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Also engineers who work on AI hardware, e.g. to help develop the technologies and processes needed to implement most compute governance ideas!
Just came here to comment the same. :)
See this profile by 80k, this post, and my sequence for more.
Also, don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to hear more about roles for AI hardware experts or if someone is interested.
Thank you! Would definitely like to chat :)
You’re absolutely right! I think there are probably many more areas where engineers are needed, as well as future cause areas that we haven’t discovered/explored yet so this is definitely not an exhaustive list. We’re open to chatting with anybody/any organisation who has or forecasts a deficit of engineering expertise to find out how we can help!
Perhaps also put up a LinkedIn group—it is perhaps a nice complement to facebook which at least for my generation is usually reserved for more non-work topics. There one can with premium accounts search within a group for specific expertise, geographical location etc. to quickly find the most relevant talent (I am a bit frustrated that I cannot without paying a high price tag search the large 80k hrs LinkedIn group for engineering talent!)
Thanks Ulrik—I have set up a LinkedIn group but I don’t plan on advertising it very much as we don’t have the capacity to manage all of FB, Discord, LinkedIn groups and a newsletter! We are currently growing a directory of engineers, which might be easier to search if you’re looking for specific expertise.
Maybe a consideration for you (uncertain how relevant this is for your target group though): for the Effective Altruism and Consulting Network LinkedIn and the group work quite well to invite people to events with only 2 clicks.
Hi there! I’m a Civil Engineer, new to EA, and I’ve definitely felt lost among the Econ/Policy/SWE people that seem to be overly represented in EA circles. Dont get me wrong, they make for great company, but it does feel like the physical implementation of High Impact Projects has been largely overlooked. I’m so glad to hear that there will soon be a community based around implementation and I would love to learn more!
Do you do HVAC at all? There’s a big need for people with experience in this space for biorisk mitigation.
HVAC is mechanical engineering. ASHRAE is the main professional body of mechanical engineers that works on ventilation standards and guidance for reducing aerosol transmission.
Awesome! There are a lot of high-impact projects that require civil engineering expertise in biorisk mitigation (as AllAmericanBreakfast has said), but also general civilisational resilience. There’s a SHELTER weekend happening in August where you can help to explore concrete steps (pun not intended) for the implementation of civilisational shelters (read more here).
If you’re looking to do something more long-term, Ulrik Horn (also commented on this post) is looking for talent to join his bioweapons shelter project, which you can read more about here: Fønix: Bioweapons shelter project launch. We will keep the Discord and newsletter updated with any other relevant projects/initiatives that we hear about!
What a great initiative! There is a lot to do around this, from energy/climate change issues to AI safety, engineers have very relevant knowledge and skills in solving some global catastrophic risks. I think this will definitely be of interest to people in the “EA maths&physics” slack group!
Thanks Angélina—I have posted in the EA Maths & Physics group and I think we’ll be working closely in the future for sure!
Really happy to see this starting and eager to learn how I can help. Looking forward to talking soon at EAG.
I resonate with your pitfall statement. Although I haven’t been actively exploring the non-SW engineering space in EA for very long, it does seem that there is a scarcity of technical information publicly available about where and what the specific needs are from a ME, EE, CE, MatSci, robotics, systems, manufacturing, or other non-SW perspective on a variety of problems.
For example, take the biosecurity cause area needing more materials science expertise for better PPE. Intuitively there is a core MatSci aspect to this most people can easily recognize, but there are 1) probably a lot more types of challenges you would discover once you dig into the details of the problem or begin basic conceptual synthesis, and 2) even the MatSci-specific aspects of this problem are hard to find without actually just digging into the decades-long literature on the general topic of PPE. And I think this might be generally true across domains, though I haven’t tried looking exhaustively yet.
Having dashboard-like visibility (whether it’s a literal SW-enable dashboard or not) into the technical problem landscape across disciplines and across cause areas sounds like the holy grail to me, which is obviously a lot to ask for at the moment, but that’s the general direction I personally hope for.
Kudos to you all for starting this.
Thanks Vlad! We spoke at EAG SF but wanted to put a comment here for anyone interested in contributing to or viewing of the map of the technical problem landscape to reach out to me or Vlad :) we will have updates soon so keep posted!
If possible, I’d suggest adding an “already on the discord server” option :)
Done! :)
I love this! EA needs more engineers of all varieties, IMO. I don’t think you say explicitly what your funding model will be—would you aim to be a nonprofit or a fee-paid consultancy, or something else?
Thanks Arepo! We’re not really sure what our funding model will be, because that will depend on what approach has the biggest impact and makes the most sense. For now, we’re just applying for grants, testing out our assumptions and hoping for the best!
Congrats on the excellent progress! Very excited to see where your journey will lead and what learnings you can share
Thanks Jona! We’ll definitely keep you updated :)
Thanks so much for this effort. I just wanted to say again that EA engineers, including physical engineers, are always very welcome to apply for volunteering, internship and/or open positions at ALLFED—Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters.
Thanks Juan! ALLFED definitely has a lot of interesting and impactful projects that engineers can contribute to
So excited you are launching this! Great to see more field-building efforts.
Thanks Miranda, appreciate all your help when I had a career crisis and for having faith in my community building skills :)