Description
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This ProcessIndustries Division Event has been organised by the Process Industries Division Centres in the North West and Yorkshire Regions and the Aberdeen Area, part of the Process Industries Community
Exploring the collaborative tradition in engineering; how engineers have, and do, collaborate; why it is important to tackling the world’s most pressing problems; what the key challenges to international collaboration are and how to address them.
In 2022, the IMechE’s 175th anniversary year, the Institution launched its report‘A Manifesto for the Future of International Collaborative Engineering’由蒂姆·福克斯博士。报告看了challenges and opportunities for international engineering collaboration, especially in the light of the covid-19 pandemic, climate change and emerging geopolitical trends.
Tackling the world’s most pressing global challenges will require increased international engineering collaboration across many disciplines to develop sustainable solutions.
Solving global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and future pandemics will require worldwide collaboration in contradiction of the current trends towards nationalism and isolationism.
This report explores the nature of engineering collaboration, in the context of our experience of the covid-19 pandemic, and considers how engineers have a unique role in integrating scientific, social and economic knowledge into holistic approaches.
It features three case studies on collaboration during the pandemic- Fujifilm’s work to support vaccine manufacture; the University College London (UCL) – venture project to develop a new breathing aid for covid-19 patients; and the experience at Brunel University of working with engineering students exclusively online.
In all three cases, the legacy is a previously unthinkable way of collaborating to achieve high standards of engineering and creating a new approach to innovation which has yielded impressive results.
The key benefit is access to technology, approaches, systems that are particularly high in one country but not in another.
The report calls on governments to develop and implement strategies to drive greater international collaboration, supporting countries which do not have the resources to design and implement the systems level programmes needed to solve global challenges.
The role of governments is to create an environment that engenders, nurtures and encourages systems collaboration, to remove barriers to collaboration and to participate at a high level in collaborative structures that encourage international engagement. There is also a government role in actively encouraging academia and business to collaborate.
Engineering solutions to global challenges must be “culturally sensitive” to be as beneficial as possibleand Managers must have the right skills to lead teams working across different cultures.
From a broad social context, each country has different culture norms and therefore a different ways of implementing solutions, so to deliver successful global solutions we need to understand how they’ll be used and implemented locally.
The manifesto recommends:
1. “Governments develop and implement international collaboration strategies that drive industrial, business and public sector collaboration to meet the 21st century’s major global challenges.
2.“专业bodies for engineering need to lead the preparation of engineers at all stages in their professional journey to meet the challenges of effective and efficient international collaboration.
3. “Industry, business, and the public sector must recognise the importance of international collaboration in tackling major global issues and empower managers to support their engineers in meeting the challenges of collaborative working.”