The role of the Hemisphere of the Americas

1. Engineering Skills for Global Economy The role of the Hemisphere of the Americas Authors: Luiz Carlos Scavarda do Carmo Jorge P. Dalledonne de Barros Lueny Morell Russel C. Jones Presentation: Ana Pavani File: Scavarda_ICEE05.ppt

2. The Waves Of Globalization This moment is characterized by a wave of the globalization processes dominated by industries distributed in international supply chains and large commerce of intermediary products. This present wave co-exists with the precedent waves responsible for globalization of finances and markets. The two initial waves have dealt with virtual processes, such as transfer of monetary values, and distribution of final products. This third wave, nevertheless, means much denser trade and exchange of intermediate products, in addition to information, requiring a deeper and well-established infrastructure of logistics, technical personnel and mutual understanding.

3. The Quest (I) The main quest is: To Investigate if there are models that could offer new opportunities to developing countries within the new productive system.

4. The Quest (II) Geographical connectivity became a relevant asset in this process, marked by a profound need for competitiveness. The asymmetries in the western hemisphere will certainly provide the need for an initial strong approximation among Latin American institutions and the strengthening of existing supra-National agreements, followed by a further continental integration with North America.

5. The Quest (III) One important aspect to solve this quest is to improve the quality the local workforce, particularly on the area of Engineering. This work force must have international vision. Possible mechanisms of international accreditation must mimic, to a certain extent, the overall political vision of hemispheric integration.

6. The Mirror and It´s reflections (I) Is there a magic mirror that would allow us to see the path to the integrated process of regional development? Could India be a good example? The countries of the world are in the middle of a revolution and “The revolution's name is offshoring”, “while the concept is not new – (…) – what is different of late is the huge number of white-collar jobs that are being relocated abroad, and at a tempo and scale never witnessed before”.(Meredith 2005).1 1. Meredith, R., The Next Wave of Offshoring, Far East Economic Review, 2005

7. The Mirror and It's reflections (II) There are two lines of thinking: one assumes that the American economy has to create protections against the offshoring movement, while the other assumes it is possible to integrate the economies with specific improvement of competitiveness and profits for each side. A new approach to offshoring would allow developed countries the possibility of reorienting their researchers to new projects, and would also be a new opportunity for developing countries to shortcut into high technology.

8. The Basis (I) “The hemisphere of the Americas, nevertheless, has, on one hand, a much closer and similar recent historical background and linguistic similarities, as compared, for instance, to the Region of Europe” (Gainesville 2004)2 2. Scavarda-do-Carmo, L. C.; da Silveira, M. & Dalledonne-de-Barros, J. P., Engineering Education as a Logical Body for Modern Generalist Professionals, ICEE 2004, Gainesville

9. The Basis (II) How to create an infrastructure that would allow an effective connectivity among the nations? In this aspect, the role played by engineers is of utterly importance, Shuman (2004)3 “That science, technology, engineering, innovation, and education are fundamental to promote the integral development of the countries of the Americas, which encompass the economic, social, educational, cultural, scientific, and technological fields, as well as job creation to combat poverty, in the framework of protection of the quality of the environment and integration of the gender perspective in policies and to strengthen democracy”. (Declaration of Lima – 2004 - OAS – CIDI) 4 3. Shuman, L., Offshoring: The New Challenge for Engineering Educators, International Engineering Education Conference, 2004. 4. OAS - CIDI, DECLARATION OF LIMA, OES/Ser.K/XVIII, Inter-American Council for Integral Development, http://www.oas.org/document/ciencia_tecnologia, Lima-Peru, 2004.

10. The Target and Beyond (I) The opportunity offered by the offshoring process could be an alternative way to give coherence, credibility and liability to a possible positive moment within the globalization game. The Declaration of Lima4 and the Plan of Action of Lima (2004)5 were references and their results were important milestones to create the necessary connectivity that can allow the effective consolidation of a highly competitive economic region, but without the differences that exists today. 5. OAS - CIDI, PLAN OF ACTION OF LIMA, OES/Ser.K/XVIII, Inter-American Council for Integral Development, http://www.oas.org/document/ciencia_tecnologia, 2004, Lima-Peru, 2004.

11. The Target and Beyond (II) Engineering education has to be a reference to create and develop a proactive regional intelligence that will probably include the Latin Americans as affective agents and not patients of the globalization process. A continuous and permanent process must be developed step by step towards a model to guarantee a social welfare to the American community, talking the high-tech industry as an important vector of economic and social development.

12. Required Skills The required skills for a new engineer will be the results of an effort of several stakeholders of the new industrial processes. Nevertheless, a few basic skills are already clear: • International Vision • Market Perception • Cultural Sensitivity • Ability to understand distinct realities • Capacity to work in groups with diversities