Engineering and society – prospective remarks, with a focus on Portugal

Abstract

Engineering researchers and students dedicate most of their working time to the details of the fields they are advancing or studying. Since excessive focus on details may lead to loss of contact with the wider societal context, it is advisable to create opportunities for their exposure to ‘the wider picture’; the topics chosen for this presentation are of transversal interest and expected to provide food-for-thought for those willing to venture outside the strict borders of their discipline.

But first a disclaimer: I am not a professional forecaster neither a crystal ball reader, but just a Mechanical Engineer with a career of 40+ years as a researcher / professor in a field transversal to several disciplines and specialties – fracture and fatigue of materials and structures. As with every other researcher, early in my career I was mainly asked to participate in activities and panels within the boundaries of my own research but, as time went by, the scope of my activities was progressively enlarged, namely with membership of the board of Agência de Inovação - AdI (precursor of the present ANI) and involvement in several EU activities in fields as aeronautics, civil engineering, transportation but also innovation and higher education management.

Awareness of the past and curiosity about the future motivated my growing interest in the interplay between society and engineering – the societal context within which engineering takes place. Although many topics addressed here are general, details reflect the nationality and interests of the writer (Portuguese). The talk at EJIL 2022 briefly touches the following topics: Portugal, macroeconomics, inequality, innovation, skills, education, R&D, sustainability, future, and geopolitics.