March 4, 2022 is the world’s third “World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development” of UNESCO. “Build Back Wiser-Engineering the Future” is the theme this year, which aims to highlight the importance of engineering in the recovery of the pandemic around the world and the accelerated building of a sustainable future. In order to welcome the 2022 “World Engineering Day”, Gong Ke, the president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations), delivered a speech, inviting the global engineering community to celebrate together!

Dear colleagues and friends, 

The third World Engineering Day (WED) —March 4th is coming right up. WFEO has proposed to establish such a World Engineering Day for celebrating engineering achievements and mobilizing engineers across the world to accelerate the actions of implementing the SDGs. This proposal was officially adopted by UNESCO in 2019.

In spite of the pandemic, the World Engineering Day had been celebrated by engineering organizations, academies, industrial companies, civil societies as well as governments, with strong support by United Nations bodies. Especially at last year’s World Engineering Day, we have witnessed the launch of the second UNESCO Engineering Report, which is a milestone report in the global development of engineering. 

Over two years into the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have witnessed the engineering approaches and key technologies help to combat against COVID-19 as well as in maintaining productions and services. In the meanwhile, we strongly realize that the world should build back better and wiser to accelerate the transformation to a sustainable future, in which engineers have a crucial role to play. This is why the theme of this year’s World Engineering Day is set as “Build Back Wiser: Engineering the Future”.

To build back wiser, the foremost consideration is to leveraging science, technology and engineering in a more open, innovative and responsible way. For all engineering practitioners, it is required to better master the necessary knowledge and skills for promoting sustainable development, especially to make use of digital technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things to meet the pressing global challenges, such as the code red alarm of climate change, increasing natural and man-made disasters and different forms of inequalities. In particular, we need to engage with more young people, women, and girls so that they are fully motivated to be part of this innovative profession. 

We started this year’s celebration with the World Engineering Day Hackathon. More than 120 student teams from 24 countries participated in this global competition. They have submitted various innovative engineering solutions to real-world problems. It is exciting to see so many young people engage themselves in an attempt to develop enabling engineering for sustainable development goals.

To build back wiser, the global partnership and collaboration of engineering, industry and governments are of paramount importance. On 4th of March, we will host a 24-hour global live broadcast to celebrate this festive moment, to showcase excellent engineering practices in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in different parts of the globe, to provide opportunities for all stakeholders to exchange their experience, ideas, and to learn from each other, and to cooperate with each other.

We welcome the international community to celebrate the World Engineering Day with us together and to leverage the systematic wisdom of science, technology and engineering to work collectively for building back wiser and to shape a more sustainable future of humankind and the earth.

Thank you！

(Edited by Nankai News Team)