Who will the Engineer of the Future be? 4

[Ian Portsmouth]

"Twenty-five years from now, engineering will be a lot different from what it is today." - Captain Obvious, Jr.

Predicting the work and makeup of engineers that far into the future is a fool's errand. But what about 5-6 years from now? What will the job of an engineer look like in 2030, and what should a young or mid-career engineer start doing now to prepare for their future role?

 

[geotechguy1]

Most civil engineers seem to be only a half step removed from being a stone mason from the medieval period or worse, a contractor

 

[GregLocock]

Automotive fatigue loads tend to be a factor of 2, although it is not quite the way that is usually expressed. Thinking about it it is more like 151%. Hmm strikingly similar to SWComposite's number (although again, that is not the way it is usually expressed). Stiffness and crash are bigger drivers of weight into the structure than fatigue at a rough guess.

As you can see from scrapyards, the result is still rather conservative.


Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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

 

[zeusfaber]

As you can see from scrapyards, the result is still rather conservative.

Even if I learn nothing else new today, it won't have been a day wasted.

 

[BulbTheBuilder]

Alternatively you can take a defeatist approach and 'give up', and perhaps many will - and should - give up and become PMs or something, but my observation coming of age in the google generation is that the people who rose to the top with reputations as experts were people who actually learned things deeply.

They become PMs and run the projects to the ground ... there's no saving from this. It is just an endlessly cycle

 

[CWB1]

PM seems ripe for AI improvements.

Kudos to geotechguy for the candor.

 

[Sparweb]

The only problems AI or LLM's can solve for you are problems that are simple to express.

"Gimme a tall guy in a cloak holding a sword up in the air standing on a mountain. And there's a dragon. And the sword is on fire". Presto you'll get that.

The fools in my company's marketing department already use Midjourney, regularly spewing out schlock that looks like our airplanes but the doors are on the wrong side and the hangars don't look like any that we own. They have a really low bar to jump over, low expectations, and no consequences of failure.

There is absolutely no kind of problem in aircraft, automotive, structural, or power generation that is so simple that it can be expressed that way. And I bet precious few in geotechnical and environmental management, too, despite the assertions of geotechguy1.

AI's are good at software development because they are MADE of software and also software is the epitome of idea replication and iteration. That example cannot be extrapolated to other engineering pursuits, which have to deal with the material world.

 

[NorthCivil]

Before i went into engineering school, i though the iron ring was pretty dandy.

After getting my iron ring, i chose not to wear it. Risk of degloving being the primary reason.

When i started working at an office, i thought the sealing of drawings with the stamp & ink was pretty cool, and i looked forward to sealing my own drawings someday.

When i finally became licensed, digital stamps were out and i was working in a paperless office. i have my stamp but still havent actually wet-stamped anything.

 

[geesaman.d]

AI will just automate the FEA GIGO process. At some point the results will be tragic.

They said the same thing about auto meshing tools and auto-convergence features. So far the responsibilities remain with the user and I think users in critical applications fully understand the need to confirm convergence and understand singularities.

I think where AI will be useful in Engineering design is where it can work through messy optimization and configuration selection and let us, the human, choose which ones to pursue. I believe that's how pharma development is using it to great success.

 

[geotechguy1]

The industry will change and adapt. The end result will be more things getting built more efficiently with alot better decisions being made. AutoCAD, VBA, and engineering software didn't kill the profession, why would AI?