Thomas S. Woodson

Preparing engineers for the challenges of community engagement

ABSTRACT Despite calls to address global challenges through community engagement, engineers are not formally prepared to engage with communities. Little research has been done on means to address this ‘engagement gap’ in engineering education. We examine the efficacy of an intensive, two-day Community Engagement Workshop for engineers, designed to help engineers better look beyond technology, listen to and learn from people, and empower communities. We assessed the efficacy of the workshop in a non-experimental pre–post design using a questionnaire and a concept map. Questionnaire results indicate participants came away better able to ask questions more broadly inclusive of non-technological dimensions of engineering projects. Concept map results indicate participants have a greater understanding of ways social factors shape complex material systems after completing the programme. Based on the workshop’s strengths and weaknesses, we discuss the potential of expanding and supplementing the programme to help engineers account for social aspects central to engineered systems.

Inequalities in scholarly knowledge: Public value failures and their impact on global science

There is a growing body of literature that acknowledges the overall trends in publication patterns in the least economically advantaged countries. The pattern shows that there are disparities between the Global North and Global South with regard to indexed publication output. Few studies, however, empirically assess the impact that this systematic disparity has on global scientific knowledge. This paper examines this systematic disparity by (1) analysing the co-authorship patterns of the least economically advantaged countries using bibliometric analysis of the Web of Science ISI database, and (2) applying the public-value failure mapping tool to identify potential failures in the scientific scholarship. Our analysis provides strong evidence of public value failures in global scholarly publication output. The paper contributes to the science policy and public value failure literatures using novel theoretical and methodological approaches to explore issues of equity and inequality in global science.

Managing Global Innovation: Frameworks for Integrating Capabilities around the World

the development of new products or services for industry or public enterprises. Participation of India’s HEIs in a national or regional system of innovation has been uncommon. Indian universities are not integrated into a national system of innovation or clusters of innovation, which could be beneficial to university researchers in becoming innovators or providers of practical solutions to industry or entrepreneurs. The authors of this chapter give some examples of the innovation ecosystem as nurtured in a handful of American universities that have led to industrial innovation or the development of high technology for many sectors. For example, since its establishment, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has become a leader in industrial research in the areas of chemical and electrical engineering. MITwas the first university in the USA to allow its professors, researchers and scientists to use part of their time in building their startups and spin-offs. The entrepreneurial talents of these university professors, researchers and scientists was thus nurtured, and this has innovation has become a blueprint for other universities in the USA and elsewhere. The same chapter also identifies transnational corporation R&D centres operating from the premises of IITs and a few technological universities in India, after having established links with them. Additionally, the chapter outlines the development of entrepreneurial infrastructure at IITs, aimed at catalyzing technology transfer for patented inventions and other key applications developed at various IITs. Similarly, the chapter describes how the Indian government’s Atal Innovation Mission (launched in 2015) is keen to establish innovation incubation centres at Indian HEIs to nurture human talent from institutions and turn their people into innovators, inventors or startup entrepreneurs. Thus, this chapter takes us to the next level of educational planning, where Indian universities not only strive to become a place for producing human talent, but also for nurturing creative innovators and entrepreneurs. Another important chapter in this book is entitled ‘Distance education and technology-based education: an ICT framework’. It is by B.P. Sanjay, who presents a brief historical background of open and distance education (ODL) in India, describing how ODL institutions introduced online learning (e-learning) and mobile learning (m-learning) environments to lifelong learners and ODL participants. Development of open educational resources under the auspices of the National Programme on TechnologyEnhanced Learning (NPTEL) has become a very fruitful strategy for enhancing access to qualitative educational content, benefiting engineering students, educators and lifelong learners. In more recent years, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become very popular across the world. Some MOOCs charge minimal fees, while others are completely free. Since internet connectivity has become widely available and affordable, many Indian learners have begun participating in global MOOCs platforms such as Coursera.org and Edx.org to achieve online certification through short-duration courses. Indian ODL institutions have also started offering online courses in different subject areas, using the MOOC format. In June 2016, the national government announced the scheduled launching of the Swayam (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) MOOC platform for Indian lifelong learners or students enrolled in HEIs and vocational institutions. These learners and students can use Swayam for skills development and skills enrichment, and for certification in vocational or professional fields. This chapter illustrates how MOOCs have better equipped Indian ODL institutions, although other Indian HEIs are showing great interests in the development of MOOCs so that they can expand into new markets. The book brings together insightful essays to present the dynamics of the Indian higher education system and educational-societal challenges facing public policymakers and educational planners in India. The book should also prove helpful to the national government, which is engaging in the development of a new educational policy for the country. This book is recommended to scholars, policy analysts and educationalists, or researchers studying educational inclusiveness and other educational challenges in emerging nations.

Nanotechnology and Development: What's in it for Emerging Countries?

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