Engineering for Change

Digital technology continues to transform the industries in which we work and communities we live. Amid this, we see a strong opportunity to apply digital transformation to drive innovation in global development and use technology to change the world in a positive way. In this spirit, I’m excited to share that Siemens is partnering with ASME’s Engineering for Change to host a design challenge to address some of the greatest needs facing humankind and we will award prizes of $10,000 USD each to the top two winning teams.

The goal of this challenge is to harness the power of the global engineering community to create solutions to address two of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals: zero hunger and clean water. Siemens will provide the software tools, training and platform to empower our employees and ASME’s engineering for change community to collaborate on this challenge and create a new future.

Food and water are two of our most basic human needs, yet, nearly one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted, and in developing countries, 40 percent of losses occur in the harvesting and processing phases. We want to help increase the global food supply by designing an efficient, low-cost, off-grid post-harvest preservation technology so we can reduce the farm-to-table food loss in settings that lack electricity.

Additionally, traditional sources of water are becoming increasingly unreliable. More than 97 percent of water on the Earth contains salt, making it unsuitable for drinking or farming. To improve access to clean water, we need a low-cost, energy-efficient, scalable technology for desalinating brackish water so it’s usable for drinking or farming.

While developing countries face the greatest need for these solutions, they can also be leveraged during any food or water crisis – including communities recovering from natural disasters. 

Siemens technology is already in the hands of companies around the world who are driving digital transformation into all industries. We want to provide our powerful software tools to engineers and organizations who share our vision for leveraging technology to create innovative solutions that serve society. Siemens Digital Industries Software supports the Innovate for Impact design challenge by providing Solid Edge software, training and certification to ASME’s Engineering for Change community members, Siemens global employees and our respective ecosystem partners, who are invited to work together on a co-creation platform, powered by Mendix. 

If you’ve never used Solid Edge before, this is a perfect reason to learn. Solid Edge is easy to learn and use, with many self-paced tutorials available online. Join the thousands of Siemens colleagues who use the software today either in their daily work or for their own hobby projects. While the software is very friendly and easy to use, you will discover that it also has robust design capabilities.

I encourage you to get involved, collaborate with colleagues and lend your ideas to help change the world by addressing the planet’s need for adequate food and clean water. We have the opportunity to improve lives and build stronger communities: are you up for the challenge?

Background Information: 

• Barbara Humpton partnership announcement
• Engineering for Change Siemens Challenge site