Engineering Change Lab-USA (ECL-USA) is a catalyst for change within the engineering community, helping it reach its highest potential on behalf of society
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Mike McMeekin & Kyle Davy

In his new book, Wicked Problems, Guru Madhavan of the National Academy of Engineering tells the story of Ed Link, the inventor of the flight trainer for pilots which transformed the aviation industry in the early 20th century by addressing the educational, workforce, and cultural challenges that accompanied the rapid development of aviation technologies. Link’s technological expertise and systems approach addressed a significant challenge of his time. In the 21^st century, we face an even more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. The 2024 Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL) Engineering Ideas Institute featured a deep dive into the role of the engineering community in this VUCA world. Madhavan posed a key question to the participants in the Institute, “What is the equivalent of a Link trainer for engineering in the 21^st century?”

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Mike McMeekin & Kyle Davy

The engineering community faces a grand challenge with respect to its current and future workforce. At a time when ever greater contributions are needed from the engineering community to address societal challenges such as deteriorating infrastructure, climate change, access to clean water, threats to the natural world, the need for better medicines, cybersecurity threats, and the need for more equitable communities, future forces are aligning that could, if not addressed, widen the gap between workforce supply and demand.

Engineering Change Lab – USA’s (ECL) virtual summit on June 18, 2024, explored the nature of this grand challenge in detail, looking at the forces impacting the future workforce supply, identifying key leverage points, and shining the light on innovative strategies being employed now to attract and retain students and workers in the engineering community. Key focus areas of the summit were the need to frame the purpose of engineering as improving the lives of people, emphasizing purpose-driven practice as a key factor in attraction and retention of our future workforce, the imperative of confronting an enrollment cliff facing higher education, and the need to enlarge the circle of our workforce to include those who have traditionally been excluded.

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Kyle Davy and Mike McMeekin

We live in a world in which ever more complex digital technologies are being integrated into our critical infrastructure systems (water, wastewater, electrical, pipelines, and manufacturing). The cyber security threats resulting from this transformation are outpacing the ability of society, and the engineering community, to effectively prevent and manage them.

A new, essential role for the engineering community is emerging — creation and stewardship of cyber-resilient critical infrastructure on behalf of society. Engineering Change Lab – USA’s (ECL) virtual summit on March 19, 2024, explored the magnitude of the threat, the consequences of cyber-attacks, barriers to progress in addressing these threats, and the nature of the “step change” required for the engineering community to fully embrace this leadership role. … Read More