Hellokitty

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ESSAY REPORT
Question Attempted:

“The role of engineers will be critical in fulfilling these demands at various scales, ranging from small remote communities to large urban areas (megacities), mostly in the developing world. In what ways can engineers contribute to overcoming human development problems? Illustrate your argument by outlining at least three (3) specific skills required of engineers to undertake this kind of work in improving people’s lives.”
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Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 SKILLS REQUIRED BY ENGINEERS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD 3 2.1 COLLABORATION WITH THE COMMUNITY 3 2.2 WHOLESOME KNOWLEDGE 4 2.3 DIVERSITY IN APPROACH 4
3 CONCLUSION 5
REFLECTION 6
BIBLIOGRAPHY 7

INTRODUCTION

The challenges faced by the modern world are truly immense. According to United Nation Development Programme’s Human Development Report (2006), almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day and about 1.6 billion people without electricity. These human development issues exist all across the globe more acutely in developing nations. The need of the hour is to engineer a long lasting and sustainable solution to these problems. This sort of human development engineering is different from “conventional” engineering where blue prints are made with all statistical data easily available.

SKILLS REQUIRED BY ENGINEERS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

Fostering human development through engineering brings with it its own set of challenges. Engineers not only need to be technically sound but also need to have more than a “working” knowledge of economics, society, geography, culture to name a few. Interpersonal skills, dealing with government institutions, partnering with the local community is key with these projects which mostly take place in rural or semi-urban areas of developing nations. On the practical side of things, engineers working in such areas that are not well connected to well equipped cities should be extra cautious at every stage of the project from design to implementation. Moreover, due to the lack of verified information readily available for some of these areas as well as their inaccessibility, engineers should be diverse in their solutions. Flexible alternatives must be thought of and incorporated from the start. These points are further explored below.

COLLABORATION WITH THE COMMUNITY
An engineer should be well versed with the existing problems, needs, and skills available – technical or non-technical, within a community. Being respectful of the culture, people and environment of a community is the only way to devise a robust solution. Multi-cultural collaboration is a fundamental skill that engineers should imbibe. This is extremely necessary, as the success of a project is defined by how well the community adopts, utilises and maintains it. Consequently, more often it can be seen that skill training and empowerment is part of the project plan and its implementation. “Find out what people do best and teach them to do it better” (E.F. Schumacher, 2003) summarizes this. An engineer should be prepared for this if the need be. He also has to ensure that the materials being used in the project aren’t too complicated to be used with and can be readily sourced.

WHOLESOME KNOWLEDGE
According to Maddocks, Dickens & Crawford (2002) attributes, skills and qualities of an engineer can be classified into the five following categories: * Knowledge and Understanding * Intellectual Abilities * Practical Skills * General Transferable Skills * Qualities.

‘Knowledge and understanding’ includes skills such as specialisation, management techniques, ethical responsibilities, social outcomes and awareness. Maddocks et al. goes on to describe intellectual abilities as being able to solve engineering problems & design systems through innovative thinking using math, science, analysing and interpreting data, risks, costs, safety, quality and experimenting if the above is not readily available. On the other hand, practical approach through software, laboratory and workshop equipment, development and application of safe systems of work should be part of the skillset of an engineer. Furthermore, communication, written as well as oral, time management and continuing professional development with a steep life long learning process can be attributed to transferable skills.

To sum up, Maddocks et al. lists the qualities of an engineer as being creative, analytical, innovative, motivated, independent, intellectual and enthusiastic. Some might argue that ‘transferable’ skills might be a ‘general’ trait that anyone can imbibe but it is noteworthy that these skills can make the difference between improving lives or not.
DIVERSITY IN APPROACH
Engineers should follow a “repertoire of best practices such as assessment, design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and follow up”(Amadel et al. 2009, p.1087-1105)

Working with low to middle income countries one realises that capital is not always readily available for investment in best materials, accurate data collection, trained human resource, proper tools etc. Engineers some times have to follow the ‘hit and trial’ method and take the best guess right from the ‘drawing board’ stage. Provisions and flexibility must be kept in ones blueprints for factors such as weather phenomena, topography, local skills and the like. According to the United States Census Bureau (2009). “In their working lifetimes, engineering students now attending college can expect to see a 50% increase in world population, major global warming phenomena, and major losses in biological and cultural diversity on Earth.” This reinforces that engineers must diversify and have alternatives ready if they hit a roadblock during the and after the completion of their project. It will also be wrong to believe that a solution to a problem applied in one place can be replicated exactly for another locale. Amadel et al. goes on to say that “One size solution does not fit all”. This is especially true for Human Development Engineering.

CONCLUSION

A simple search on the Internet for “engineering” gives the result, “Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. It may encompass using insights to conceive, model and scale an appropriate solution to a problem or objective.” (Wikipedia.org, “Engineering”, para1)

To sum up, Engineering for human development requires engineers to not only be proficient in their field of expertise but to also be compassionate, caring and respectful to the community, its tradition, culture, religion and people, for whose problem they are developing a solution as they are the ‘end-users’ who are adopting and maintaining the systems that engineers have created. Human Development Engineers should fulfil all the criteria laid out by Maddocks et al. as listed above as this is a minimum requirement to ensure that they are able to develop long lasting, successful projects which can actually make a difference on the overall quality of life of the community. Finally, they need to be diverse in their approach and remember one solution does not fit all.

* REFLECTION

Writing and compiling this essay report has been an immensely enriching experience. The numerous amounts of articles researched, read, refined and compiled for this report has been extremely useful for me as a first year engineering student. All the skills listed above converge when I relate this to our current challenge i.e. the Engineers Without Borders Plan Timor Leste Challenge. Our challenge is to design and implement a system to be used in Codo a small town near Lospalos in the district of Lautem in Timor-Leste.

Timor is a young, small country and has recently gained independence. The country is facing immense challenges, like any other developing country, in coming to terms with basic necessities such as water, electricity, sanitation, transport etc. Data is not available readily for Timor, and even if it is, data for Codo is minuscule, we as engineers-to-be have to be really careful with our design based on data available. Keeping flexibilities is a must for us, as we ourselves would not be implementing the project on-site. For example, Timorese people have their own culture and tradition which includes some water sources being sacred to them, this is important as they would not like for us to construct around that site and if this is the case going with the alternative would be inevitable. We also have to look into providing basic training to the community so that they can do basic tasks such as measuring how much water was collected for a rain-water harvesting system.

Being a part of the Faculty of an Engineering at University of Sydney I can be sure of gaining wholesome knowledge in specialisation, research, analysis, using mathematical, research and IT tools, setting up experiments etc. The diversity of my courses reassure me that by the time I graduate I would be able to take calculated risks, manage costs effectively, work with constraints and create safe and effective solutions to human development problems. Being part of a multi-cultural, multi talented team for the EWB Challenge will be an excellent experience to test my teamwork skills and work on them, if required. I am enthusiastic about my subjects and am motivated to work towards improving the quality of life in Codo.

The entire writing and compiling experience helped me relate to all that was said in the lectures and the slides presented in ENGG1061. I now realise the importance of ‘musts’ and ‘wants’ according to the K-T Analysis and think about alternatives. Self-evaluation through asking questions such as: Does the solution address the problem, meets the need of clients or if it is a permanents solution or a temporary solution and if all the environmental, cultural, commercial consequences need to be attended to as well.

* BIBLIOGRAPHY

(Amadel, B., Sandekian, R., and Thomas, E., ‘A Model for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects’, Sustainability 2009, 1(4), 1087-1105)

Small is Working: Technology for Poverty Reduction; United Nations Educational, Scientific and 
Cultural Organization: Paris, France, 2003. U.S. Census Bureau 2009, Population Division International Data Base, http://www.census.gov/ipc/ www/idb/worldpopgraph.html accessed 27 March 2013
‘Engineering, Wikipedia.org, wiki article, viewed March 27 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering
Johnston, R 2013, ENGG1061, Problem Solving, lecture 1, week 4: Evaluate the Solution, lecture pdf document, viewed 27 March 2013, https://elearning.sydney.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1799010-dt-content-rid-10364277_1/courses/2013_Semester_1_ENGG1061/Engg1061%20ProblemSolving%20%2713.pdf

STUDENT PLAGIARISM: COURSE WORK - POLICY AND PROCEDURE
COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

INDIVIDUAL / COLLABORATIVE WORK
I/We certify that:

(1) I/We have read and understood the University of Sydney Student Plagiarism: Coursework Policy and Procedure;

(2) I/We understand that failure to comply with the Student Plagiarism: Coursework Policy and Procedure can lead to the University commencing proceedings against me/us for potential student misconduct under Chapter 8 of the University of Sydney By-Law 1999 (as amended);

(3) this Work is substantially my/our own, and to the extent that any part of this Work is not my/our own I/we have indicated that it is not my/our own by Acknowledging the Source of that part or those parts of the Work.

Name(s):

STUDENT JB

Date:

28 MARCH 2013

Bibliography: (Amadel, B., Sandekian, R., and Thomas, E., ‘A Model for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects’, Sustainability 2009, 1(4), 1087-1105) Small is Working: Technology for Poverty Reduction; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: Paris, France, 2003. U.S