increasing importance and

application of engineering principles in Medicine, led to the
development of the field of biomedical engineering that uses
concepts developed in both disciplines.
• Newly emerging branches of science, such as Systems biology,
are adapting analytical tools traditionally used for
engineering, such as systems modeling and computational
analysis, to the description of biological systems.
• Science is helping with advanced and effective
antibiotics. Improvements in technology is providing us with
better screening techniques and other diagnostic tools and
imaging techniques. Science and technology have made great
contribution in the field of medicine.
NRS 39
 Science and technology for medicine
• Perhaps no field has been affected so much by technology as
surgery.
• The various scanning technologies have guided the surgeon into
the depths of the body, allowing radical invasive surgeries.
• computers have played a role in the advances of modern
medicine.
• Computers are an important component of scanning technology.
• machines in operating rooms and intensive care units.
• Medical records and drug prescriptions may now be kept and
transmitted in electronic form.
• And the science behind modern medical practice is based on the
research using computers.
• Mapping the human genome would have been impossible without
computers to assemble and analyze the vast and complex array of
data.
NRS 40
 Science and technology for medicine

• Despite all these advances, there are still many

diseases that lack adequate treatments.
• While many illnesses can be prevented, there are
others that still devastate families and communities.
• And there are many people who lack access to
adequate medical care for the diseases that can be
cured or prevented.
• What does the future hold?
NRS 41
 Engineers in international development
Engineers use their knowledge of science, mathematics, and appropriate experience to
find suitable solutions to a problem.
– "Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand
nature.
– Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature.
– Engineers stress invention.
– To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms,
and design something that people can use.
– something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing
program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an
improvement on what is existing.
– Since a design has to be concrete, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and
characteristic numbers.
– Almost all engineers working on new designs find that they do not have all
the needed information.
– Most often, they are limited by insufficient scientific knowledge.
– study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics.
– have to add to the sciences relevant to their profession.
– engineering sciences are born.

NRS 42
 Engineers in international
development
Engineers use their knowledge of
science, mathematics, and
appropriate experience to find
suitable solutions to a problem.
Engineers Without Borders
Engineers Against Poverty
Engineers for Disaster Relief
Engineers for a Sustainable World
Engineers for humanity
NRS 43
Science Without Humanity is sin:
Mahatma Gandhi
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
Science is global. Einstein’s equation, E=mc2, has to reach
everywhere. Science is a beautiful gift to humanity, we should not
distort it. Science does not differentiate between multiple races.
Abdul Kalam
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have
guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no
longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent
allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to
make this world a fit place to live in, instead.
Bertrand Russell
I am compelled to fear that science will be used to promote the
power of dominant groups rather NRS IOE than to make men happy.49
 Issues
• A student was killed while 14 were injured when a wall
collapsed over makeshift classrooms in Pokhara on
Thursday.The wall of the compound belonging to Tibetan
refugee camp in Chhorepatan fell over the make shift
classrooms of Bhupu Sainik School at 12:15 pm, killing 14-
year old Sanjaya Gayak, according to Chief District Office
(CDO) of Kaski, Krishna Bahadur Raut. Additionally, 14
others including 4 teachers and 10 students sustained
serious injuries and are currently receiving treatment at
Gandaki Medical College and other hospitals in Pokhara,
Raut informed. The incident took place when the students
of classes 8, 9 and 10 were sitting for the quarterly
examinations. Raut said the wall might have collapsed after
becoming weak due to the incessant rainfall on Wednesday.
Published on: Thursday, July 16, 2015 14:55:22
NRS IOE 51
•

Analysis step