IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 73

Facing the Future Now
Scholarly interest in the most valued skills and attributes in an engineer profile is nothing new. As a good
sample, twenty years ago Nguyen [20] studied this subject through a set of surveys distributed to people from
three relevant sectors: academics, industry, and students. Her findings were grouped into three categories
of qualities: essential, desirable (not essential but recommended), and advantageous (not essential but beneficial). Among the essential qualities acknowledged by
the three sectors arose many of the characteristics of
the traditional engineer presented above. However, they
also included the ability "[...] to understand the impact
of their work on the environment and [...] to minimize or
prevent damage to the environment" and the need to
"[...] have a broad understanding of economic and political structures and the relationships between different
countries" [13, p. 73].
These are still priorities for the engineering profession, and even more so when the principles of the United Nations 2030 Agenda are taken seriously. Therefore,
the ideal engineer, one who may not exist but whose
profile can be used as a guide on the horizon in efforts
to strive for excellence, can be conceived of as an engineer that is able to integrate the best of well-known tradition with the demands of our uncertain present.
Perhaps, balance, in the sense of dynamic harmony,
could be a key word to synthesize the type of mindful
engineer for global sustainable development that has
been outlined and envisioned.
Compared to the environment of our predecessors,
the current potential of technology and engineering is
astonishing. Many old dreams are about to come true.
But power alone does not guarantee accomplishment.
Much more wisdom should accompany our endeavors. As
human beings, we already have the means to succeed,
but we keep wandering because we do not yet share a
valuable common goal. It seems that amid technical progress something essential has been forgotten. For the next
generations, is a sustainable world just an option?

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the comments
and suggestions provided by the anonymous referees
on the first version of this paper.

Author Information
Josep Maria Basart is Professor in the Department of
Information and Communications Engineering, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.
Email: josepmaria.basart@uab.cat.
Mireia Farrús is with the Department of Information
and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu
Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Email: mireia.farrus@upf.edu.
SEPTEMBER 2019

∕

Montse Serra is with Studies of Informatics, Multimedia, and Communications, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Email: mserravi@uoc.edu.

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

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