6 Top Challenges for Engineering in the 1st Quarter of the 21st Century? 11

[spggodd]

Hey all,

This is a bit of a follow on from a previous post I made last week, I have an interview coming up and I have been asked to consider the following question:

"What are the top 6 challenges (technical, commercial, ethical, regulatory, etc..) facing the UK engineering profession in the first quarter of the 21st Century?"

I was hoping I could start some discussion and get your opinions of this, even if you're not from the UK there may be common issues in your country that you can share?

Thanks
Steve

 

[TomDOT]

Conversely, remote manipulation could increase the number of qualified people desired - by cutting out the expenses of having an expert travelling onsite, you have more people who can have their demand met. For example - many small towns don't warrant having their own cardiac surgeon on staff for the local hospital. However, they may be able to pay for a remote surgery unit, and a cardiac surgeon could support 10-20 of these small-town hospitals from a single central location.

 

[miningman]

Unotec, for the record I am also an immigrant to Canada. I cannot comment as to the competancy of engineers in the Oil and Gas Industry because I work in Mining. However I feel I must note that your suggestion that my posting is racist is unacceptable. It is becoming impossible to have any discussion which includes the word immigrant without being accused of racism. I have absolutely no problem with working with competant individuals from ANY part of the world. I do have a problem with ANY individual who expects the accepted local standards to be lowered to accommodate his / her weaknesses or persomnal preferences. Please explain how that is racist

 

[KENAT]

"I believe repetive tasks are the most automatable, as those are the ones humans become board with. "

And yet, despite being essentially fairly repetitive the oldest profession is barely automated.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[Unotec]

miningman, the fact that you use the word immigrant is not racism at all. The comment about "leaving his attitude behind" referring to cultural/work backgrounds is what struck me as such.

When you mention "I do have a problem with ANY individual who expects the accepted local standards to be lowered to accommodate his / her weaknesses or persomnal preferences". I couldn't agree more. But I see this happening more in the cultural sense rather than work (specially when politicians are involved).

My experience is we (immigrants) gladly adopt the new work culture, easily mastering the technical side, but do struggle a bit to come to terms with the excessive safety and lack of reliance in a bit of common sense. But this is somewhat true with the locals too; however we tend to be vocal and locals just shake their heads at the regulatory body's newest and greatest "idea".

It took me a bit until I realized that our particular industry is the only one laden so much with such excessive safety features. Then it dawned on me it was because this is the only industry that can afford it. So in my case, this issue is a bit exacerbated.

You might be right in your judgement though, as I am realizing I only see this backyard and yours might be completely different.

I apologize if I implied you to be racist while you did not mean to

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[moltenmetal]

Unotec, setting standards isn't protectionism, or racism (or what you really meant, xenophobia), it's commonsense. Some argue that it's useless- just for show- but it's far more useful than relying on compensating the victims of incompetent engineering after the fact by means of insurance. Licensure in Canada is general in terms of right to title, but nobody working under a C of A as an employee requires a license to get a job- the only person you have to prove you're an engineer to is your prospective employer. Some employers use licensure as a proxy for a proper technical interview, but that's merely a luxury afforded to the employers by the fact that there's a HUGE oversupply of candidates to choose from.

While many foreign trained engineers come through a structured internship program and/or have a Bachelors' which is equivalent to a Canadian Bachelors' AND Master's degree, there are also programs offered in some parts of the world that are really technician/technologist level. The graduates of many of those programs think they're every bit as well prepared to be a professional engineer as I am- I know, because I've met many of them and given them technical interviews, and some of those folks couldn't engineer an escape from a wet paper bag...handing them a license would be foolhardy and dangerous. Are some people unfairly asked to write exams? I'm sure it's happened. You think it's unfair that the local fresh grads don't have to write any exams? Most grads from most US, UK, Australian and Western European engineering programs don't have to write a single tech exam either- but there are over 2,000 degree-granting programs on file with the local licensure body's ERC, from over 100 countries, so that's rather hard to keep track of, don't you think? I guess we could ask everyone to write the same exams in the name of fairness- but that would be a tremendous waste that we would all pay for, and the people having to write them 15 years after school would still be claiming that the fresh grads had an unfair advantage! Only grads of local CEAB-certified engineering programs are given the tech exam waiver here- there are Bachelor of Technology programs offered here in the past few years whose grads will have to write tech exams if they want an engineering license too.

If your argument is that borders are artificial and irrelevant, as some do, then we fundamentally disagree. I think citizenship actually means something, that nations serve a meaningful purpose, and that nations have a responsibility to set rules and regulations to protect their population and to serve their population's economic interests as well. When only 1/3 of our own grads end up working as engineers, it puzzles me how anyone could consider continued economic immigration of foreign-trained engineers to be in Canada's continued economic interest. In the interest of certain employers of engineers? Absolutely- the benefit there is obvious.

Your complaint about the lack of commonsense etc. is definitely a valid one in your industry, and I think you've discovered the root cause too. It's not a failing of Canadian engineering education in my view as much as it is a reliance upon codes and standards as a proxy for engineering judgment.

 

[SNORGY]

KENAT,

If my interpretation was correct, your post was among the more brilliant this year.

 

[ZeroSeq]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...decision-on-czech-man-s-credentials-1.2557203

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Simo...d+engineers+discriminatory/9510639/story.html

Reduce the standards for foreign engineers? Who needs competency when worker equality is at risk?

Give me a break.

 

[KENAT]

SNORGY, I've been accused of having a talent for barely concealed smut so your interpretation may well be correct.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[urgross]

Kenat,

You wouldn't happen to work for a Swedish pump manufacturer by any chance?

 

[moltenmetal]

KENAT- you have a talent, and it should be nurtured!

 

[ornerynorsk]

Actually, I think materials science, particularly failure modes and effects, will continue to be a significant challenge as more and more exotics and composites are incorporated into structures which are performance critical. Applications are out of the box, and many materials have less than a decade or two under their belt. I just had the opportunity to tour Boeing assembly at Mukilteo WA and was able to see the 787 composite parts up close and personal. Wow. A leap of degrees.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[tinfoil]

I am concerned about the increasing gap between technical CAPABILITY and technical UNDERSTANDING and RESPONSIBILITY.

I have been an Engineer over the last 25 years (in Canada), and I have seen a figurative explosion in software and analytic tools to do design and analysis, but an erosion in the average skill sets of the people USING these tools.

Once Upon A Time, you HAD to be an Engineer (or trained in similar mathematics and design techniques) to perform many of these tasks, so the overlap between people who did the work and people who understood and accepted the issues, risks, and consequences at a Professional level was very high.

Nowadays, semi-skilled workers and even laymen are using software that would have been considered an 'advanced tool' 20 years ago to make decisions that have significant economic, safety, and environmental impacts. They may or may not know what these impacts are, or how to recognize that their high-tech tool has provided information that is just plain wrong (GIGO).

I would expect that trend to worsen over time.