A refractory engineering program for the 21st century

The Federation for International Refractory Research and Education (FIRE) has been conceptualized twenty years ago. At the time, its purpose was to maintain the training of graduated engineers to enroll and to adapt to the new business plans in the refractory industry. It was the blooming of the Information Age, of the knowledge workers.

This paper is about the need to adjust to a new era, knowing that the benefit of education prime value is its long-term value. To have an outer and an inner vision about innovation, the first part of the paper is concerned about how do we learn and how our brain rules. In the second part we try to anticipate the customers’ needs trying to surf with them on the Ecology wave, including the Environment, Energy, Economy, and Ethics other waves.

Accepting that this is already brewing at an accelerated rate, the conclusion is that FIRE and the other educators need to continue mimicking the CDIO (Conceive Design Implement Operate) approach which has inspired us for the last 20 years, for another 20 years, to adjust to the Conceptual Age in order to educate the creators and the empathizers who will direct the flow, in the refractory industry.