Engineering education in sustainable development

About the Guest EditorsDr Didac Ferrer-Balas has been an industrial engineer since 1997. He obtained a doctorate in materials science in 2001 from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Since the year 2000, he has been the Coordinator of the Environment Plan of UPC, and runs an Environmental Office with ten people and has undertaken a large number of projects in curriculum development, environmental education, management, research or communication. In 2004, he organized the 2nd Engineering Education in Sustainable Development (EESD) Conference and he is currently engaged in the 3rd EESD Conference in Lyon. E-mail: didac.ferrer@upc.edu

Dr Karel Mulder received an MSc from Twente University (1987), and a doctorate from Groningen University (1992) in Business Administration. Since 1992, he has been employed by Delft University of Technology (DUT) as senior lecturer. He founded the Technology and Society Department of The Royal Dutch Institute of Engineers. His research interests focus on technological innovation and sustainable development. Since 1998, he has been DUT's project leader to implement sustainable development in all engineering programs. He organized the 1st and 2nd EESD Conferences and he is currently also engaged in the 3rd EESD Conference in Lyon. E-mail: k.f.mulder,tbm.tudelft.nl

Engineering education in sustainable development

Everybody agrees today on the fact that technology is a critical issue to be dealt with when trying to face today’s global sustainability challenges. Therefore, the way we educate future technologists is a key factor in defining the role of technology in these challenges. This was the starting point of the first Engineering Education in Sustainable Development (EESD) conference, held in Delft University of Technology in 2002 (www.odo.tudelft.nl/conference/index.html),which was followed by EESD II in Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona,in October 2004.

Since EESD I in Delft, a shift from environmentally focused issues towards a wider (and more social) concept of sustainability has been detected in the papers that have been presented and the discussions that have taken place in Barcelona. The organizers strongly believe that this is a good sign. Sustainable development is not a technological problem as such but a societal challenge that needs the contribution of engineers. Engineers must learn to be susceptible to non-technical issues, and must be able to deal with social issues. The world needs engaged engineers that are willing to contribute to sustainable development and able to develop and implement solutions that are socially acceptable.

This special issue on “Engineering education in sustainable development”contains six papers that were presented at the conference with the same title that took place at Barcelona, 27-29 October 2004 (http://congress.cimne.upc.es/eesd2004/).

It starts with an introductory paper, by Fokkema et al., which presents the challenge of sustainable development and the way in which technology can address that challenge. It draws conclusions regarding the task of engineering education to train engineers to face this challenge.

Fenner et al. examine the latest stage in a process of change aimed at introducing concepts of sustainable development into the activities of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, UK. Lundholm from Stockholm University, Sweden, explores and describes the students’ interpretations of, and learning about, ecology and environmental issues. She shows the way values and emotions become an aspect of the learning process and reveals the students’ difficulties in differentiating between values and descriptions of phenomena.

Lourdel et al. from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne, France, developed a tool based on cognitive maps that can evaluate the student’s understanding of sustainable development concepts. This paper was awarded the first edition of the Leo Jansen Prize for the best EESD conference paper. Paten et al. from Griffith University, Australia, present the positive steps taken by Australia’s peak engineering body, the Institution of Engineers Australia (Engineers Australia), in considering accreditation requirements for university engineering courses and its responsibility to ensure the inclusion of sustainability education material through “The natural edge project”.

Finally, Perez-Foguet et al. from Technical University of Catalonia,Spain, treat the human development approach and the developing countries issue by showing the experience of a Civil Engineering School while pushing the specific program “Promoting development education 1999-2002”.

One of the main outputs of the EESD II conference was the Barcelona Declaration (http://congress.cimne.upc.es/eesd2004/)on Engineering Education in Sustainable Development (published in the Features section on this issue). This declaration summarizes the aim of the work that has been carried out during the conference. Basically, the declaration refers to the capacities today’s engineers should acquire, the requirements that these impose on education, and the changes that are needed from the involved institutions. From its words one can derive the new dimensions to be considered in engineering, essentially linked to ethical, social and cultural issues, in addition to a logistic and systemic vision.

Over 230 participants contributed to EESD, a considerable growth related to the 192 participants of EESD I. We are pleased to announce that EESD II and EESD IV conferences will take place in the cities of Lyon and Graz in 2006 and 2008 respectively. We are convinced that they will show a continued growth.

Didac Ferrer-Balas, Karel MulderGuest Editors