Citizen Engineer: A Handbook for Socially Responsible Engineering

“Engineers create many of the inventions that shape our society, and as such they play a vital role in determining how we live. This new book does an outstanding job of filling in the knowledge and perspective that engineers must have to be good citizens in areas ranging from the environment, to intellectual property, to ensuring the health of the innovation ecosystem that has done so much for modern society. This is exactly the sort of book that engineers and those who work with them should read and discuss over pizza, coffee, or some other suitable, discussion-provoking consumable.”

―John L. Hennessy, president, Stanford University

“Citizen Engineer is the bible for the new era of socially responsible engineering. It’s an era where, as the authors show, engineers don’t just need to know more, they need to be more. The work is an inspiration, an exhortation, and a practical how-to guide. All engineers concerned with the impact of their work―and that should be all engineers―must read this book.”

―Hal Abelson, professor of computer science and engineering, MIT

“Code is law. Finally, a map to responsible law making. This accessible and brilliant book should be required of every citizen, and especially, the new citizen lawmakers we call engineers.”

Being an engineer today means being far more than an engineer. You need to consider not only the design requirements of your projects but the full impact of your work―from an ecological perspective, an intellectual property perspective, a business perspective, and a sociological perspective. And you must coordinate your efforts with many other engineers, sometimes hundreds of them. In short, we’ve entered an age that demands socially responsible engineering on a whole new scale: The era of the Citizen Engineer.

This engaging and thought-provoking book, written by computer industry luminaries David Douglas and Greg Papadopoulos, focuses on two topics that are becoming vitally important in the day-to-day work of engineers: eco engineering and intellectual property (IP). Citizen Engineer also examines how and why the world of engineering has changed, and provides practical advice to help engineers of all types master the new era and start thinking like Citizen Engineers.

David Douglas is senior vice president of cloud computing and chief sustainability officer at Sun Microsystems. He oversees the strategy and execution of environmental initiatives across the company, including enhancements to Sun’s products in the areas of energy efficiency, cooling technologies, product recycling, and clean manufacturing. In addition, Dave is responsible for Sun's cloud computing business, with a focus on creating reliable, scalable, and sustainable computing and storage. He has been in the high-tech industry for more than two decades, including more than a decade of experience leading organizations to build more innovative, efficient, and eco-responsible products, and he has a long-standing passion about environmental issues. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. Dave sits on the board of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and is a senior fellow at the Breakthrough Institute. He currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts, with his family. Dave’s blog can be found at http://blogs.sun.com/enviro.

With more than 20 years experience in the technology industry, Greg Papadopoulos has held several executive positions, most recently serving as Chief Technology Office and Executive Vice President ― Research and Development at Sun Microsystems, Inc., responsible for managing Sun's technology decisions, global engineering architecture and advanced development programs.  Prior to Sun, Papadopoulos was Senior Architect at Thinking Machines and has also founded a number of his own companies.

Papadopoulos was an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where he conducted research in scalable systems, multi threaded/data flow processor architecture, functional and declarative languages, and fault-tolerant computing. He holds a bachelor's degree in systems science from the University of California at San Diego, as well as master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Papadopoulos resides in Los Gatos, California with his wife Laurie and has passions for cooking, wine and eco-responsible living.

John Boutelle has been a freelance writer for more than twenty years. During that time, John has worked with and interviewed hundreds of engineers and executives from a diverse range of enterprises worldwide, including Adobe, Apple, Cisco, General Electric, Hitachi, Lam Research, Nokia, Novell, Oracle, Pacific Bell, Seiko, Sony, Sun Microsystems, VeriSign, and dozens of start-ups. Previously he was editor-in-chief of the Orange County Business Journal in Santa Ana, California. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and a bachelor of arts degree from Pomona College. John resides with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.