Mike McMeekin

“The United States will not be able to respond to climate change, drive better economic outcomes, or deliver broader measures of social equality if the physical world remains underdeveloped…. American governance is stronger if it can demonstrate that it has a political system capable of delivering essential services to its people, including safe public streets, functioning mass transit, and plentiful housing. For various American ideals to be fully realized, the country will need to recover its ethos of building…”
Dan Wang, Breakneck

“Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.”
David Sloane Wilson and Edward (E.O.) Wilson

In his recent book, Breakneck, author Dan Wang highlights the differences between China, which he characterizes as an engineering state, and the United States, which he characterizes as a lawyerly society. As the quote above illustrates, the United States cannot address the engineering challenges of the 21st century unless we can shift away from our recent history as a lawyerly society to one that is able to build the infrastructure that society requires.

Engineering Change Lab – USA’s recent summit, Transforming the Regulatory System, focused on one important dimension of this shift – the regulatory system of the U.S. for infrastructure, energy, and the environment. Summit participants explored the wicked problem of transformative regulatory reform – going beyond small-scale tweaks and adjustments (common in many regulatory reform efforts) to thinking big about large-scale transformation and the role the engineering community could play leading those efforts.

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Open Call Invitation

Through stories, essays, and videos, Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL), in association with the US Water Alliance, seeks to inspire and empower members of the engineering community to evolve and deepen their commitment to a new “water ethic” for the 21^st Century, underpinning their role as stewards of water on behalf of society.

The springboard for this creative effort is an initial set of values, beliefs, and mindsets drawn from a deep dive into this theme at ECL’s Spring 2025 Envisioning a New Water Ethic Summit. Modeling the writings of Aldo Leopold and his classic work, The Sand County Almanac, we hope these collected narratives will illustrate how this emerging ethic can contribute to positive futures for water in our communities, ecosystems, and society.

The full report from this summit is available on the ECL website at this link. A summary of the ethical themes that emerged at the summit is included with the Open Call Invitation and Submission Guidelines.

ECL and the US Water Alliance together are seeking a diverse set of leaders, practitioners, and stakeholders within the engineering community to contribute their perspectives and stories to help shape and communicate this emergent water ethic.

Through this open call invitation, we hope to combine engineering community perspectives with those drawn from an invited set of researchers, writers, artists, and advocates.

So far, our outreach to invited contributors has resulted in commitments from a cross section of water sector experts from universities, public sector agencies, and private sector practitioners.

Our intended outcome for this effort will be an open-access digital book containing both sets of narratives (invited and open-call). We intend to widely publicize the book throughout the engineering community, including through our partnership with the US Water Alliance.

If you are interested in submitting your narrative for consideration for inclusion in the project, please reach out to Mike McMeekin, ECL’s Executive Director ([email protected]). More information regarding the project can be found in the Open Call Invitation and Submission Guidelines. All submissions are due by August 31, 2026.

ECL’s recent Beyond Disruption summit featured an exploration of the disruptions being experienced by the engineering community, the impact of these disruptions, and the responses needed from the engineering community. This “Voices from ECL” series will feature interviews with several of the attendees at the summit.

Part 5

Gary Bertoline is Emeritus Dean and Distinguished Professor at Purdue University and leader of ASEE’s Engineering Mindset report. Key points highlighted by Gary include the following.

• Higher education, including engineering education, needs to be disrupted. Incremental changes are not keeping up with the pace of change in technology and society. This disruption will bring opportunities.
• The engineering community faces the risk of irrelevance if we are seen as favoring the status quo in the face of changes.
• Engineering has more potential for creating positive changes in the world than any other profession. This is not understood in society, and we need to be more effective at communicating our positive impact.
• While struggling with technological change, such as AI, and social media distractions, today’s college students still display energy, enthusiasm, and optimism especially when presented with opportunities.
• ECL’s approach to learning challenges ingrained ways of thinking, and the diverse participants in the summit have demonstrated an energy for change.
• ECL’s summit has demonstrated the need for one voice from the engineering community. We need to create a movement for positive change.

The full interview with Gary is available at this link.

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Engineering Change Lab – USA seeks to develop strategic-thinking, future-focused leaders across the engineering community. At our recent Beyond Disruption summit, several of our speakers and participants were interviewed regarding their perspectives on the discussions at the summit and on the work of ECL.

• Rochelle Grayson, Mosaic Accelerator, discussed the importance of AI integration in engineering organizations.
• Melyssa Hartzell, Martin & Martin described her view that the engineering community needs to take on leadership in driving policy and funding decisions.
• Jenna Carpenter, Campbell University, discussed dealing with constraints during this time of disruption.
• Jerry Buckwalter, Atlas Initiative for Critical Infrastructure, stated his view that ECL supplies a thought process absent in the engineering community.
• Gary Bertoline, Purdue University, described the potential of engineering to create positive change in the world.

You can see a video summary of these interviews at this link. In the future, we hope to publish extended versions of these interviews.

Join us as we seek to elevate the contributions of the engineering community to the challenges we face in the world.

Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL) is committed to including students in our discussions of the future of engineering. To support that goal, we have launched a campaign to raise scholarship funds to support student attendance at our fall summit, Beyond Disruption: Pioneering a New Path for the Engineering Community.

The summit will explore the changing landscape that has emerged in 2025 and imagine a new vision and path forward for the engineering community. Including the voice of students will enhance and complete the discussions at the summit. Now is the time for the engineering community to take a clear-eyed look at today’s realities and take the lead in forging a new path.

Please consider donating by visiting our GoFundMe page at this link.

Our goal for the campaign is to raise $15,000 to support the attendance of ten students at the summit. We appreciate our early donors who have helped us exceed $3,000 in donations so far. Help us continue this momentum and support additional students.

Every donation, no matter the size, will help students gain critical insights and network with leaders, shaping their future as stewards of technology and society. Please consider using the Share button on our GoFundMe site to connect with your industry associates!

Students who are interested in this opportunity should reach out to Mike McMeekin, ECL Executive Director ([email protected]) before October 3, 2025.

Learn more and register

Kyle Davy and Mike McMeekin

According to author Peter Gleick, human history has been shaped by our relationship with water. Gleick’s recent book, The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future, recaps this history. In the First Age of Water, early civilizations formed based on the natural availability of water, and the first attempts to control water for human consumption and agriculture were conceived. The Second Age of Water coincided with the emergence of science and technology and followed a “hard path” marked by the engineering and construction of major water-related infrastructure – dams, drinking water and wastewater treatment systems, hydro-electric generation facilities, and irrigation systems. This age produced huge benefits to humanity, along with unintended consequences in the form of withdrawals beyond natural recharge, pollution, and damage to eco-systems. In addition, despite the remarkable advances of the Second Age, we have still failed to provide safe water and sanitation for everyone.

In his kick-off address to Engineering Change Lab – USA’s (ECL) Envisioning a New Water Ethic for the Engineering Community Summit, Peter Gleick outlined the history of the first two ages of water and offered a blueprint for a hopeful future, a “necessary and possible transition” to the Third Age of Water. According to Gleick, this new “soft path” must:

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