Modern Universities and Engineers and Sustainable Development
By MPI October 3, 2012
At the conference, Sustainable Development for the 21st Century: The Role of the Modern University held September 26, 2012 at UC Davis, Diran Apelian—Director of the Metal Processing Institute at WPI and Distinguished Visiting Professor at UC Davis — opened the conference with a presentation on the Responsibilities of the Engineer for the 21st Century: the next 50 years. Diran began his presentation with an instructive metaphor:
“Imagine driving down a residential street in your home town, following an expensive SUV. Suddenly, the SUV’s passengers begin tossing cans, bottles, paper cups and all manner of trash out the windows, leaving an inexcusable collection of litter in their wake. You’re horrified, and you wonder how people can be so selfish and inconsiderate.
“But inside the SUV, oblivious to the greater world around them, the driver and passengers congratulate themselves for regularly cleaning their vehicle so thoroughly.”
This parable illustrates “sustainable development” as currently adopted by the United States and other first-world nations: “Reduce our own carbon footprint by whatever means necessary … while conveniently overlooking how such methods might impact other parts of the world.” This often myopic approach “is not sustainable development,” insisted many of the conference speakers. “It cannot continue.”
A summary of the conference is available online:
http://news.engineering.ucdavis.edu/coe/index.html?display_article=962
A list of all conference events and presentations:
http://engineering.ucdavis.edu/go/50years/events/sustainability.html
Diran’s presentation on the Responsibilities of the Engineer for the 21st Century: the next 50 years:
http://engineering.ucdavis.edu/go/50years/events/sustainabilityconference/presentations/DiranApelian-UCDavis.pdf
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