ASME Releases Report on Future Trends in Mechanical Engineering
August 25, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) released 2028 Vision for Mechanical Engineering, a report based on the April 2008 proceedings of the Global Summit on the Future of Mechanical Engineering.
The ASME report details how mechanical engineers can be at the forefront of developing new technology for environmental remediation, farming and food production, housing, transportation, safety, security, health care and water resources.
It also shows that mechanical engineers will need to collaborate with partners worldwide in order to apply innovative solutions and best practices to improve quality of life for all people.
Among the challenges ahead, sustainable development will be a shared vision in the worldwide technical community, according to ASME, involving collaboration tools that allow mechanical engineers to tap into the collective wisdom of an organization or network of stakeholders.
Collaboration also will facilitate the development of innovations in nanotechnology, biotechnology and large-scale systems.
According to the report, nanotechnology and biotechnology will dominate technological development in the next 20 years and will be incorporated into all aspects of technology. Nano-bio will provide the building blocks that future engineers will use to solve pressing problems in diverse fields including medicine, energy, water management, aeronautics, agriculture and environmental management.
Other topics examined at the summit and discussed in the report include intellectual property, engineering education and lifelong learning, diversity, virtual design environments and home-based fabrication.
The report also detailed the engineer of the future. Engineers will be able to act as independent operators interacting with colleagues around the world and can design at home with advanced computer-aided design (CAD) systems or in collaboration with their global colleagues in virtual worlds. They will be able to use home-based fabrication technology to test many of their designs.
As mechanical engineering looks to 2028, ASME experts said leaders will value people with diverse expertise and experience and will look at grand challenges as a rally cry for a profession that is ready to make the difficult doable.
Source: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).