In the 2ed article "The expanding world of engineers" by Prof Seeram Ramakrishna, he enphasized one point which I think is the most important one, that "companies, organizations and even nations need a workforce that does not 'fear' technology but embraces and thrives on it".
Modern everyday life can hardly break away from technology and eveyone has a close relationship with it. For example, the first thing to do after one woke up is usually turning on the computer; losing cellphones is much worse than losing wallets; the water we drink is disposed by NEWater; and even in classrooms projectors had taken the place of traditional blackboards and chalks.
Howerver, only few of modernists can really master the magic of technology. Most of the time we just need to press a few buttons and care nothing about how these work. With a shallow experience of learning technology, it is easy to be scaried by the complex, complicated knowledge and its depth and broadness. Nonetheless, don't panic! As Prof Seeram said, "engineer's training helps to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic (systematic) approach in designing solutions." With the help of engineering training, analyzing and applying scientific techniques is feasible.
Furthermore, nowadays engineering scope is not limited as manufacture only, but has been broadened to encompass the Service sector. Health-care systems, data and information managements, supply chain systems, transportation systems and even water and energy supply managements, all are demanding engineers with great abilities as a forceful support to thrive on and solve the increasing challenges.
In a nutshell, this exciting century is calling for engineers with systematic and critical thingking minds. To fulfill the magic of technology, engineers are highly encouraged to embrace and thrive on changing situations and various challenges.
