Increasing Our Outreach To Society

Although many programs and steps are being taken to better our society through engineering, I am prompted to question whether engineers are directly asking communities what they need and would what better their lives. I feel as though their is a invisible barrier between people of society and engineers. Time after time I have heard of many engineering projects that fall short of what the population is really in need of. In the last decade new engineering programs are being created in order to change this problem and make a better outreach to society. Even though these programs are the newest invention of outreach to those in need, there are some flaws that could be changed that I would like to bring attention to.

Servicing the community during college courses in the United States has become one of the new ways to make the outreach. Schools are now expecting “for students not only to have a background in mathematics and science but also to have the skills to effectively communicate in a group and work with colleagues from across academic disciplines.”(Selingo) These high expectations push students to become more of a well rounded person that can coexist and serve society better than other engineers have been able to. Its great to here of the steps being put into place to better our engineers, yet the extent to which they communicate with society is questionable. Are we able to trust and hold these engineers accountable for communicating directly with our community? In order to make the change that we need for society to function in a way that is most convenient, engineers need to take action in surveys and questioners within our cities in order to find out what the people believe we need most. Our way of life could dramatically change if we the people begin making the decisions that our local cities carry out in our regional planning.

Engineers Without Borders is one of the closest programs that Cal Poly has put into place that amounts to the EPIC program that many campuses such as Purdue have engaged in. Along with EPIC, Engineering Without Borders teaches its students to better serve the community by “creating a more stable and prosperous world by addressing people's basic human needs by providing necessities such as clean water, power, sanitation and education.”(Engineers) This is a great program that is able to make an outreach to communities with help across the world. There are many positive attributes to this program, yet I feel that there are all some downsides. Engineering Without Borders is a only a club on campus, which I feel only allows its potential to be partially reached. I believe that the goals which push this club to make change would better serve the community if it were put into a curriculum for classroom credit. Our school would be better serving communities around the world if it became a necessity for engineering majors because it would allow students to have a better understanding of communication with society without having to go out of their way to join a club. This course would become one of the first for targeting the increase of help among the community for engineers at Cal Poly.

Engineers Without Borders Website http://www.ewb-usa.org/

Selingo (2006), “May I Help You?” (html), http://www.prism-magazine.org/summer06/feature_service.cf.