Engineering Education for Future World-The CDIO Approach TEXT

In his book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman illustrates how around the year of 2000, the

world entered a whole new era of globalization, one that is governed by the power of

individuals to compete and collaborate globally. Technology has made the world flatter by

removing barriers to information and trade, which means that countries need to get moving if

they want to keep up in this global economy. Therefore, globalization should be the drive for

developed and developing Arab countries to devise strategies that will advance their

economies and societies.

Technology and knowledge are the basis for founding economic development. With

globalization accelerating the pace of change and the fact that success in knowledge-based

economies lies within the capacity of individuals, it becomes imperative to acquire problemsolvers

who are able to build the technical infrastructure required for sustainable change and

advancement. We believe and are confident that engineers are the ideal problem-solvers and

the key knowledge workers for capacity building and sustainable economic growth particularly

in emerging economies. It follows, then, that to effectively compete in a knowledge-based

economy, the Arab countries must invest in producing a large enough pool of highly qualified

and accredited engineering graduates to actively engage in technical capacity building in our

countries.