Contributors
Viewpoints from various contributors to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Updated when available.
Tuesday, March 14, 2000
The wired century
Top 10 engineering achievements changed people's lives
Now that all of the hype about the new millennium is finally subsiding and we're firmly into the year 2000, it's a good time to reflect on how far we've come. Most of us enjoy health and prosperity that people could only dream about 100 years ago. We can expect to live longer and healthier lives than at any other time in our nation's history. We have better pollution controls and safer drinking water. And our economy is booming, driven in large part by the constant development of new technologies.
I am proud to be a part of a profession that helped make these huge advances possible. That profession is engineering. And as the engineering enterprise brings us into the 21st century, it is vital to our quality of life and continued prosperity that we understand how technology has changed the world. This is especially important because the decisions that we make about our future - how to improve our schools, our infrastructure, our national security, and our economy - are closely tied to the technologies we command.
With this in mind, the National Academy of Engineering and a consortium of professional societies representing nearly every engineering discipline has recently undertaken a nationwide effort to identify and communicate the ways that engineering has changed our wold. The centerpiece of our work is a compilation of the greatest engineering achievements in the 20th century.
Most people might immediately think of single engineering achievements like the moon landing, which I consider to be the greatest single engineering project ever. But we were looking for advances that made profound and widespread differences in people's lives.
A look at some of them will give you a sense of how we chose from among many contenders. Most of the items on our list are so much a part of everyday life that people hardly stop to think about them. But these achievements really are the underpinnings of our society's successes.
Here's our top 10 list, starting from the bottom:
10. Air conditioning and refrigeration have provided improvements in comfort and health, and the ability to transport and extend the shelf life of food.
9. The telephone has made the world a smaller place.
8. The computer enables and connects many of these technologies.
7. Agricultural mechanization revolutionized the farming industry and vastly improved productivity.
6. Radio and television have not only provided great entertainment, they also changed how people view the world.
5. The electronics revolution, from vacuum tubes to the integrated circuit, is the fifth greatest achievement.
4. Water purification technologies have helped to deliver safe and abundant water supplies.
3. The airplane revolutionized the speed of travel.
2. The automobile has given us convenient transportation and it also brought us the assembly line. Mass-production systems engineered for the automobile changed the way nearly every product in the world is manufactured.
1. Electrification changed the country's economic development and gave the rural population the same opportunities and amenities as people in the cities. The other achievements on this list would not have been possible without this one. If anything shines as an example of how engineering has changed the world, it is clearly electric power.
This list, however, is more than a simple tally of engineering achievements. It's proof positive that the innovations made possible by the talented engineers of the world have truly transformed the way people live, and in a relatively short span of time.
Technological achievement is something to behold, and to celebrate. But achievement is only possible with the right groundwork. That foundation begins within our nation's educational system, through enhanced educational opportunities for all students, as well as support and encouragement for those who teach them.
By giving today's children the means to develop technological literacy, we'll be providing them with the tools they'll need to make as much progress in this new century as the last.
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