Globalization: What Drives Globalization?

Technological Advancements

Technological advancements have allowed greater interaction and collaboration across borders and between different cultures. Online courses and social networks are recent developments that allow students and professionals to connect in ways that they could not previously. Development of fiber optic cables, where a single fiber could replace hundreds of equivalent copper lines, has enabled the transmission rates to increase from megabytes per second in the 1990's to Terabytes per second today.

In 2007 over one billion wireless handsets were shipped by manufacturers. Computers have increased in speed (processing speed is up by a factor of 1000) and storage capacity. The cost of storage capacity is down by a factor of 1000.

The Internet has over 1.6 billion users worldwide. Facebook, as a social network, connects one eighth of the world's population (The New York Times, 2011). In engineering advanced CAD systems enable collaborative, virtual design. This allows engineers from different global locations to use their expertise on a single, collaborative project. Whether it is several engineers working simultaneously on a CAD modeling tool (image below), holding synchronous meetings with virtual communication tools, or sharing documents and information, current technology is used to facilitate global engineering projects.