The World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) held its biennial General Assembly on 9 and 10 March 2022 in San José, Costa Rica. In this framework, WFEO also held its Executive Board and Executive Council meetings, respectively on 6 and 8 March.
The meetings were hosted by WFEO’s national member representing Costa Rica, Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos de Costa Rica (CFIA), which also held the WES2022 international engineering conference.
Due to the pandemic context, those meetings were postponed from October 2021 to March 2022. In order to adapt to the uncertain situation, WFEO’s technical and policy committees’ meetings usually held in conjunction with the ones mentioned above were held online in February.
Meetings in San José were all held in hybrid format, allowing members to attend and vote online if travel regulations prevented them from participating in person. Despite the difficult context, some 30 national member institutions of WFEO of all continents sent a delegation to Costa Rica, and some 30 others participated virtually.
The WFEO General Assembly, 9 and 10 March 2022
Highlights of the General Assembly were the announcement of the results of the regular elections to the Executive Board and Council vacant positions. Amongst which:
- Mr Mustafa Shehu (Nigeria) was elected as President-elect. Mr Shehu will remain at WFEO’s Board in this position until the 2023 General Assembly, and will serve as President until the 2025 GA, and finally as Past President until the 2027 GA.
- Mr Ashok Basa (India) was elected Executive Vice-president until 2025 and Mr Seng Chuan Tan (Singapore) also, until 2023.
- Mr François Lureau (France) was appointed by the Board as Treasurer (until 2023), and was endorsed by the GA.
Prof. José Vieira (Portugal), chosen as President-elect in 2019, took on the Presidency at the end of the General Assembly, and congratulated the immediate Past President Prof. Gong Ke (China) for all of the achievements of his term.
The full composition of the renewed Executive Board and Council are to be found at https://www.wfeo.org/executive-board/ and https://www.wfeo.org/executive-council/
WFEO Executive Council members, present in Costa Rica. (click on the image to see it larger)
Other strategic decisions by the General Assembly included:
- Approval of a new Standing Technical Committee (STC) on Water, hosted by its national member for Spain, IES, which had been hosting a working group on this matter since 2019. The Water STC first term will be until 2025. The GA also approved the extension of the hosting term of the STC on Disaster Risk Management by WFEO’s national member for Peru (CIP), until 2025.
- Adoption of amendments to WFEO’s Constitution, in order to secure the principle of geographical balance of its national members at the Executive Council. This strengthens WFEO’s inclusiveness and relevance as the peak global organization for engineers from all over the world.
- Approval of the recommendations from the Awards Committee regarding the laureates of three WFEO’s 2021 awards. For 2021 awards, three independent jurys reviewed 31 applications for the WFEO Gree Women in Engineering Award, 32 applications for the Excellence in Engineering Education Medal and 21 applications for the Engineering Excellence Medal. The following laureates were approved:
- Wai Yie Leong (Malaysia) laureate of the WFEO Gree Women in Engineering Award
- Enzo Siviero (Italy) and Lock Kai Sang (Malaysia / Singapore) as co-laureates of the WFEO Medal for Excellence in Engineering Education
- Neil MacLeod (South Africa) as laureate of the WFEO Medal for Engineering Excellence.
The Laureates will be formally presented during an online ceremony, to be announced soon.
- Choice of the host of the 2027 World Engineers Convention (WEC), the “Olympics of Engineering” taking place every four years. The proposal for Montréal, presented by Engineers Canada and the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec was approved unanimously.
Finally, the GA unanimously endorsed the WFEO’s Board statement about the situation in Ukraine.
The WFEO Executive Council, 8 March 2022
This week was also the one of celebrating the third UNESCO World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (WED), an event that WFEO had designed and proposed to UNESCO in 2019, and is held every 4 March (the anniversary day of the WFEO’s creation under the auspices of UNESCO in 1968).
This year’s celebration’s highlights was an international engineering Hackathon on challenges related to some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The main Hackathon laureate was a team from the Philippines Batanga State University for their innovative method of developing water pollution cleanup from plastic recycling. Find more about the laureates and outcomes at https://www.wfeo.org/wed2022-hackathon-announcement/
The other main highlight was a 24-hour Live video event from eight streaming hubs hosted by WFEO members institutions (Australia, China, India, Ghana, U.K., France, USA, Costa Rica), showcasing the engineers’ many and diverse ways of helping to build a more sustainable and resilient world, from various contexts and perspectives.
Screenshot of the 24-hour Live video event
WED is a UNESCO International Day that belongs to everyone. Any individual, university, company or NGO is welcome to organize its own celebration and register on WED’s official website, as to request UNESCO’s patronage and logo. To celebrate WED2022, WFEO is thankful for its fruitful cooperation with UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector, as well as with its partnering institutions, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC), the International Engineering Alliance (IEA), the International Network for Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES) and Engineers Without Borders (EWB).
MAR
2022