Engineers are involved in an intense creative process. The engineer operates or designs under
constraints, so to speak. His work includes the design of devices, components, subsystems and
systems. He does all these just to make sure that he creates directly or indirectly to an
improvement in our quality of life.

Technology is the outcome of engineering and the engineer cannot survive without it.
Historically, technological advances, such as the airplane, steam engine, and internal combustion
engine are all the tell-tale signs of improvement in engineering.

Engineers, whether civil or otherwise are individuals who have deep background in education
and experience and they are considered people who "think for a living." Though the phrase
“think for a living” may also apply to doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, financial analysts and
architects, more important is the role of engineers who penetrate every other sector including the
health sector nowadays, to add value to those sectors. Above all, the engineer speaks through an
international language of mathematics, science, and technology. Without these three, the
engineer is nowhere to be found.

There are no two ways about it, businesses must increase their dependence on information
technology and so should the engineer who is a watchdog for innovation. The number of fields in
which the consulting engineer must operate has expanded dramatically and the provision of IT
tools makes the engineer’s task easier.

The Role of Technology in Modern Times

In the past and at the present time, changes in the engineering profession and engineering
education have followed changes in technology and society. However, the consulting engineer
must forge ahead of others in the acquisition of knowledge in a bid to stay relevant in our
society. Technology changes occur faster than many other changes. But the Nigerian consulting
engineer must stay on top of his game because the normal IT tools, computers or software may
not be available to him. To succeed or successfully compete with his foreign counterpart, the
local engineer must acquire and utilize these tools.

It is paramount that the consulting engineer anticipates needed advances and prepare for a future
where it will provide more benefit to humankind. In like manner, engineering education needs to
evolve to do the same. The challenges engineering students in Nigeria face today must be
eliminated or reduced to the barest minimum to give room for the achievement of tangible
technological growth by the practicing consulting engineer.

Technology has done a lot and is still doing magnificent things for us all today. To it, major
sectors turn in order to stay on top of their games. Technology has among other things enabled
humans to live longer, it is making it easy for us to communicate in ways unimaginable in the
twenty first century. It is creating wealth and economic growth by bringing the virtues of

innovation to the fore and enhancing functionality to the economy by using more sophisticated
approaches to constructing great modern edifices and manufacture products consumed by people
whose wants are seemingly never satiated.

The Nigerian consulting engineer

For the Nigerian consulting engineer, he must be ready to grasp even more remarkable
opportunities that are fast approaching through new developments in nanotechnology, logistics,
biotechnology, and high-performance computing. At the present time, the afore-mentioned areas
need more attention if the Nigerian engineer is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his foreign
counterpart. As we all see today, new challenges and opportunities are emerging as a
consequence of rapidly improving technological capabilities in such nations as India, China and
Nigeria is in no way left out of these developments, much as we find that foreigners are apt to
further build their careers in Nigeria.

Technological innovations, in-so-far as they occur in a way which not all of us can come to grips
with; these innovations are occurring at a surprising pace, especially those in information and
communications technology, which are mostly apparent to the public and this has important
implications for the engineering practice and engineering education in the future.

The Consulting Engineer and the Future

No doubt, consulting engineers in Nigeria are anticipating how relevant their practice will be in
the future, say, five to ten years from now. The same can be said about engineers in the
developed world. It is difficult for anyone to predict the future and that future, to the practicing
consulting engineer in Nigeria may appear bleak. However, there is hope when local engineers
do not rely completely on the tools, or ideas of their foreign counterparts. In this dispensation,
the local consulting engineer must fashion out a way to keep ‘thinking for himself’ because it
appears that this is one of the few ways he could survive.

It is significant that the consulting engineer devise flexible strategies that are adaptable to
changing conditions. He must be able to comprehend multiple possibilities. This approach to
changes in the future is most beneficial since he does not have to lean on a lonely narrow lane to
solve his challenges.

For one thing, change will continue to be driven by developments in technology. Yet, the
engineer, or the scientist does not in any way belittle the good that current technologies can do,
not only now but also in the future. Technologies that are on the horizon today will hopefully be
developed to a stage where they will be indispensable to the commercial world and optimised to
take care of societies’ needs.

Yet, it will be very unreasonable for us to believe that engineers will always rely on the
technological tools they have now to solve all of tomorrow’s problems. They will continue to
match up with constant change by creating new technologies, especially in the area of
information technology. As our society becomes more and more commercialized, the importance
of technology will be emphasized the more and the new technologies created will be fully
appreciated by all engineers, regardless of what their specialties may be. Of course, there will be
new societal implications for new technologies created. These implications will be anticipated and a way to overcome them may already be in place. However, it is hoped that both the political
and societal implications coupled with the new technologies will hold out a great potential for
the practicing engineer globally, so to speak.

Furthermore, the practicing engineer will want to know more on how to develop better tools in
the future, to predict natural disasters, to speed up recovery from disastrous events, to be able to
predict dangers and minimize their impact.

Engineering and the Health Industry

There is ample reason to believe that the field of industrial and systems engineering has the
potential to make significant contributions in achieving an ideal health care delivery system
through use of tools, techniques and methods that allow for development of various solutions.
Using technological tools, the practicing engineer has in recent times found his way deeper into
the health industry. For the health industry, clinical engineers respond to changes by developing
strong relations with the IT world in hospitals. Clinical engineers make it possible for hospitals
to achieve the maximum levels of efficacy and safety as new technologies are deployed.

What are some of the anticipated benefits? According to a report published by the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, the health care industry can benefit from improvements
adopted by industrial and systems engineering breakthroughs if those processes are applied in a
consistent way. Systems engineering breakthrough techniques have been used in health care to
make improvements on a small scale, such as creating efficient scheduling of patients in a small
practice or decreasing waiting times in a hospital emergency department.

Real tangible benefits are yet to be seen in large-scale widespread use of the technique for
significant advances in the delivery of health care. It is hoped that as the result of better
engineering methods, improvements will occur naturally in more complicated units of the health
industry.

Civil Engineers and the use of IT

Information technology is synonymous with progress. According to Murray Gell-Mann, "We
need to move from the sage on the stage to the guide on the side." In a rapidly moving world, we
now have information technology, and we have the Music Television generation, Generation X,
and what have you?

The role of information technology in educating the engineer to be capable for challenges in
2020 is indispensable. University lecturers and professors must desire to understand and
capitalize on the role of information technology in teaching and learning on residential
campuses. Information technology is a powerful reality, an indispensable, rapidly developing and
empowering tool.

The Internet and computers can empower engineering schools. These are tools that can be used
to send information outward, beyond the campus boundary. These tools can also bring the
external world to the campus.

Information technology is a tool that can also create learning communities across time and
distance. Users of IT can access, display, store, and manipulate profound amounts of
information: text, images, video, and sound. It can provide design tools and sophisticated
simulations that aid miraculously, the performance of an engineer. The Nigerian engineer does
well when he takes advantage of open-source software which are available online to teachers and
learners and to everyone else. This is usually the best way for the engineer who thrives on a tight
budget.

Civil engineers have one of the world's most important jobs: they build our quality of life. Civil
engineers plan, design, construct and operate the facilities essential to modern life, ranging from
bridges and highway systems to water treatment plants and energy-efficient buildings. These
engineers are problem solvers, meeting the challenges of pollution, traffic congestion, drinking
water and energy needs, urban redevelopment and community planning. These endeavors can
meet with more progress with the use of information technology.

In Nigeria, technological revolution aids the rapid engineering growth and as the world's
population increases, as environmental concerns mount, civil engineering skills will be needed
all the more throughout the world. Whatever area the practicing engineer chooses, be it design,
construction, research, planning, teaching or management; civil engineering offers a wide range
of career choices for the human race.

Conclusion

Now is the time to inculcate in the minds of those contemplating the civil engineering field that
they must possess skills in information communication technology and the use of computers and
cherish advanced knowledge in a specific area within the civil engineering platform.

Contemporary engineers will work more in teams, be affected by globalization, new materials
and increased use of computer applications. Robotics and computer skills are also highly
cherished in civil engineering as automation and information technologies continue to evolve in
the civil engineering workplace. Yet, it is only by constantly upgrading his skills and continuing
his education long after bachelor’s degree, will the consulting engineer in Nigeria survive.