Coping with Change in Engineering Practice

Coping with Change in Engineering Practice

by Blaine Leonard, PE, ASCE President-Emeritus

 

As engineers, we have all spent considerable time, effort, and capital developing the expertise needed to engage in our profession competently. Engineering school was a challenge, and the early years of our careers were filled with long hours as we honed our skills, learned from mentors, turned theory into practical tools, and prepared for licensing exams. With the changing face of science and engineering, it is necessary to continue to learn and adapt. In just 30 years, we have gone from using slide rules and log tables to GPS, sophisticated modeling software and blackberries. Change will continue to happen, most likely at a heightened pace. A leading executive at Hewlett-Packard, Shane Robison, said a few years ago, “we are not at the beginning of the end, but are at the end of the beginning”, referring to the technology we will see unfold in the near future.

 

It is now clear that the complex challenges facing 21st century society will require professional engineers to advance their technical excellence and professional leadership in order to continue to protect the public and improve its quality of life. The engineering education of the present—a four-year undergraduate degree—will not be sufficient to prepare professional engineers for those future responsibilities.

 

Despite the continual improvements in the quality of undergraduate engineering education, these programs in the U.S., largely due to financial restrictions placed by legislative bodies, have decreased from an average of 145 semester hours to 128 over the past several decades, with most of that decrease depleting upper level technical design courses. The National Academy of Engineering states that “It is evident that the exploding body of science and engineering knowledge cannot be accommodated within the context of the traditional four year baccalaureate degree.” (Educating The Engineer of 2020, 2005). Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, has stated that “I believe it is not possible to train an engineer to operate in the 21st century in the same amount of time we trained an engineer at the beginning of the 1900’s.”

 

The engineering profession has been struggling with this challenge for over two decades. Every other learned profession, faced with a similar explosion of knowledge, has concluded that post-baccalaureate education is required for professional practice. And, as they have done so, their professions have thrived and advanced. The ASCE Board of Direction, in 1998, adopted a policy supporting advanced education as a pre-requisite for licensure. This policy (No. 465) states that ASCE supports “the attainment of a Body of Knowledge (BOK) for entry into the practice of civil engineering at the professional level”... through “appropriate engineering education and experience.” That “body of knowledge” for civil engineering has been well defined by ASCE’s publication Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century, 2nd Edition. Policy 465 goes on to define the necessary educational path as a baccalaureate degree in civil engineering, plus a “master’s degree, or approximately 30 coordinated graduate or upper level undergraduate technical and/or professional practice credits or the equivalent agency/organization/professional society courses providing equal academic quality and rigor”. The flexibility of pursuing either a master’s degree or the alternative of an equivalent 30 credit hours provides two viable paths to meet the needed educational requirements of the future.

 

NSPE adopted a similar policy in 2002 (Policy 168) supporting “the concept of additional academic requirements as a prerequisite for licensure”. Representatives of state licensure boards, assembled as the governing body of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), voted in August 2006 to change the “Model Law” for engineering licensure to include a master’s degree or an equivalent 30 credit hours of education as a requirement. When adopted, this law would not be effective immediately, and would not impact those engineers already licensed. ASCE leaders continue to believe that “raising the bar” on engineering education of the future is the correct approach to dealing with the challenges that will face us. Efforts are moving forward to adopt this important change in licensure laws around the United States.

 

Meeting societal needs and enhancing economic growth through new and sustainable infrastructure, technologies, and services will require future professional engineers to apply an ever increasing breadth and depth of knowledge, leadership, and vision. Professional engineers with enhanced technical, professional and leadership skills will contribute to new and more adaptive solutions. Leveraging these expanded skills, engineering firms and agencies will be able to create more effective project teams, generating improved operational efficiencies and service. Brad Aldrich, a former President of NSPE has stated, “As an owner of a private consulting firm, I think it’s important that our incoming engineers have advanced education prior to licensure” to enable them to “excel and move up.”

 

Change is occurring faster than at any time in human history. As engineers, we are expected to not only adapt to this change, but to encourage it, to cause it, and to bring about improvements in every aspect of our lives. As stated in The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (ASCE, 2007), “Civil engineers... find themselves as keepers of an impressive legacy, while raising concerns about future directions. They know they must... show more leadership. They know they must control their own destiny...” The time is now to accept the challenge to expand engineering educational requirements for future generations of engineers, to stretch the boundaries. To be entrusted by society to advance and protect the public health, safety and welfare and improve the quality of life into the future, the engineering profession must “raise the bar.”