• Question: What do you think is going to become the biggest challenge for engineers in the future?

    Asked by KatiePage to Monica, Matt, Matthew, Maedeh, Dominic on 8 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by 434esre22.
    • Photo: Matthew Oldfield

      Matthew Oldfield answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      I think there are two. And not in the medical field – although there are very, very many big challenges their too.

      The first is clean, renewable energy. We use so much electricity and most fuels are dirty and will ru out.

      The second challenge is waste materials. We create so much waste and a lot of that is just landfill. Solving the problem of landfill and this kind of pollution is a big challenge and something I think we need to address as a society.

      In the surgical area I think it is being able to deliver drugs very effectively to any location in the body without having to perform a surgical procedure.

    • Photo: Monica Rozeik

      Monica Rozeik answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      That’s a really good question. I think there are a few things I can think of from a biomedical engineer point of view. It may be surprising but things like battery size is a huge challenge when designing new parts to be very small for the human body.

      Tissue engineering will also be really challenging too with more people expecting to use cells to make artificial organs now that technology has improved. It is really difficult to tissue engineer something like a heart valve.

    • Photo: Matthew Round

      Matthew Round answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      I think the biggest challenges we will face come from a rising population, depleting resources and the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

      I think the above will have big impacts on the way engineers will face the challenges ahead.

    • Photo: Dominic Eggbeer

      Dominic Eggbeer answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      The biggest challenges will arise from decreasing resources available to support a growing population dependent on lots of energy. It’s slightly depressing to think about, but engineering has a huge role to play in addressing this challenge.

      In relation to engineering in medicine, I foresee there will be a huge challenge in the field of bio-engineering of medicines to combat ever-evolving diseases that could otherwise wipe out the human race.

      Crikey that’s a rather gloomy answer – sorry!

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