Education and Research for the Future Engineering as an Illustrative Case

In our lifetime there have been profound changes to the world we live in; the technologies used, the problems we struggle with, and the education systems intended to prepare this and following generations for the future. Many of the problems we face now are more complex than in earlier times, requiring broadly based approaches our traditional silo specialisations are ill-prepared to deal with. They involve technologies whose range of positive and negative effects are not well understood. Many of these problems are global in nature and can no longer be treated just as local issues. Our current approach to education does not adequately prepare us to tackle these problems.

New approaches to education are needed to prepare us for the changes that are to come. The future of our planet, our civilisation, our community and our economy depend on it. This book proposes changes that will better prepare us for this future.

Prabhakar Murthy was born in Bangalore India in 1944. Successive family relocations led to schooling in six private schools across central India. He first studied electrical engineering at Jabalpur University graduating with a bachelor’s degree. This was followed by a master’s degree in applied electronics and servomechanism from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and PhD degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University. He joined The University of Queensland as a lecturer and retired as a professor. During this period, he taught several courses in engineering, mathematics and management at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and set up postgraduate programs in technology management and in reliability and maintenance. He has held visiting appointments at 20 universities, ran short courses on a range of topics and initiated joint research with several groups around the world. He has consulted with small businesses in Australia and large multinational companies in Europe and the USA. He has published 175 journal articles on mathematical system theory, warranty, reliability and maintenance; co-authored 13 books and co-edited 2 books. 

Neil Page was born in Melbourne Australia in 1943. Successive family relocations led to schooling in 5 public schools across Victoria. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Melbourne graduating with bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees. After graduation, he worked as a research scientist with the Australian Department of Defence. This was followed by academic appointments to the University of Queensland followed by the University of Newcastle, Australia. After retiring from full-time academic work he acted as Accreditation Visit Manager for Engineers Australia, the professional accreditation authority for engineering programmes in Australia. In that and his earlier academic roles he oversaw the accreditation of many engineering programmes in Australia and affiliated programmes in Singapore and Malaysia. He has published widely in applied mechanics and engineering education and has co-authored a book.