MANAGEMENT OF MATERIAL AND ENERGY FLOWS AS CHALLENGE TO ENGINEERING - CURRICULAR IMPLICATIONS

Abstract Every human movement and action is unavoidably linked to the metabolism of human with nature. Modern technology-based civilization has enhanced this metabolism by several orders of magnitude and thus, created the bulk of pollution problems. To control this metabolism will be the future task of engineering. A withdrawal from high-technology based production is not viable. Instead solutions for the polltion problems will have to be looked for in the core of industrial design and production. The self-understanding of engineering has to be re-directed towards mastering the ubiquitous metabolism of human with nature. Implications of this change of engineering for education are subsequently illustrated.