Taking advantage of the common research they had been carrying out since signing a cooperative agreement in 1984, French and American researchers from the Conféference des Grandes Ecoles, the University of California at Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology organized a first Symposium in Paris, May 1991. European and American academics, industrialists and government officials reviewed the state of advanced technological fields. They focused on the new economic and industrial challenges faced by our society and underlined the new dialectics of international relations, coupling cooperation and competition.
These considerations led them to review the traditional training of the scientists and engineers who will increasingly have to work on several fronts: scientific, technological and industrial but also social and human. How should we go about developing a more comprehensive view of these multiple aspects? This question was the theme of Symposium II, "The culture of engineering in a rapidly changing world", which took place in Berkeley in November 1993. The need was underlined for a new culture of engineering: it should not only be based on solid scientific knowledge and the ability to master new technologies, but also integrate human and social sciences and enable a new form of relationship, the "competitive partnership".
Technology appears to be the basis for the global society of the future, leading to drastic changes in worldwide exchanges and creating new adaptive challenges. Conversely international competition and interdependencies strongly impact research, development and implementation of new technologies and their viability. This is the theme proposed for the third Symposium, "A new technological system for a global society", which will take place in Sophia-Antipolis in the south of France on May 27-30, 1996.
Symposium III will gather scientists, industrialists, economists, academics and decision-makers from Europe, North America and, for the first time, Asia. Together they will attempt to get a clearer view of the current evolution, examining in particular the new global technological system which is emerging. They will also review strategies that individuals, corporations and governments could adopt to balance socio-economic development, employment and the protection of the environment.
About 200 participants from the scientific, academic, industrial communities with a few students and post-doctoral researchers.
European Union 120 (including 60 French participants)
Central Europe 10
North America 60
Asia-Pacific 10
Invitees include 15 Directors of "Grandes Ecoles", 15 Deans and Rectors of European universities, 30 Presidents and Deans of American and Asian universities, 30 public figures from European and American corporations.
Pour avoir des informations sur le Symposium -- en Français ou
en Anglais --, envoyez un courrier électronique à / For
inquiries about the Symposium -- in English or French -- send email
to: Jack Kessler at kessler@well.sf.ca.us or Jean -
Pierre Tubach at tubach@ds.enst.fr
or M. Bernard Sutter at sutter@paris.ensmp.fr.
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Symposium Web site sponsored by the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE Web management by Roy Tennant at manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu Maintained at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/IS3/ |