Engineering and War


Book Description

This book investigates the close connections between engineering and war, broadly understood, and the conceptual and structural barriers that face those who would seek to loosen those connections. It shows how military institutions and interests have long influenced engineering education, research, and practice and how they continue to shape the field in the present. The book also provides a generalized framework for responding to these influences useful to students and scholars of engineering, as well as reflective practitioners. The analysis draws on philosophy, history, critical theory, and technology studies to understand the connections between engineering and war and how they shape our very understandings of what engineering is and what it might be. After providing a review of diverse dimensions of engineering itself, the analysis shifts to different dimensions of the connections between engineering and war. First, it considers the ethics of war generally and then explores questions of integrity for engineering practitioners facing career decisions relating to war. Next, it considers the historical rise of the military-industrial-academic complex, especially from World War II to the present. Finally, it considers a range of responses to the militarization of engineering from those who seek to unsettle the status quo. Only by confronting the ethical, historical, and political consequences of engineering for warfare, this book argues, can engineering be sensibly reimagined.




Engineering Your Future


Book Description

Round out your technical engineering abilities with the business know-how you need to succeed Technical competency, the "hard side" of engineering and other technical professions, is necessary but not sufficient for success in business. Young engineers must also develop nontechnical or "soft-side" competencies like communication, marketing, ethics, business accounting, and law and management in order to fully realize their potential in the workplace. This updated edition of Engineering Your Future is the go-to resource on the nontechnical aspects of professional practice for engineering students and young technical professionals alike. The content is explicitly linked to current efforts in the reform of engineering education including ABET's Engineering Criteria 2000, ASCE's Body of Knowledge, and those being undertaken by AAEE, AIChE and ASME. The book treats essential nontechnical topics you'll encounter in your career, like self-management, interpersonal relationships, teamwork, project and total quality management, design, construction, manufacturing, engineering economics, organizational structures, business accounting, and much more. Features new to this revised edition include: A stronger emphasis on management and leadership A focus on personal growth and developing relationships Expanded treatment of project management Coverage of how to develop a quality culture and ways to encourage creative and innovative thinking A discussion of how the results of design, the root of engineering, come to fruition in constructing and manufacturing, the fruit of engineering New information on accounting principles that can be used in your career-long financial planning An in-depth treatment of how engineering students and young practitioners can and should anticipate, participate in, and ultimately effect change If you're a student or young practitioner starting your engineering career, Engineering Your Future is essential reading.




Engineering Peace and Justice


Book Description

Some years ago when I was chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering, a colleague introduced me to a visitor from Sandia Laboratories, perhaps the largest developer of armaments and weapons systems in the world. We had a nice visit, and as we chatted, the talk naturally centered on the visitor’s engineering work. It turned out that his job in recent years had been to develop a new acoustic triggering device for bombs. As he explained it, the problem with bombs was that the plunger triggering mechanism could fail if the bomb hit at an angle, and thus the explosives would not detonate. To get around this, he dev- oped an acoustic trigger that would detonate the explosives as soon as the bomb hit any solid surface, even at an angle. As he talked, I watched his face. His enthusiasm for his work was clearly e- dent, and his animated explanations of what they had developed at Sandia exuded pride and excitement. I thought about asking him what it felt like to have spent his engineering career designing better ways to kill people or to destroy property – the sole purpose of a bomb. I wondered how many people had been killed because this man had dev- oped a clever acoustic triggering device. But good sense and decorum prevailed and I did not ask him such questions. We parted as friends and in good spirits.




Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security


Book Description

This book challenges the current thinking and strategies in the field of global peace and security. It is clear that current global public and private institutions are inadequate for the challenges we face today. These challenges cut across borders and require a more coordinated and concerted effort to find workable solutions. This book therefore begins with the question of global leadership and works its way back to the interconnected dynamics of global modernity and conflict. It is divided into four parts, each addressing a fundamental challenge to global peace and security. By exploring how we break out of the current framework, in which we understand global activities and the distribution of resources, and this book provides new ways of understanding the material, cultural, political, and spiritual relations that form the basis of international society.




Peace Jobs


Book Description

This book is a guide for college students exploring career options who are interested in working to promote peacebuilding and the resolution of conflict. High school students, particularly those starting to consider college and careers, can also benefit from this book. A major feature of the book is 30 stories from young professionals, most recently graduated from college, who are working in the field. These profiles provide readers with insight as to strategies they might use to advance their peacebuilding careers. The book speaks directly to the Millennial generation, recognizing that launching a career is a major focus, and that careers in the peace field have not always been easy to identify. As such, the book takes the approach that most any career can be a peacebuilding career provided one is willing to apply creativity and passion to their work. ENDORSEMENTS: The 30 profiles and other examples of career options across disciplines in Peace Jobs should be a required resource for all high school and college career offices. Packed with valuable realistic examples of how students, from a wide array of backgrounds, connected their passion with a paid career, it answers the ever present question “but what job can I get in peacebuilding”? Jennifer Batton Co-Chair, Peace Education Working Group and Chair, North America, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict Coordinator, International Conference on Conflict Resolution Education If changing the world is your calling, David Smith offers the guiding framework to channel passions and talents into meaningful employment. In Peace Jobs, millennials and others can discover ways to apply their social conscience to traditional and transformative career opportunities. Tony Jenkins, PhD Director, Peace Education Initiative, The University of Toledo Managing Director, International Institute on Peace Education Coordinator, Global Campaign for Peace Education




Engineering in Context


Book Description




Transdisciplinary Engineering for Complex Socio-technical Systems


Book Description

Industry and society are complex socio-technical systems, and both face problems that can only be solved by collaboration between different disciplines. Collaboration between academia and practice is also needed to develop viable solutions. Many engineering problems also require such an approach, which is known as Transdisciplinary Engineering (TE). This book presents the proceedings of the 26th ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering, held in Tokyo, Japan, from 30 July - 1 August 2019. The title of the conference was: Transdisciplinary Engineering for Complex Socio-technical Systems, and of the 86 submitted papers, 68 peer-reviewed papers by authors from 17 countries were delivered at the conference. These papers range from theoretical and conceptual to strongly pragmatic. They address industrial best practice and are grouped here under 10 themes: advanced robotics for smart manufacturing; design of personalized products and services; engineering methods for industry 4.0; additive and subtractive manufacturing; decision supporting tools and methods; complex systems engineering; big data analytics in manufacturing and services; concurrent engineering; cost modeling; and digital manufacturing, modeling and simulation. Presenting the latest research results and knowledge of product creation processes and related methodologies, the book will be of interest to researchers, design practitioners, and educators alike.




Engineering and Social Justice


Book Description

The profession of engineering in the United States has historically served the status quo, feeding an ever-expanding materialistic and militaristic culture, remaining relatively unresponsive to public concerns, and without significant pressure for change from within. This book calls upon engineers to cultivate a passion for social justice and peace and to develop the skill and knowledge set needed to take practical action for change within the profession. Because many engineers do not receive education and training that support the kinds of critical thinking, reflective decision-making, and effective action necessary to achieve social change, engineers concerned with social justice can feel powerless and isolated as they remain complicit. Utilizing techniques from radical pedagogies of liberation and other movements for social justice, this book presents a roadmap for engineers to become empowered and engage one another in a process of learning and action for social justice and peace. Table of contents: What Do we Mean by Social Justice? / Mindsets in Engineering / Engineering and Social Injustice / Toward a More Socially Just Engineering / Turning Knowledge into Action: Strategies for Change / Parting Lessons for the Continuing Struggle




The Human Side of Engineering


Book Description

While in many university courses attention is given to the human side, as opposed to the technical side of engineering, it is by and large an afterthought. Engineering is, however, a technical, social, and personal activity. Several studies show that engineering is a community activity of professionals in which communication is central to the engineering task. Increasingly, technology impacts everyone in society. Acting as a professional community, engineers have an awesome power to influence society but they can only act for the common good if they understand the nature of our society. To achieve such understanding they have to understand themselves. This book is about understanding ourselves in order to understand others, and understanding others in order to understand ourselves in the context of engineering and the society it serves. To achieve this understanding this book takes the reader on 12 intellectual journeys that frame the big questions confronting the engineering professions.