There is a history of the technical marvel IMEC in presentation form. In it, Professor Hugo De Man characterized his closest colleague the late Professor Roger Van Overstraeten as a ‘visionary Fleming’. According to Professor De Man, it had always been the intention "to put Flanders on the map of the industry of the future by training a generation of engineers who, in addition to a solid scientific basis, also have an eye for the social and economic progress of the people."
We did indeed have some professors at our University of
Leuven who gave a little more than the sober lessons. On the one hand they
tried to teach us a kind of entrepreneurship and on the other hand they
reminded us of our social role and our social responsibility. Entrepreneurship
was not an end, but rather a means to improve the socio-economic fabric of
society and the common good. This may all sound rather obvious, but it never was,
on the contrary. Not all colleagues showed the same interest in social themes. Deep
specialisation threatened to suck many fellow engineers into the deep oblivion
pit of the professional nerds. It didn’t end up that bad, however. The problems
to be solved became so complicated that only good teamwork proved to have a
chance of success. Furthermore, new developments are now being evaluated very
thoroughly in terms of their social relevance. After my studies, at the
engineering association and at the European
Young Engineers, I met
many like-minded people.
The profession of engineer is indeed a wonderful profession,
although
it sometimes takes courage. It certainly deserves promotion among the
various groups that are still underrepresented in this profession. But the
beauty of it all is that I became more and more aware that I did not have a
profession but a vocation. In "Science
as a vocation" we already saw that this vocation can be described as a
kind of apostolate in the industrial landscape.
I also refer to my blogs: "The
Why of Technology” and to “The
Trap of Technology".
Picture: Brussels Airport Runway, courtesy Jan Straus
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