Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTtechnologies can be found in national journals not indexedby the ISI – Fig.1 therefore only includes for South Africa the80 per cent of publications appearing in ISI journals.The fact that the total article output for Africa steadily andlinearly increased between 1990–1992 and 2005–2007 doesnot mean that all African countries contributed equally toknowledge production activities in engineering and appliedtechnologies. Figure 2 shows that in 2005–2007, only Egypt,South Africa, Algeria and Tunisia produced more than 10 percent of the total publication output in this field. Of these,Egypt and South Africa are the most significant contributorsaccounting for 30 per cent and 23 per cent respectively of publicationoutput. It is also clear that, besides Egypt and SouthAfrica, Francophone countries dominate output in engineering.Algeria and Tunisia significantly increased their share ofpublications between 1990–1992 and 2005–2007.Figure 3 gives a breakdown of publications in terms of subfields.Materials science, chemical engineering and electrical& electronic engineering are the three fields, which accountfor most papers. An interesting trend is reflected in Africa’spublication in the field of nuclear science and technology: 6.5per cent of engineering publications in 2005–2007. However,although this represents a decrease compared to the correspondingpercentage for 1990–1992 (12 per cent of all engineeringpublications in Africa), the number of articles in thissub-field has actually increased. The same observation appliesto metallurgy and metallurgical engineering.Arab StatesFederation of Arab EngineersSince the dawn of civilization, the contributions of Arab-Islamic engineering and architecture and the achievements ofArab-Islamic civilization to the sciences of astronomy, physics,mathematics, medicine, chemistry and others, are indeednotable and undeniably significant.In modern times (the latter part of past century and the earlytwenty-first century), Arab engineers have a mammoth taskand an extremely important role to play in the developmentof their countries. Governments of various Arab countrieshave, to differing degrees, invested in engineering institutionsand have given support for thousands of individuals, throughgrants and other financial assistance, to acquire engineeringskills in various engineering disciplines.Engineers – both in general and those of developing countries– have the challenge of nurturing abilities to best utilize newtechnologies, be conversant in foreign languages and understandthe culture, issues and challenges of more developedcountries. They have to conform to the appropriate utilizationof natural resources, act on environmental protectionand consider diverse effects of their projects in both technicaland social dimensions. It is imperative that appropriate entitiesdevelop programmes of training to enhance the currentcapabilities of engineers.Although statistics reveal a vast number of Arab engineersgraduate in various fields, many with PhDs, the output hasnever been assessed. The table below shows headline dataavailable on Arab engineers.EuropeLars BytoftIntroductionEurope is facing two main challenges. The first is globalization,which means that a new division of trade and labour is emergingand that targeted measures to keep Europe competitiveCountryEngineers per 100,000(excluding expatriates)Engineers per 100,000(including expatriates)CommentsKuwait 369 821 1997Saudi Arabia 113 460 2005Emirates 68 1,135 2005Bahrain 130 385 1997Jordan - 1,392 Includes architects 2008Egypt - 2,800May include techniciansand architects1997Morocco - 80Tunisia 300 - 2007Source: The above statistics were extracted from material by Dr. Khalid Bin Salem Al-Sultan.Year210