Cape Town - The 2022 World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF) and the Global Engineering Deans’ Council (GEDC) Conference has come to the African continent is being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The conference was initially supposed to take place earlier but due to the Covid-19 pandemic was postponed and will run from Monday, November 28 until Thursday, December 1.
The International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), based in Washington DC, hosts the conference in different locations each year and this year Cape Town is the first-ever African host.
The South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE), as a member of IFEES, is co-hosting this event with co-hosts the University of Pretoria and Central University of Technology, in conjunction with the South African Engineering Deans’ Forum, collaborated to arrange this event.
Speaking to IOL, Professor Sunil Maharaj from the University of Pretoria and also the general conference chair said the conference is a combination of international engineering educational societies part of the IFEES.
“This is a body working together with deans, engineering schools, corporates and student engineering societies looking at education and looking at the future world of work and what kind of graduate attributes future engineers need.
“Engineers play an important part in the development of any society. So, the way we skill them in terms of understanding sustainability, climate change, ethics, good values, and working in a cross-cultural environment is very important for the future world because people are working across the globe in multiple ways.
“The idea of the conference is to engage with people from the industry (to understand) what they need from future engineers.
“Students are also involved in this conference because they are important stakeholders. They are the future leaders of this country and of course corporates will be talking about some of the things they offer,” Professor Maharaj said.
Different discussions and workshops will be taking place during the course of the conference.
“On the last day, our objective is to have a resolution. We will have seven resolutions and a way forward from this discussion so that there will be a call to action,” Professor Maharaj said.
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, Professor Tawana Kupe said any form of knowledge, creation, education, teaching and research is globally nurturing.
“Knowlege knows no boundaries. Engineering is particularly important for countries like South Africa and our continent, Africa, because it will create the infrastructure necessary for advanced economic development and transformation of the lives of our people.
“We don’t have enough engineers per thousand as a population compared to China or Asia, Europe or North America.
“So, improving engineering education for the 21st century using new digital technologies and others such as automation, artificial intelligence is going to give us that leap frogging for us to achieve sustainable development,” Professor Kupe told IOL.
The conference is currently under way and is hosting more than 350 delegates from over 20 countries and six continents.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL