Engineering in a changed world

In 2014 EESG set out to peer into the future to see what the practice and profession of engineering might look like in a world that’s likely to be very different from today.

We know that this is a challenging task, we are peering into the unknown, and the process we are applying is new and nobody has extensive experience of it, so we expected some hiccups. This programme is still in progress, we do not have final outputs yet, and we are feeling our way through to ensure that the needs of all participants are met and that the programme delivers the benefits intended for IMechE members and for society at large.

EESG is involved in the engineering that is needed to deliver sustainability, meaning “the capacity for long term continuity”, so we are interested in what engineering will be like assuming that society does achieve this capacity for long term continuity.

We know that a number of key elements of our “operating environment” are changing; the availability of affordable and abundant energy is diminishing causing energy challenges, and the capacity of our environment to absorb emissions is diminishing causing climate change. 

We implemented a three-stage process; first to find out what questions we should be asking about the future, second to undertake some small research projects to answer those questions, and then to disseminate our findings.

So far we have completed the first stage; we invited a number of people to an “expert workshop” to identify which things we need to know about the future that we don’t know, which questions to ask, which answers will help us to know what will “Engineering in a changed world” be like.

In EESG we recognise that there are three inseparable aspects of sustainability the Environment, Society and the Economy. Engineers sit somewhere in the middle of all three, but we do not have the specialist expertise in each of these areas. Therefore we invited experts to the workshop who represent our peer professionals working in the environment, society and the economy, as well as engineers. The objective of this mix was to ensure joined up thinking across disciplines, and to enable engineers to learn from professionals outside engineering. We will continue this approach through our other work.

The expert workshop took place in July 2014 at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, a dedicated conference centre and hotel in Milton Keynes.. It was a two day fully facilitated workshop. 25 people took part, so we have 5 groups addressing each step of the process through the two days:

Question 1

Which things (circumstances, events, etc):

 A).                  Have led us to where we are today

 B).                  Have enabled engineers to do the things they have done.

Question 2

Knowing where we are / current situation: What specific things are happening now that are going in: 

 A).                  The right direction

 B).                  The wrong direction

Question 3

Where are we going if we do not make any changes?

What are the unchallenged assumptions?

What will the constraints be?

Question 4

Describe a desirable future situation:

Environmental

Social

Economic / Financial

Any questions that arise

Question 5

BACK CASTING

What changes do we have to make to get to the desirable future situation ?

Question 6

TRIGGER EVENTS

What could we use to initiate our change process?

Question 7

Compose 5 key questions based on the workshop findings which could form the basis for IMechE exploration projects.

During the autumn of 2014 the raw outputs were transcribed and key themes were identified. An interim report was presented to participants for review in November 2014, and yielded important feedback. We are in the process of integrating this feedback.

Next steps

The organisers are currently reviewing the thematic analysis and the raw outputs to identify which key questions should be pursued by EESG for Phase 2 of the programme.