In a new report by Cebr for the Royal Academy of Engineering, the engineering industry is examined on a global scale. Sourcing information and statistics from the report, this article will feature future trends, research and Engineering Index rankings, with a focus on where Australia stands world-wide.
The future of the industry
According to UNESCO, “Engineering has been, and will continue to be, challenged with designing systems that facilitate education and healthcare, enhance quality of life, and help to eliminate global poverty.” Key challenges in the coming years include: developing technology to mitigate “hostile acts”, reducing the impact of natural disasters, and facilitating sustainable resource use.
When engineering experts were asked where they thought the demand for specific engineering fields would be in the coming years, each gave a different answer.
Martin Manuhwa – Vice President, World Federation of Engineering Organisations:
The world is going digital, which will require a breed of engineers who are more literate in high-tech areas like nanotechnology, materials engineering and ICT. Engineers in the field of sustainability and renewables will be in high demand.
Mike McWilliams – Professor Emeritus, Stanford School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences:
Environmental engineering is a growing field and more engineers will be required to help deal with ecological damage and climate change. Climate resilience engineering (closely linked to civil engineering) is also expected to become important in coming years.
Considering Africa specifically:
Dr Allyson Lawless – Managing Director, South African Institution of Civil Engineering:
Agricultural engineering needs to be expanded to improve productivity and address poverty.
Calestous Juma – Professor of the Practice of International Development:
Civil engineering will play an important role due to growth in the transportation and housing sectors. There will also be demand for mechanical engineers and electronic engineers due to increasing transportation and greater emphasis on IT and communications technology.
The report notes that across the world, automation is likely to play a key role in shaping the future of engineering, with regard to engineers’ work processes.
Research and education
Using the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the report investigated the countries with engineering and technology departments that rank within the top 100 in 2015/16.
The US is the most successful, with 31 engineering departments in the top 100. This is followed by the UK with nine, and Germany and Australia with seven.
The world’s top five engineering departments belong to:
- Stanford University, US
- California Institute of Technology, US
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
- University of Cambridge, UK
- University of California, Berkeley, US
The amount of investment in research and development is roughly equivalent to the success of engineering departments:
According to the report, the following areas could benefit from greater investment:
- Sustainable and low carbon construction
- Smart construction and digital design
- Virtual and augmented reality
The Engineering Index
The Engineering Index has been constructed using data from 99 countries across the world. It is comprised of the following engineering-related indicators:
- Employment in engineering-related industries
- Number of engineering businesses
- Gender balance of engineers
- Wages and salaries of engineers
- Human capital investment in engineering
- Quality of infrastructure
- Quality of digital infrastructure
- Exports of engineering-related goods
The rankings are as follows:
Note: The rankings pictured are those of the CAETS countries; countries that are members of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences, of which there are 26. Furthermore, due to restricted data availability, the Engineering Index rankings overall were restricted to 99 countries, of which the majority lie in Europe (34) and Asia and Oceania (35). The report found that overall, CAETS countries were the top performers in most categories.
As can be seen from the rankings, Australia ranks highly – seventh among the CAETS countries and (according to the report) seventh overall.
The report reads: “This is chiefly due to its high engineering employment, and its strong performance in the research category: Australia has seven university engineering departments among the world’s top 100. It also boosts a high score in digital infrastructure quality; in 2013 Australia had approximately 1,250 internet servers for every million people in the population, putting it 12th in this category and against an average of around 900 across the CAETS countries.”
On a larger scale, the report also notes: “There appears to be a correlation between GDP per capita and Engineering Index scores across countries when using data available for 2013. Aside from notable outlier countries such as Qatar, Vietnam and Ukraine, we observe that higher output per capita is associated with higher Engineering Index scores.”
The greatest potential for higher engineering performance lies in Africa, according to the report.