World Engineering Day 2024

The World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (WED) is an official International day proclaimed in by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This was based on a proposal from the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO).

WED is an opportunity to celebrate engineering and the contribution of the world’s engineers for a better, sustainable world. It was celebrated for its fifth time last 4th of March as an international celebration promoting the critical role of engineers and engineering to achieve a better and more sustainable world.

On this occasion, Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, delivered the message available in this page, and UNESCO organized a webinar on 4 March.

This year’s theme was “Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable World” and the main event was celebrated in Lisbon, Portugal, with a conference organized at the Ordem dos Engenheiros headquarters on 4 March.

Celebrations of World Engineering Day 2024 were very successful. The 24hrs Global Stream, Hackathon and other celebration events exceeded 67 million on social media (in terms of holistic potential reaches: all online activities across social media, shares, engagements, comments, views, hashtags and impressions), almost 10 million more than last year !

The 24hrs Global Stream, composed of 37 videos from 21 partners, has more than 29,000 viewers, making it one of the largest engineering events held in the world in 2024.

WFEO President Mustafa Shehu addressing the Opening Ceremony

WFEO Past President Marlene Kanga presenting the Hackathon Awards Ceremony

Chair of the WFEO Committee on Energy Marie-Line Vaiani presenting “The Reinforcement of the Energy Interconnections and the Optimization of the Energy Markets in Europe”

The presentations are available here.

The photos are available in this page.

Video of the “Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable World” conference – Part 1

Video of the “Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable World” conference – Part 2

As a most popular feature of WFEO’s organizing World Engineering Day, the Hackathon came back to encourage engineering students to work in teams towards a global real-world problem.

This year the competition went green, with all challenges aligning closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Climate Action.

We had over 2500 participants from across the globe who registered and we received more than 200 innovative submissions. The finalists’ submissions were shown on our 24h Global Stream on 4 March, as well as the announcement of the winners.

More information in this page.

Video of the announcement of the World Engineering Day Hackathon winners and finalists

The World Engineering Day LIVE Global Stream 2024’s edition showcased some of the biggest global celebrations around the globe.

The webinar “Engineering a Sustainable Energy Future: Innovative Solutions for a Better Tomorrow” held by UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector

#ThisIsEngineering clip from the Royal Academy of Engineering, Institution of Chemical Engineers and highlights from Switzerland, Costa Rica, Singapore, Malaysia, and China

Engineers Australia Symposium, #EngineeringChange Campaign of International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI)/WFEO and highlights from Australia and UK

World Food Program Webinar, Engineers Europe video presentation, Ingénieurs et scientifiques de France (IESF) conference & message from Saipem

There were 160 WED official celebrations all around the world, from conferences and webinars to fun runs and social events. This acknowledged and illustrated the key role and the contributions of engineering to sustainable development, to attract the public to support engineering development and to increase the social recognition of engineers.