Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Africa
I do not know much about the engineering situations that were implemented in Africa, but it seems as though they need to take a step back and consider everything, including how they will affect the people native to the land. You cannot just walk into a country, much less a continent, and start ripping it up for its natural resources. An effective and subtle way of utilizing Africa's resources needs to be done in cooperation with the African governments and people in order to arrive to the best solution. The vast majority of African land is very different from the American land,so new innovative solutions have to be created in order to have the same efficiency and prosperity in a different place. This could be why the monetary losses have been so great, the solutions in place in the west are simply not applicable to the African land. The engineering teams need to redo the entire engineering process in order to find the most viable and effective alternate to the current system.
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One thing that I have noticed in a lot of the engineering problems we discuss is the concept of stepping back and evaluating the problem. It is not written anywhere as a step to take in engineering, but it is something that needs to be done. Engineers need to take a step back and consider the whole situation. Especially in other countries, it is important to ask if this is something that the natives want. Will they be willing and accepting of the engineering solution and what will work with their lives? If they do not want you there and you still need to complete the task, what is the best solution that will have the least negative affect on them? Do they even want you their or is someone else bringing you in? If they do want you there, then what do they want you to really do? These questions could really help engineers to consider the different aspects of the solution.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I think that one of the main themes of our education and pursual of a Purdue Engineering degree will be making these questions and thought processes a part of the wrote process that we go through when designing a solution. The theory and basics for most of what we do is rather dry, but I think that where engineering really gets interesting and alive is when we go into these more......challenging and diverse questions that involve a human/cultural factor. Desirability seems to be one of the major aspects that is more 'grey' in nature and makes engineering less of a simple 'black and white' discipline.
ReplyDelete-ENGR 103