How to Educate Future Engineers Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationships Between Technology,Society and the Environment?

In most European schools of engineering, the students are not well prepared to integrate socio-economic and environmental issues efficiently into their future professional activities. It is argued that necessary changes include a more interdisciplinary and systems-oriented approach to the problems, as well as better training in communication skills. An example of an interdisciplinary seminar entitled ‘Ethics, technology, society and environment’ and developed by the author of this paper is presented with many details. This seminar is followed by second-year students in engineering. Finally, other suggestions are presented as possible ‘starters’ to the necessary changes in the schools of engineering.     

Activities of the UETP EUROFORM in the Field of Continuing Education in Micro-electronics and the Structure of the Didactic Centre

EUROFORM is a sectorial UETP in micro-electronics approved by COMETT 2 for strands A, Ba, Ca and Cc. Twenty companies and 32 universities and research centres from five countries ( France, Germany, Italy, Spain and, since 1992, Ireland) are members of EUROFORM. The pilot project, strand Cc, called the European Didactic and Resource Centre involves four complementary actions: ( 1) a reflection centre, for seminars of specialists in charge of the study of the evolution of the specificity and of the definition of the educative programme, ( 2) a school for instructors and engineers who occasionally have to intervene in their companies, ( 3) an experimental centre where new trainings are elaborated and tested before being transferred to the Ca strand and ( 4) a resource centre in charge of the realization and publication of writing and video documents.