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.