Sustainability, Engineering, and Australian Academe

The engineering profession, including engineering academics, still has a long way to go in reconciling our present approaches to technology with the competing demands of economic development, social equity and sustainability. After reviewing some of the problems associated with the term "sustainability," and the limited progress made so far in Australia in coming to terms with the challenges it poses, this paper goes on to record and then reflect on the current processes of change in engineering in Australia, and in particular to discuss how Australian academics have attempted to deal with the issues. Experiences at the University of Technology, Sydney, are used to illustrate initiatives being developed to broaden the discourse of engineering to assist and encourage future engineers to take a role in framing as well as solving problems. The paper argues that broadening the discourse so that engineers expect to work cooperatively with those in other disciplines on the problems of development, equity, and sustainability is essential for the future of engineering education. It is also a prerequisite for these issues being addressed effectively.