Engineering in the last century gave us large, systematic, exciting new ways to sense and measure our environment, in the process creating (and more importantly distributing) massive universal social benefits, not only for people everywhere but even for other species in our ecosystem. Satellite mapping of the earth, combined with the GPS network, has given anyone anywhere the ability to map geo-space with precision and utility unimagined by our ancestors. Similarly, VLS Radio Telescope Arrays have given us the ability to map and understand outer space and our position in the universe in ways previously impossible. 

Yet for one of the most important environments of human well-being--social space--we don’t even have a good map, let alone an active sensor array. And such an array would be, for the social sciences, the kind of engineering feat that the telescope has been for astronomy and the microscope for biology.

For Peace Engineering, a good map of social space is both a necessary technical foundation, a worthy research challenge, an eminently fundable proposition, and--bonus--a very buildable project, requiring no new technology. And, through a convenient and fortuitous alignment of pre-existing technologies, it is a massively collaborative research project that, it turns out, any engineer (or engineering student) in any workplace in the world, has multiple opportunities and incentives to participate in. 

In this talk with the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), you will get an overview of this fascinating opportunity, and an introduction to how you can be a part of this inspiring project. 

Peace Engineering is a newly emerging field that includes a focus on measurably improving positive peace through an engineering skill-set and perspective. The Global Society for Peace Engineering (GSPE) is a new professional society, which will provide initial education and certification for future Peace Engineers, as well as helping to build curricula for Peace Engineering Consortium universities, and a network for PE students and practitioners.