Mike Huckabee Challenges the Engineering Community on the Energy Issue
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WFEO e-News
World Federation of Engineering Organizations Newsletter N° 34
February 2008
WFEO
Editorial
Mike Huckabee Challenges the Engineering
Community on the Energy Issue
By Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas and Republican Candidate for
U.S. President Elections.
"Engineering, in antiquity as now, is the process of finding a way
through and over the challenges of environment and culture."
John Noble Wilford
If engineers could design and build a prototype of a universal bio-fuel
conversion machine that was affordable, capable of mass production,
and space-efficient enough to be on every farm, and perhaps in every
home, it would truly be an invaluable wonder. If a farmer could collect
the waste of his livestock and remains of his crops and deposit them
into a machine that would convert them to a concentrated bio-fuel
which he could use to power vehicles and generators, not to mention
sell to energy companies that would pass it on to other consumers, it would be an
incredible way to facilitate the transition away from fossil fuels and toward bio-fuel. It is
likely that such a machine could be used by more than just farmers to generate fuel.
Many production processes generate waste that could possibly be converted in this way
as well.
If it also was possible to design a machine so efficient that the average household could
use it to convert their waste into bio-fuel for personal use or to sell to an energy supplier,
the impact on our economy and natural environment would be even greater. Such an
invention would revolutionize not just the energy industry and how we power our
machines, but also the recycling and waste disposal industries, environmental
conservation, and the design and production of future products that would benefit
society.
If engineers meet such a challenge, it would have an almost immediate, beneficial impact
on the energy security of every country now totally dependent on fossil fuels, on the
prospects for economic growth now hampered by the high price of oil, and on the health
and future of our planet and the other species that share it. I know that the most worthy
endeavors are rarely easy, but the rewards are worth the effort. I humbly commend this
challenge to our engineers in hopes of achieving a cleaner, more prosperous world in this
century.
Godspeed,
Mike Huckabee www.engineeringchallenges.org
WFEO News
WFEO Executive Board Meeting
The WFEO Executive Board will meet in Paris on 28-29 February. Several items are on
the agenda of the meeting, including the implementation of the decisions of the last
General Assembly and the review of the strategic Plan for the current term. Chairman of
1
the standing committees will present their plans for the next 2 years. Several issues that
have arisen from the last General Assembly will be addressed at the EB meeting,
particularly the necessity to introduce more flexibility to WFEO in order to stimulate
initiatives by members, as well as issues related to elections procedures.
Year 2008 has been declared by the United Nations as the
“International Year of Planet Earth”.
By Barry J Grear AO, WFEO President, bjgrear@wfeo.org
It was promoted by earth scientists to ensure greater and
more effective use by society of the knowledge accumulated
by scientists, however, I believe the aims will only be
achievable by the activities of engineers.
The year’s main goal is to build safer, healthier and
wealthier communities around the globe. The UN sees the
Year as a contribution to their sustainable development targets as it promotes wise use
of the earth’s materials and encourages better planning and management to reduce risk
for the world’s inhabitants. I will be leading a delegation to the next United Nations
Committee on Sustainable Development in May 2008 (CSD-16).
70 countries have established national committees. Australia’s National Committee for
Earth Sciences is acting as the national committee for the International Year of Planet
Earth.
Key areas for world engineers within the themes proposed by the UN are:
• Reducing risks for society caused by natural and human induced disasters,
• Discovering new natural resources and making them available in a sustainable
manner,
• Building safer structures and expanding urban areas , by utilizing natural
subsurface conditions,
• Determining the human and non-human factors in climate change,
• Detecting deep and poorly accessible groundwater resources,
• Enhancing the understanding of the occurrence of natural resources so as to
contribute efforts to reduce political tension.
I have asked the 90 National Members of WFEO to report to me about those initiatives
that they are taking so that I can encourage sharing of ideas. For those who are coin
collectors, the National Mint will be producing a commemorative 20 cent coin which will
have a pattern that symbolizes tsunamis, floods, plate movement and salinity.
www.yearofplanetearth.org
Tackling Corruption through a Two-Tier Sanctions Management Process
Promoting good governance and tackling corruption are critical to achieving sustainable
development and poverty reduction. At the World Bank, all allegations that a firm or
individual has engaged in fraud, corruption, coercion, collusion or obstructive practices
(Sanctionable Misconduct) in relation to a World Bank-financed project are investigated
by the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT).
If INT finds evidence of Sanctionable Misconduct by a firm or individual, it presents the
case to a Sanctions Evaluation and Suspension Officer (EO)1 – the first tier in
the Sanctions Management process. The EO (i) evaluates whether the evidence
presented by INT is sufficient to support a finding of Sanctionable Misconduct; (ii) issues
a “Notice of Sanctions Proceedings” that recommends a sanction; and (iii) determines
whether a temporary suspension shall come into effect pending the final outcome of the
case.
2
If the firm or individual contests the allegations made by INT and/or the sanction
recommended by the EO, the case is referred to the World Bank’s Sanctions Board
(Board) – the second tier in the Sanctions Management process. The Board,
comprised of three World Bank staff and four external members, considers the evidence
against the firm or individual, along with any response from the firm or individual, before
taking a final decision in the case. The Board may hold a hearing as part of its
deliberations.
The World Bank has five possible sanctions: Public Letter of Reprimand, Debarment,
Conditional Non-Debarment, Debarment with Conditional Release, or Restitution.
Since 2001, more than 340 firms and individuals have been publicly sanctioned by the
World Bank (visit www.worldbank.org/debarr for the full list of debarred firms and
individuals). Read full World Bank OES Sanctions Management Fact Sheet 2008.pdf
Engineering and Construction: Scenarios to 2020
The World Economic Forum, through its Engineering & Construction Community and
Centre for Strategic Insight, has launched Engineering & Construction: Scenarios to 2020. This
publication marks a new phase in an initiative that is based on the need for a long-term,
multistakeholder, industry-wide approach to deepen insights into the future of the E&C
industry.
Engineering & Construction: Scenarios to 2020 paints four very different pictures of the
business environment for E&C in 2020. These scenarios do not attempt to predict the
future, but sketch the boundaries of the plausible: they aim to enable stakeholders to
tease out underlying forces of change, to make better strategic decisions and to
proactively shape the industry’s future.
The scenarios are the result of a year-long, multistakeholder process. They emerged
from discussions and workshops in London, Jordan, Singapore, Paris and China involving
over 100 leading stakeholders – industry leaders, clients, academics and government
representatives – from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and North America.
Throughout 2008, the Forum will work with its communities to bring these scenarios back
to today’s environment and consider their implications.
In the second phase of the initiative, the Forum intends to bring these scenarios back to
today’s environment and consider their implications in following events:
• Latin America focus - April 2008: Engineering & Construction Scenarios
workshop at the Latin America Summit in Mexico
• Middle East focus - May 2008: Engineering & Construction Scenarios workshop
at the Middle East Summit in Egypt
• East Asia focus - June 2008: Engineering & Construction Scenarios workshop at
the East Asia Summit in Malaysia. http://www.weforum.org/scenarios
Mobile Penetration and Internet Access
Mobile phones for half the world’s population: At current growth rates, global
mobile penetration is expected to reach
50 per cent by early 2008. International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) data
suggest that the number of mobile
subscribers surpassed the 3 billion mark
in August 2007 (see Figure). Mobile
growth rates have been high across
almost all regions and the number of
subscribers has grown by between 20
and 30 per cent globally since 2000,
when worldwide penetration stood at
12%.
3In many developing regions, including Africa, where fixed lines remain very limited, the
mobile success story has been critical for
enhancing access to telecommunications. During
2006 alone, Africa added over 60 million mobile
subscribers to its subscriber base and the
continent’s mobile growth rate has been close to
50 per cent annually over recent years.
Community access indicators: Nevertheless,
the vast majority of households in developing
countries still do not have access to ICT, such as
computers and the Internet. Community access,
therefore, plays an important role in connecting
the unconnected. http://www.itu.int/itunews
WFEO Technical Standing Committees News
Committee on Education and Training-CET
A. The 37. WFEO-CET Meeting will take place on 29 March 2008 in Warsaw, Poland.
Contact: tdomanska@not.org.pl . The 36. WFEO-CET meeting was organized in Cracow
on 19 May 2007 after the International Conference on Supporting Small- and Medium-
Sized Enterprises in Engineering and Technological Innovation Activity. Main topics of the
meeting covered by the Agenda were:
1. Summing up the results of the Conference.
2. Discussion on the WFEO Strategy of Mobility and setting up a Working Group on
WFEO Strategy of Mobility.
3. Organisation of the 8th WCEE 2009 in Malaysia.
4. Discussion on the subject of the Congress (Continuing Engineering Education and
Professional Development)
5. Education and Training Scenario for Engineers in 2020
6. Publication of IDEAS No.14, Presentation of the CET Homepage
B. CET has recently published the 14th issue of IDEAS, the journal of the WFEO
Committee on Education and Training, which is meant for engineering
educators, educational officers at Universities and leaders responsible
for establishing educational policies for engineering in each country.
The articles it contains reflect the concern of people and institutions
linked to WFEO, to provide ideas and proposals with the object of
improving formation of engineers.
The main theme of the current issue is Education for Innovation.
The journal presents several interesting articles. It can be downloaded:
http://www.not.org.pl/wfeo.
Committee on Capacity Building-CCB
The WFEO Capacity Building Committee, chaired by Dan Clinton (United States), will
identify, develop and execute projects and initiatives that build on the interests of two or
more members of the committee and have global or regional impact. The focus will be on
continuing education and professional development, in addition to licensing of engineers
in a global environment. Projects and initiatives will only be undertaken if a champion
can be identified and if they support the mission of WFEO and complement the activities
of the other standing committees. All WFEO members are welcome to provide any
additional input to the objectives and charge for the CCB.
4The CCB Chair has also initiated a planning for a two-day joint session at WEC 2008 with
the UPADI Education Committee chaired by Bill Wepfer (USA and Georgia Institute of
Technology) and the ASCE Committee on Continuing Education, chaired by Sanjeev
Kumar (USA and Southern Illinois University), and possibly others. The session will
include a Plenary Session on the opening day of WEC 2008, along with other plenary
sessions. It will be followed by the two-day program of two sessions each day (2 hours
each). The subjects of the sessions will be:
a. Licensing/Accreditation for Mobility – chaired by Dan Clinton (USA)
b. Continuing Education and Professional Development – chaired by Bill Wepfer
(USA)
c. Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Academia – chaired by Jorge Vanegas
(USA) and
d. Capacity Development – chair to be identified by Dan Clinton
WFEO Members' News
The HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers 2008
The Publications Committee of the
Institution is pleased to announce that the
HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young
Engineers/Researchers 2008 is now open
for submission. This international paper
competition is organised in its third consecutive year with an ultimate goal to provide a
platform for local and overseas young engineers and researchers to share and exhibit
their accomplishments in various engineering fields. The aim is to encourage young
engineers and researchers to publish their works and develop in their professional fields
and to promote engineering advancement among the younger generation. 11 April 2008
is the submission deadline for local and overseas sole author or first author of a co-
authored paper. http://www.hkie.org.hk/paper_award2008
International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists, ICWES14 Lille,
France, July 15-18, 2008. Under the theme of "A changing world : new opportunities
for women engineers and scientists", the
conference is an opportunity for all participants
to exchange ideas and information with
outstanding professional and academic women
working in an international and challenging
environment, leading change and helping
progress of cultural change. The program
emphasizes the sustainable development
including aspects such as energy to morrow,
climate change, water resources, transport, agriculture the role of information technology
and communication in industry, and different gender aspects in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics. More details are available on the ICWES14 website
www.icwes14.org.
First ISPIM Symposium, Managing Innovation in a Connected World, 15-17
December 2008, Singapore. Organised by the International Society for Professional
Innovation Management (ISPIM) together with Singapore Management University, this
symposium will bring together academics, business leaders, consultants and other
professionals involved in innovation management. The aim of this symposium is to
stimulate discussion and connect people from different backgrounds and cultures. The
5format will include interactive workshops and discussion panels together with academic
and practitioner presentations. Academics and Practitioners are encouraged to submit
papers and workshop topics related to the theme such as Borderless innovation,
Collaborative R&D for innovation, Idea generation and creativity, Innovation policy,
Measuring and managing innovation, Methods and tools for innovation, Networks and
clusters of innovation, and Open innovation. www.ispim.org/symposium; Download Call for Papers
Forthcoming Events
European Commission International Women's Day: The European Commission to
commemorate International Women's Day organises on the 6 of March a conference
entitled "Move out of the shadow" Seize the Opportunity!". The conference
addressing industry, academia and other main players in the domain of Information and
Communication Technologies, will present the DVD from the Shadowing 2007 and work
towards establishing a concrete action plan to improve the image of the information and
communications engineer and relevant professions in order to attract more young people
to study in this domain and in particularly women. It will also address the issue of best
practices at work and international co-operation in this area. For more information and
registration please go to www.ec.europa.eu
European Higher Education in the Next Decade, 15-17 June 2008, Tallinn,
Estonia: Hosted by Estonia’s Archimedes Foundation and co-organised with the
Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) in conjunction with its Annual Conference, it will
attract some 300 practitioners and policy-makers from Europe and elsewhere in the
world. The Academic Co-operation Association (ACA) is an independent European
organisation dedicated to the management, analysis and improvement of education and
training co-operation within Europe and between Europe and other parts of the world.
http://www.aca-secretariat.be/08events/Conferences/Tallinn/tallinn.htm
International Conference on Engineering Education ICEE 2008, 28-31 July 2008,
Budapest, Hungary: The conference will be hosted by the University of Pécs, Pollack Mihály
Faculty of Engineering and the Budapest University of Technology and
Economics in Hungary:. The Conference theme will be „New Challenges
in Engineering Education and Research in the 21st Century”. Major
topics will include academic teaching and administration, accreditation
issues, active and cooperative learning, computer science education,
cooperative networks, current trends in engineering and technology
education, e-learning, environmental challenges, globalization, government
policies, innovations, integrated laboratory instruction.
http://icee2008hungary.net
Global Summit on the Future of Mechanical Engineering, National Academy of
Sciences, Washington, DC, 16-18 April, 2008: The summit is a 2-day forum that will
engage global engineering community leaders in a dialogue about trends and issues likely
to shape mechanical engineering over the next 20 years. The American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is inviting engineering community leaders from around the
world to help connect with the profession’s highest aspirations and help articulate a
global vision for the future of mechanical engineering. The Summit is expected to inform
ASME’s vision, mission, strategic planning, its members and key stakeholders. A Summit
meeting report will be developed for wide distribution.
The Summit will be preceded by an environmental scan on trends and issues expected to
impact engineers over the next 20 years. The scan will engage the global engineering
community through a survey and focus groups. This work will help shape the Summit
agenda and will be provided to Summit attendees.
http://www.asmeconferences.org/asmeglobalsummit
6Civil Engineering Disaster Mitigation Conference: Earthquake and Tsunami, 22-
24 June , 2009, Istanbul, Turkey: Organised jointly by the World Council of Civil
Engineers (WCCE), the European Council of Civil Engineers (ECCE) and the Turkish
Chamber of Civil Engineers (TCCE) to contribute to the mitigation of life and material
losses in earthquake and tsunami through improved civil engineering practice. The
emphasis of the conference will be on the Millennium Development Goals, through
seismically safe schools, hospitals, dwellings etc., or more generally, seismically safe and
sustainable built environment. Download: First Announcement Earthquake & Tsunami
Conference.pdf; Visit the Conference Website http://www.imo.org.tr/eqt2009
Diverse News
Education Reforms Needed in Middle East and North Africa
Countries in the Middle East and North Africa need to overhaul their education systems to meet the
demands of an increasingly competitive world and realize the
potential of their large and growing youth population.
That's one of the principal findings of a new World Bank
report, The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the
Middle East and North Africa, a comprehensive economic
analysis of the impact of education investments on the
region, as well as demographic changes, globalization, labor
migration, and the role of the labor market.
The report, released February 4, 2008 in Amman, Jordan,
points out that education reform alone will not drive economic
growth. The region is home to large informal markets and
generally lacks significant dynamic sectors that can compete
internationally – characteristics that contrast sharply with East Asia and some economies
in Latin America.
The report emphasizes that policy-makers should use incentives, public accountability,
curriculum, and labor market reforms to make the region’s economies more dynamic.
After 40 years of education investments that have closed the gender gap at the primary
school level and resulted in nearly universal education, the region faces new challenges
posed by globalization and the increasing importance of knowledge in the development
process.
Michal Rutkowski, Sector Director for Human Development in the World Bank's Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) region notes:
Countries in the region are not enjoying the same returns on education investment at the
higher-education level as some fast-growing middle-income countries in Asia, such as
Malaysia and the Republic of Korea, and certainly not meeting aspirations. What we see
in the region is that those who graduate from universities cannot find jobs. The
unemployment rate is very high among them. Therefore the average return that you
observe is also not high, and this is a serious problem. The primary problem lies in a
labor market dominated by the public sector in many countries, where university
graduates will pass up opportunities in the private sector to wait two, three or four years
for a public sector job offering lifetime employment and benefits above what the market
offers. This is a major distortion for the labor market, but it also creates a situation in
7which there are no proper signals sent to higher education establishments in terms of
which skills are in demand, and which skills are not in demand.
Up until now, MENA countries focused on building schools, recruiting and training
teachers, and enrolling ever greater numbers of boys and girls in primary school. Special
efforts were made to include girls, rural children, children of particular ethnic groups, and
the disabled, says the report. But the region still lags behind East Asia and Latin America
in literacy and in average years of schooling among people 15 and older. While most
boys and girls enroll in primary school, many drop out in the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades,
particularly girls, to work or because of societal pressures. Governments need to consider
every investment as to how it will contribute to the education process, including how
teachers are trained, and whether they're trained to do better at old-fashioned rote
learning or in much needed inquiry-based learning.
Students in the region need more inquiry-based learning and a new set of “soft skills”—
problem solving, communications, foreign language—that are critical to further
advancement. In order to become competitive, there has got to be a shift from the ability
to perform routine tasks towards those soft skills which are absolutely essential for
increasing productivity. This shift is in the process, but the countries really need to
accelerate it in order to remain competitive.
Incentives, such as rewards for good performance for both students and teachers, and
public accountability will be essential tools in achieving educational goals. Education
authorities need to acquire input from a number of actors, including non-governmental
organizations, advocacy groups, watchdog organizations, parents, professional
organizations and others. Public financing should be much more tied to outcomes, and to
innovation. It’s very important that education becomes a sector characterized by public
accountability. That means that both at the national and local levels, it actually matters
how the education system performs, that people know about it, and demand that
education does better, and that parents have an influence on what's happening at school,
local government has an influence over curricula, and when there is international testing
the newspapers write about it so they know how students perform.
The report demonstrates that tremendous gains in education have been realized such as
most children benefit from compulsory schooling; it also documents numerous past and
ongoing education reform attempts, from pedagogical reform to decentralization and
community participation. In short, past achievements are impressive, particularly if one
considers the starting point of most mass national education systems in the region during
the 1950s and 1960s. Thus, the road not traveled in this report refers to the rest of the
journey the region needs to make. This journey is a continuation in part of past reform
efforts, but it is also in part a significant departure from past practices. It has two
features: one is a new approach to education reform, and the other emphasizes closing
the gap between the supply of educated individuals and labor demand. The proposed
approach to education reform has three components: (i) engineering, which ensures that
the right technical inputs are in place and are used efficiently; (ii) incentives to promote
better performance and responsiveness from those providing educational services; and
(iii) public accountability to make certain that education, as a public good, serves the
interests of the widest range of citizens. www.worldbank.org
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