While AIChE's Society for Biological Engineering's 5th International Conference on Bioengineering and Nanotechnology happened in Singapore, an interesting article ran in the local newspaper, "Revealing the Hidden Allure: Engineering aims to show that it's still a cool and sexy profession."
The article, in my opinion, shows why Singapore's chemical and biotech industries has grown to a global leader, in spite of a population of a mere 5 million.
The article profiled our conference chair, Jackie Ying, who heads the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and it starts out by stating "Engineering has long been the backbone of Singapore's economy." However, it contends that engineering is losing its allure in Singapore. The best and brightest are now going into medical and financial fields, in spite of lower wages for business analysts and lawyers. How sad!
The good news is that Singapore is taking action. They are running their very first National Engineers' Day Exhibition in September to show middle and high school students the excitement of the profession. The event appears similar to our Engineers Week and the events in Washington. The event is broadly promoting the profession of problem solvers of global issues such as clean water, a scarce resource for the country.
And Singapore continues to invest in the technical education of its citizens. Most astutely said of the importance of engineers by Professor Shien, Vice Dean of the National University of Singapore,
The 21st century is driven very much by technology, and if we do not have enough engineers, we cannot generate money.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
See photos of the AIChE and SBE sponsored reception in conjunction with the conference.
If you are a registered member, you can see photos of the conference here.
What are your thoughts on the sustainability of the engineering profession?
Do you do anything personally to promote it?