Taking Engineering's Pulse

This article highlights key points of the Mechanical Engineering Global Summit. According to the participants, much of the future for mechanical engineers will involve integrating systems of all kinds. Throughout the discussions at the meeting, numerous comments concerned the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of engineering practice. Experts believe that vertical farms, for instance, could use hydroponics and other means to take farming indoors, where it could be carried out in multitiered structures. If technology like this could be made practical, it could multiply the area available for agriculture. A multibillion-dollar experiment in sustainable living has been proposed for the United Arab Emirates. The initiative hopes to create a high-tech city that will have zero emissions and be entirely self-sustaining. One of the proposals is to restructure engineering education and to prepare engineers the way lawyers and doctors are trained: a four-year liberal arts education in preparation for the professional degree in postgraduate study.