KEYNOTES

Abstract

In a world driven by knowledge economy, education lifts people out of poverty.  In a globalized world economy, the manufacturing of technologies is not localized in one part of the world.   Hence, when a populace is highly educated, they can benefit by participating in the technology and manufacturing sector of the world.  Engineers make products.  The more high value-added are the products, the more wealth they can bring to a society.  Hence, technology like wireless communication and the internet actually helps the flow of wealth to previously unreachable parts of the world.  

Engineering education can enhance the technological sophistication of the populace, and allows them to shift from an agrarian economy to a technology-based economy.   This paradigm shift has lifted over 260 million people out of poverty in China, who produces over 700,000 engineers a year.   Hence, engineering education can create wealth for a nation that is previously impoverished.