“Engineering in a Complex World: Innovation through Integration”
Distinguished Delegates,
Engineers of Today and Tomorrow,
Good morning.
Introduction
“The scientist seeks to understand what is; while the engineer seeks to create what never was.”
That simple quote from Einstein encapsulates the challenge and the privilege of being an engineer. He or she works towards solutions and technologies, translating scientific possibility into a better future.
Engineers Solve The Defining Problems Of Their Time
It’s worth reminding ourselves of the achievements of this community. They span everything from the mighty Panama Canal to the finest nano-fibres – making our lives more comfortable, varied and productive.
How did it begin? It is difficult to mark a spot when archaeologists show us the ancient wonders like the pyramids, the Mohenjo-Daro, and the Great Wall. There were also sparks of engineering brilliance through the Abbasid and the Renaissance periods. But modern engineering is noted to have risen in the 18th and 19th centuries and paved the way for the Industrial Revolution. Blacksmiths’ kilns and cottage industries were replaced by foundries and factories; horses by railroads; and cities were transformed. Engineers modernised economic, urban and transport infrastructure. When the world faced a potential agricultural crisis in the early 20th century, once again, it was engineers who helped avoid a Malthusian catastrophe. By coupling large-scale, high pressure engineering technology with an innovative chemical process, humankind was able to produce enough food through a new generation of nitrate fertilisers.
Engineers have been pivotal to this modern age, and have solved the defining problems of their time.
The Dual Challenges Of Sustainability and Complexity
We have come a long way from the steam engine to the integrated circuit. But progress has exacted a price, and some of the greatest technological triumphs led to unintended consequences. Glittering new interstate highway systems feed traffic into gridlocked cities. In the supposed safety of the home, personal computers open private citizens to a network of vulnerabilities and cyber-risks. Sophisticated products of chemical plants stand beside leaking barrels of hazardous wastes. I’m sure you see the irony.
Increasingly, we recognise that problems cannot be solved in isolation. Everything is inter-connected. This is why sustainability has emerged as the foremost challenge of our time.
What qualifies as ‘sustainable’? In simple terms, growth and development should not irreversibly damage our living environment. Yet dig a little deeper, and we find a multiplicity of issues intertwined in complex ways: relating to water, energy, agriculture, sanitation, human health and security.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the world’s population stood at around 750 million. By 2050, we can expect more than 9 billion people on Earth . Most of these people will reside in cities and urban areas, doubling the number of urban dwellers to 6.4 billion . Imagine what their demands on the world’s finite resources will be.
And to say we are merely faced with resource constraints is to oversimplify the situation. The issues compound one another.
a. A person may only drink a few litres of water each day, but it takes 2,000 to 5,000 litres to produce his or her daily food intake . High-yield varieties of cereal, originally designed to boost food supply, can be more water-intensive than traditional varieties .
b. Billions of litres of water are used in energy production and industry every day . In turn, millions of kilowatt-hours of energy are used for desalination of water across the globe .
c. Human activities result in the dumping of two million tons of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste every year into the world’s waterways .
d. Simultaneously, tens of billions of tonnes of carbon emissions are released to the atmosphere. Consider how climate change exacerbates out problems by altering the Earth system and, in turn, its resource flows.
We can no longer focus on increasing supply and lowering cost. It is important to break the cycle of “robbing from Peter to pay Paul”, and stop borrowing on the future of our children to meet the demands of the present.
For the greater part of human history, innovators were not asked to see beyond their specialist fields of work. This is not to say that great ideas never arose from cross-fertilisation, but most relied on serendipity rather than conscious integration. It was only in the mid-to-late 20th century that the ‘systems approach’ materialised as a formal area of study.
Engineers must first understand how natural systems and man-made systems intersect; and reductionist thinking is only one component in a web of interdisciplinary collaboration. Educators must therefore train engineers to be more than just practitioners. In a complex world, what is needed is innovation through integration.
Integration of Knowledge in Singapore
In Singapore, we understand all these dilemmas precisely because we are resource-poor. With a land area of just over 700 square kilometres, our water catchment and agricultural areas are limited. We import virtually all our food and energy, and much of our water.
So what does ‘innovation through integration’ mean to Singapore? I’d like to raise three brief examples of systems-level thinking.
The first relates to the cycle of feedback between waste, energy and climate change.
In Singapore, we recycle and incinerate all but a few percent of our solid waste. Through this initiative, we maximise our precious land resource and directly minimise landfill. In the process, we also avoid creating excess methane, a greenhouse gas with more than twenty times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. For any waste that we do incinerate, not only do we enforce tight pollution controls, we also harvest a significant amount of clean energy. By understanding consequences and inter-linkages, Singapore reaps benefits in multiple domains.
The second example stems from our approach to transform the used water system.
Singapore embarked upon the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) project in the 1990s, as we sought a new paradigm for sewage handling amid the pressures of an increasing population, economic growth as well as rapid urbanisation.
Comprising two large tunnels running across the island complemented by an extensive link sewer network, the DTSS conveys used water by gravity to the two centralised water reclamation plants. Apart from being a cost-efficient solution to meet our long term needs for used water collection, treatment, reclamation and disposal, this innovation eliminates the need for intermediate pumping stations and mains, thus freeing up close to 900 hectares of land, which is equivalent to about 3 times the size of our Central Business District. The phasing out of these pumping stations and mains will also greatly enhance the operational reliability of the used water system and in turn enhance the water quality of the seas surrounding Singapore. By centralising the water reclamation at two plants, this also provides a ready feedstock for production of reclaimed water, or what we call NEWater, thus further strengthening our water resources by closing the water loop.
The third example extends beyond engineering, and I hope people in the audience find resonance with your own work.
In the tropical environment of South-east Asia, vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever are endemic to the region. Had we worked in silo, our health agencies would merely tackle treatment and the environment agencies would tackle extermination of disease-bearing mosquitoes. But we prefer a holistic approach, fully examining the circumstances in which the disease arises.
It starts with performing surveillance on multiple fronts. Cases in humans are quickly and reliably diagnosed. We track not only mosquito population densities, but the characteristics of the dengue virus itself. This allows us to identify mutations early and pre-empt full-blown outbreaks. With a deepened understanding, we are able to better research and develop control methods, whether chemical or biological .
Partnerships lie at the heart of our work, allowing us to tap on the expertise of medical laboratories, hospitals, research institutes, commercial entities and field operations. Our toolbox contains virological and entomological studies; epidemiology; environmental modelling and risk analysis.
But we do not forget there is another dimension besides science and technology. Human behaviour has to be taken into account – negligence that creates mosquito breeding grounds must be addressed through enforcement or building awareness. To use an analogy, leaving out these soft factors is like building only half a bridge.
An Engineer For All Seasons
We know the challenges are complex and ever-evolving. Yet we have the capacity to overcome them. To do so, today’s engineering education must stand up to the demands of tomorrow. It must equip people to tackle problems not yet identified, issues that have yet to become fashionable.
Not all engineers will eventually practise, but all engineers should carry the skills that their education confers on them. Intellectual rigour and technical competency are merely the starting requirements. At the next level, they must develop creativity and turn it towards enterprise. They need to be tested; real-world problems require tenacity and the courage to brush aside failure. Ultimately, success will come to those who have a breadth of vision and can transcend their own subject, applying expertise outside their domain and pulling together different threads into a holistic solution that addresses real world complexities. The best engineers are those who understand that engineering exists not for its own sake, but for the sake of society.
Closing
I would like to add one more note of encouragement for you: Singapore’s National Innovation Challenge was announced last month by the Prime Minister at the end of meeting of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. With endorsed funding of S$1billion over 5 years, the National Innovation Challenge seeks to harness multi-disciplinary research capabilities, so as to develop impactful and innovative solutions to large, complex challenges facing Singapore. The first national innovation challenge is “Energy Resilience for Sustainable Growth,” which aims to develop cost-competitive energy solutions for deployment within 20 years to help Singapore improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and increase energy options. The National Innovation Challenge will open up an exciting new frontier for Singapore and we hope it will inspire new heights of ingenuity in the engineering community. Modern nations have to encourage innovation so that humanity thrives in a sustainable world.
In closing, let me once again encourage all of us who are engineers and in the field of engineering education to look beyond our immediate horizons having mastered our domains into the wide and rich tapestry of innovation and human endevour. As integrators of knowledge and skills we can continue to make the world a better place.
Thank you, and enjoy the rest of the conference.