By Mario Chong, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Innovation and Design Engineering of the UP
In recent months, we have witnessed an exponential advance in technological development, especially with the irruption of various tools for Artificial Intelligence (AI) available to everyone. The speed with which these innovations arise is overwhelming, but should not surprise us: the history of humanity has always been marked by a constant search for overcoming. We go from the Eras of stone, bronze and iron, to the successive industrial revolutions – mechanization, industrialization, the age of information and, more recently, digitalization. Today we are in a new stage that redefines how we produce, learn and work.
IA tools have the ability to process and regenerate structured and unstructured information at an unimaginable speed just a decade ago. It is not just about automating tasks, but about transforming the way we generate knowledge. This evolution raises background questions: What value does formal training have – in colleges, institutes and universities – in front of a world to search, solve, correct or present something seems to be a “click” away?
Far from subtracting relevance to education, this context leads us to a revaluation of basic sciences – mathematics, physical, chemistry, biology— and of the engineering that apply them in various fields. Indeed, when one wonders, with support of the same AI tools, what are the most demand professions, which will be in the next 20 years or which offer greater return on educational investment, the response converges in those disciplines capable of combining solid foundations with adaptation capacity.
The engineering It is a clear example. Beyond operating machines or dominating software, today’s engineers must be able to generate products, services and processes in increasingly changing environments. Its role is not only technical, but also strategic: analyze contexts, design innovative solutions and make decisions based on knowledge that is permanently regenerated.
This challenge implies a transformation for the education sector. The training of new professionals cannot be limited to transmitting content; You should focus on cultivating the ability to learn continuously, integrate various disciplines, use technological tools in a critically and responsible way, and act ethics. Ethics, in particular, becomes an indispensable axis in a scenario where technology advances faster than regulatory frameworks and where the impact of each innovation has social, economic and environmental effects.
Engineering, then, becomes a bridge between technological advances and society’s needs. Engineers must be creators of diverse business environments, knowledge integrators and innovation agents. And although the AI and other emerging technologies will mark the rhythm of the next decades, it will be professionals with deep and flexible knowledge who shape the future.
We are facing a historical opportunity. If we get engineering education to evolve at the same rate as technology, we will not only have competitive professionals, but also citizens capable of facing the ethical, economic and social dilemmas that this vertiginous change brings. Because, in the end, what will define the next stage of humanity will not be only technology, but the way we know how to use it to create a more fair, sustainable and inclusive future.
