Engineer, NITK's Technical Symposium will be held Feb 14 - 17, 2008. The subject of their "Last Word" discussion will be social responsibility. You will be ale to follow events through their blog. Will Universal Design be one of the approaches advocated?
The term “Social Responsibility” in the topic needs to be put in perspective first. It refers to the social relevance of various innovations and contributions of engineers to the nation. The topic, as professionals, are we giving back to the country, whatever we take from her? Are we doing enough to help the nation? This has been thrashed enough in many debates. Perhaps we should move beyond that to ask: If I’m an engineer, do I use entrepreneurial approaches to development / social innovation for my profit or to fulfill my social obligations? From a different viewpoint, even if we actually want to be “socially responsible” and contribute to the nation, how could we go about doing that? More significantly, is ensuring the social relevance of our actions a moral duty or just a little thing we do not need to bother about? Assuming that the need of social relevance is established, what should be driving our actions: Economic Imperative or Moral Imperative?
Here is a listing of "Last Word" panelists: http://engineerlastword.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/the-panelists-at-last-word-08/
Posted by rollingrains at January 19, 2008 05:14 PM