Abstract:

“The future is here” has been the very quote that has echoed across the media for many decades [1]. Whether it be to announce the latest in cutting edge technology that benefits the population such as the automobile, the airplane, electricity, the phone, and most importantly, the computer. It has been seen time and time again where an innovation has changed the world in great ways to either connect people faster or to make our lives much easier. However, thanks to advances in computing and computer science, society has begun to find itself in front of an innovation expected to change the world as a whole which is known as automation. Automation has existed since the industrial revolution and is used widely in many areas of manufacturing. It has existed since the creation of the production line where a large machine could perform a repetitive action to help assemble products. This type of machinery has found many innovations of its own primarily that of running on electricity as opposed to steam and using computers to control it. Today, most electric machinery makes use of computers to program and control their movements for quick and precise movement allowing the miniaturization of many electronics thanks to surface mount electronics and affordable cars thanks to automated production lines. Since the beginning of these machines, many workers have found their choices for employment reduced, while the doors for other options have increased. This has been changing in recent years as computing and software has improved to lengths that new technologies such as machine learning have become more capable of even replacing workers in desk jobs with higher productivity. This is where a possible problem may arise. If machines were capable of learning and doing complex tasks, would the entire human workforce be obsolete? If such an event were to occur, how would it affect developing countries like Mexico? In this paper we discussed the implications of future automation for developing countries which supply with cheap labor to the United States and also exports manufactured goods to the most powerful country on earth [2[3]], which will lead the automation race in the next years. The engineering curricula of different Mexican universities are reviewed in order to examine which ones will be better prepared for the upcoming automation wave. Each of these Mexican institutions, which teach engineering, have been created for distinct reasons with different histories. For the current times, it seems that all Mexican institutions focus on the same goal, which is not only to prepare students for a job, but to educate them for the next generation of discoveries and innovation. The curricula of these universities tell a different story.

References:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSKi8HfcxEk
[2] N. Domínguez-Vergara and R. Vela-Coreño, “Y los veneros de petróleo del diablo”. GSM SA de CV. Mexico. May 2015. In Spanish.
[3] N. Domínguez-Vergara, “La dependencia tecnológica en la Reforma Energética,” Alegatos, no. 91, pp. 605-630, 2015. In Spanish.

Keywords:

Automation, developing countries, engineering education, future jobs.