Impending Paradigm Shift in Engineering Sciences and Future Challenges

By Dinesh Kumar

1.0 Introduction within the context of the dominant

paradigm. Over time progress in normal
From urban centers to remote corners of science may reveal out the facts that are
Earth, the depths of the oceans to space, difficult to explain. However after
humanity has always sought to transcend significant efforts of normal science will fall
barriers, overcome challenges, and create in to paradigm shift, science may enter the
opportunities that improve life in our part of third phase that of revolutionary science in
the universe. which the underlying assumptions of the
field are reexamined and a new paradigm is
In the last century alone many great established. After the new paradigm's
engineering achievements became so dominance is established scientists return to
common in the day today life. Technology normal science solving puzzles within the
has made available on abundant supply of new paradigm. A science may go through
food and safe drinking water for much of the these cycles repeatedly, though Kuhn says
world. We can travel the globe with relative that it is a good thing for science that such
ease, and bring goods and services wherever shifts do not occur often or easily.
they are needed. Growing computer and
communications technologies are opening One of the ways we solve problems
up vast stores of knowledge and is by instinctively relating what we already
entertainment. As remarkable as these know to new problems and challenges.
engineering achievements are certainly just However if over time major problems in a
as many more great challenges and field cannot be solved by this method, more
opportunities remain to be realized. problems accumulate. We begin to ask
1.1 Evolution of science ourselves if there are other ways to look at
the situation perhaps it is time to change the
The are many theories on the basic "paradigms" of our thinking.
evolution of science, one theory says that it
does not emerge from the straightforward 2.0 Kuhn theory
accumulation of facts, but rather from a set
of changing intellectual circumstances and In 1962, Thomas S. Kuhn then a
possibilities in a linear fashion. budding philosopher and historian of
science, published a book called The
As per the Thomas S. Kuhn the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn
evolution of science was classified in three proposed a new way of looking at the
phases. The first phase is the pre-paradigm process by which the periodic, tradition-
phase in which there is no consensus on any shattering revolutions in the ongoing work
particular theory, though the research being of science come into being.
carried out can be considered scientific in
nature. This phase is characterized by Kuhn noted that throughout the history of
several incompatible and incomplete science, each advance noteworthy enough to
theories. Then the second phase normal be called a revolution was followed by a
science begins in which puzzles are solved change in the way the community of
scientists looked at familiar data. It was this laws, social attitudes and the way we work
new mindset on the part of scientists that are taking place with rapidity never before
advanced knowledge in a field because the known. Though these changes have
new ways of looking at problems provided generally been advances with more benefits
solutions not thought of previously. than drawbacks, they also have created new
Therefore he quotes textbooks that describe problems to solve.
scientific development as a linear process in
which scientists add another factor theory to 3.1 Knowing a Paradigm Shift
an existing body of knowledge are wrong.
Science develops in a non-linear “The  real  act  of  discovery consists not in
pattern. Each generation solves its own finding new lands but in seeing with new
problems not because the problems have eyes.”
changed but because the knowledge and — Marcel Proust    
mindsets of each generation change after
each scientific revolution. Paradigm shifts need to be
recognized before they can be acted upon.
3.0 Paradigms and the Process of shifting Joel Barker author of a book on paradigms
believes that most significant trends are
Changes in paradigms are called triggered by earlier paradigm shifts. He cites
paradigm shifts and shifts are strong enough today’s enhanced environmental
to attract a significant group of adherents consciousness on the part of industry as such
lead to basic and revolutionary change. a trend. Rachel Carson’s eye-opening book
History provides many examples of of the 1960s “Silent Spring” began a change
paradigm shifts. In science Galileo’s in public attitudes toward the environment.
17th century invention of a telescope for Major companies such as 3-M and
observation in the field of astronomy and his McDonald’s later recognized that
discovery of the laws of falling bodies and environmental awareness could benefit the
the motions of projectiles were paradigm bottom line and concern for the environment
shifts. His work initiated a scientific has become a sine qua non for most
revolution and underlay the later discovery businesses.
of the laws of gravity by Sir Isaac Newton in
itself another paradigm shift. Yet Galileo’s Other examples of trends triggered by
work was not initially accepted or earlier paradigm shifts include the Total
recognized as a paradigm shift by Quality movement that began in Japan in the
philosophers and academics of his time. His late 1950’s, spreading to manufacturing all
discoveries contradicted Ptolemaic over the world specialization and niche
astronomy and Aristotle's theories about the marketing, self-managing work teams,
nature of heavenly bodies. Many of the decentralization of corporate hierarchies.
scholars of his day viewed his work through And the view of poor people as worthy
a paradigm that was no longer valid and did credit risks, first in Bangladesh and now by
not realize that what they had encountered for-profit corporations in the U.S. and other
were their own “blindspots.” countries.

In our own time paradigm shifts seem to Barker points to Sony’s invention of
have become more the norm than the the Walkman as another example of a
exception. Profound changes in medicine, paradigm shift, this time in personal
transportation, the physical sciences, labor entertainment. The concept of mobile
communications is a direct descendant of the implications of their development they
Walkman, but it was not obvious in 1979 dismissed the technology which Japan
when Sony introduced the Walkman to the quickly snapped up. Meanwhile the Swiss
U.S. continued to improve upon what they had
been doing further refining the manufacture
As an example of a paradigm shift that of watch gears and springs and offering
was unrecognized and almost led to disaster, waterproof and self-winding watches, the
Barker recounts the story of the first meeting Japanese took over the market. The Swiss
between Sony and Philips of the Netherlands share of watch making collapsed from 65
to discuss worldwide audio standards, percent to less than 10 percent within 10
requested by Philips. Unknown to the years, and it took many more years for the
Philips researchers, Sony had stopped work Swiss to climb back up.
on their compact disk because they had
concluded that laser disks were not 3.3 Paradigm Change Has a Pattern
appropriate for music. Philips sent a small
team to Japan and showed the Japanese the As Kuhn pointed out changes in
prototype of the laser music disk on which paradigms have a predictable pattern.
they had been working, about one-half an Understanding this pattern improves our
inch larger than today’s disk. It seems that ability to manipulate the paradigm and to
the Philips’ director of research had asked use it for problem solving, Schematically
the music conductor Herbert von Karajan paradigms usually follow a curve. They first
what size he thought was appropriate for a ascend with a rush, then flatten out, and then
disk and he had replied “If you can’t get descend until conditions are again ripe for
Beethoven’s Ninth on one side it is not long another paradigm shift.
enough.” The slightly more than five-inch in
diameter disk was long enough.

3.2 The Cost of Blind spots

Other 
“We cannot look at the future as a theory
continuation of the past…The things that got
Khuns 
you where you are seldom the things that theory
keep you there.”
— Charles Handy,
British business philosopher

A blind spot is essentially a failure to see

beyond one’s basic assumptions about how Both Kuhn and Barker see common
things operate in a field. A famous example characteristics in pre- and post-paradigm
of an industry that did not recognize a situations. Instability often to the point of
change in its industry’s paradigm and paid turbulence characterizes both stages. In the
the price of this blind spot is the watch pre-paradigm phase most members of the
industry in the 1970s. Switzerland had long community are aware that there are a
been the world leader in watch production number of difficult or apparently unsolvable
and sales when in the late 1960s it invented problems in the field and would like to solve
the first quartz watch prototype. In an them. There is a general sense that things
astounding failure to recognize the need changing. But it is not clear in which
direction, or if the changes are temporary or • Generating power using nano
definitive. crystals
• Mass storage of solar power
4.0 To accept paradigm shift.  4.1.2 Provide energy from fusion
• Developing methods for commercial
A paradigm shift takes place when a production of electricity by fusion.
significant change happens - usually from • More support to International
one fundamental view to a different view. Thermonuclear Experimental
Commonly paradigm shift or transformation Reactor
will happen through the way we humans 4.1.3 Develop carbon sequestration methods
perceive events, people, environment and • Storing CO2 using absorbing towers
life altogether. The end results include • Effective disposal of the captured
varying degrees of negative and positive CO2
transformations. When a paradigm shift 4.1.4 Manage the nitrogen cycle
occurs in science, it has the violence of • De-Nitrification by creating Nitrous
revolution. The leaders of the dominating molecules
paradigm seem to ignore & derecognize • Sustainable food supply
those who are proposing the emerging 4.1.5 Provide access to clean water
paradigm. We must live with • The demands of water by
unpredictability because the new ways may interconnecting the rivers,
work for some time and then thrown back, desalination of sea water.
due to such factors as one not living by our • Recycling of waste water by Nano
principles, imperfect implementation, and filters
reaction from those holding on to the old
• Decentralized distillation units.
dominant paradigm. The only certain thing
4.1.6 Restore and improve urban
about life is only change.
infrastructure
• Developing sustainable
Change is constant, everyone has to
communities.
abandon their comfort zones to adapt to the
changes that are taking place. This transition • Nano materials required for eco
from the comfort zone to the uncomfortable friendly construction.
zone is painful. The old paradigm is a 4.1.7 Advance health informatics
dominant paradigm, which, if not abandoned Medical data base for every individual.
will ruin the growth and prosperity of the • Automatic monitoring devices.
individual, organization or society. Society • Surveillance & Detection of the
will never progress if old dominant environment.
paradigms continue to monopolise thinking. 4.1.8 Engineer better medicines
Several paradigm shifts can be identified in • DNA blueprint for invidual
the Management world: • Engineered nano particles for
delivering.
4.1 Potential areas where paradigm shift • Developing organism-specific
required antibiotics
• Synthetic biology
4.1.1Make solar energy economical 4.1.9 Reverse-engineer the brain
• Improving the efficiency from 10- • emulating human intelligence
30% of the current using panels • Brain’s secret communication code
remain to be deciphered
4.1.10 Prevent nuclear terror Each system that we use to deal with
• Securing the nuclear bombs. conflict is based on the implicit set of some
• Detection & immediate response basic assumption. But now by choosing the
plan. collaborative process the shift can be
4.1.11 Secure cyberspace achieved.
• better programming languages These are the following areas where our
• better security for data flowing change is required
• More cyber laws to be amended.
4.1.12 Enhance virtual reality • Out of box thinking.
• Engineering hurdles must be • Youth participation on research.
overcome • Basic and Directed Basic Research.
• Developing electrorheological fluids • Cross - Disciplinary Technology
4.1.13 Advance personalized learning Areas.
• Advances in neuroscience and
medical measurement technology. • Investments on R& D.
4.1.14 Explore the universe • Leveraging International
• Improved telescopes Collaboration.
• Bioreactors • Free knowledge sharing.
• Many conspiracy theories in • Academia Industry Interaction.
cosmology • Policy Issues.
4.1.15 Anti gravity devices
• Developing commercial devices
4.1.16 Zero Energy 5.0 Conclusion
• Developing the concept for energy The engineering community has
generation higher responsibility than any other to cater
the needs of the future. Fundamental
4.2 The Collaborative Process to achieve breakthroughs are required to open the way
Paradigm Shift towards radically new forms and handle the
earth & its ecosystem in a better way.
Today’s requirement and need for achieving
The last century scientific inventions are
the sustainability is a greater task hence our
based on the human need for the survival on
all our efforts have to focus on the
the earth but today our future challenges are
exploration of new and alternative ideas.
not for our survival it’s meant for the
Hence today on the engineers day we have
sustainability of the human mankind in the
to take the initiative to attain out future goals
earth. Already we have been pushed to take
with some specified time targets.
concrete steps over the environmental
issues. The global warming, energy demand
In the century ahead, engineers will
poses a great threat to the humans on his
continue to be partners with scientists in the
sustainability on the earth. Hence we are in
great quest for understanding many
need of some ground breaking inventions to
unanswered questions of nature.
prevent the future damages to the earth. We
are in the need of some inventions due to the
6.0 References:
accumulated environmental problems. To
achieve the shift we need to have a
1. T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
collaborative process.
Revolutions, 1st. ed., Chicago: Univ. of
Chicago Pr., 1962, p. 168.
2. Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of 5. www.greatachievements.org
Scientific Revolutions, p. vii, 3rd edition, 6. Philosophy of Paradigm Shift By Deepak
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill, Gokule
1996 7. Report on steering committee on Science
3. & Technology For Eleventh Five tear plan (
http://www.cpavision.org/vision/wpaper04b. 2007-2012),Planning Commission,
cfm Government of India, December 2006.
8. www.engineeringchallaenges.com
4. Barker, Joel A., Paradigms, The Business
of Discovering the Future, pp. 171-175,
Harperbusiness, 1993