By Matilda Ikediobi

Experts in mechanical engineering have called for reforms in the education sector, saying Artificial Intelligence, AI, digital twin concepts, and data literacy be integrated into undergraduate and postgraduate engineering programmes through Outcome-Based Education, OBE, methodologies.

The experts said the successful adoption of smart engineering requires coordinated action in education and skills development, regulatory modernisation, infrastructure investment, research and pilot projects and public–private collaboration.

They spoke during a webinar titled: ‘Smart Engineering for a Sustainable Future,’ organised by the Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, NIMechE.

Those who spoke at the meeting included Dr Chinedu Ezenku, Professor Mohammed Umaru, Mrs Funmi Akingbagbo, and Professor Friday Ovat.

Rising from the meeting, the experts, in a communiqué, called for updated standards and regulations to enable digitalisation, data governance, and public–private partnership, PPP, models.

They also urged the promotion of African-owned solutions and the use of local data to reduce algorithmic bias and increase relevance. According to them, there is also a need to adopt guidelines for ethical AI use, data privacy, and environmentally responsible engineering practices.

They stated: “We must be honest about risks: a rapid, ungoverned roll out of compute heavy AImodels, or the uncontrolled expansion of data centers, can increase energy demand and generate e waste. For digitalisation to be truly sustainable, we must measure net environmental impact across the product and service lifecycle and choose energy aware algorithms, edge processing or renewable backed compute where appropriate.”