Research Progress Report #1 - Egypt

For this country-based research project, I wanted to look into Egypt. First, I had wanted to take a look at the social standing of the engineers in Egypt but then I thought the history would be more interesting to look at. It would be interesting to see the effects that the history had on the current.

So far my research about Egypt has shown me that there is influence from the French and the British, This is demonstrated in “Engineering and Engineering Education in Egypt”. This to me was interesting because as we learned in class and through the readings, France and Britain have different views when it comes to what engineering means, who is an engineer and the qualifications are also different. I have read one article on this topic and I’m actually pretty excited to see how the construction of engineering is today and how these two different countries together helped shape engineering in Egypt. The article also explains how after World War II nationalism also affected Egypt and the control of the British in Egypt. The article also goes on to explain why the British were there. They did not want to fully lose control of Egypt because then they would lose access to the Suez Canal (20). Even though they were not willing to part with that control they allowed Egypt to establish it as an “independent monarchy “ but they were still involved in Egypt. They allowed the monarchy because they saw the “… nationalist unrest of the 191 Revolution” (20) I also want to see how the Suez canal was involved in the Britain’s interest in Egypt. This also makes me winder if there were any other underlying motivations and what were the motivations of the French. I also want to investigate and understand why there was a Nationalist Revolution in 1919 and what acts led to it.

While researching the history of Egypt I also came across a lot of article the spoke of political protests in colleges and they involved mechanical engineers professors. That surprised me and I would be interested to see how the history of Egypt helped shape that as well. At the same time, I want to look into engineering before the French and the British became involved. The beginning of the article, “Engineering and Engineering Education in Egypt”, the beginning of the article begins with,” modern engineering education in Egypt…” (18) To me the raises the question what is pre modern engineering education in Egypt? Also, what makes the education “not modern”? These questions support my thesis question and will help me in my research. Did these views affect how the Egyptians saw themselves and their history?

Something that I would also like to look into would how the French and British impacted the culture. It is through education that the minds of the young people are impacted. Did this create a different generation with different ideas? How did this affect the community? The people of Egypt may have protested to the control of the British in Egypt and how all of these ideas tie into the history if engineering the Egypt.

Works Cited:

El-Sayed, O.L., J. Lucena, and G. Downey. "Engineering and Engineering Education in Egypt." IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 25.2 (2006): 18-25. Print.