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Tomorrow’s Engineers: Leaders or Followers?

By Richard G. Weingardt, PE

Richard G. Weingardt, PE

Indications are that science, engineering, and technology will advance more over the next few decades than in all of recorded history. This will provide many opportunities for America's engineers and a great promise for them to be powerful forces in coming years. This is true because engineers add value. They know how to design and build bridges, highways, buildings, water treatment plants, machines, robots, space vehicles, complex mechanical and electrical systems, and much more.

Engineers are the single most indispensable group needed for maintaining our national infrastructure and protecting our environment — factors that greatly impact everyone's standard of living. Visionaries and futurists call engineers the wealth creators. They say the future of any nation — its economic stability, growth, and well-being — depends on the strength of its engineering base. Overall, engineers serve to uplift the human spirit.

So if engineers and engineering are so integral to advancing civilization, then why, when the public and media come up with lists of leaders or heroes, are engineers rarely included? And why, when crucial public decisions are made and directions set, are engineers rarely consulted?

According to public perception, engineers make things run, but they don't normally run things. Plus, engineers are so infrequently in the public eye or mentioned in the mainstream media that the average person can barely relate to who engineers are and what they do.

How should the engineering community deal with this quandary?

Because the world is run by those who show up, engineers need to increasingly start showing up by taking on leadership roles beyond engineering. Plus, they need to get a lot more vocal and visible than in the past and aggressively use their expertise to help society make the best decisions possible.

As the world becomes more technologically dependent and sophisticated, it's ludicrous not to have professionals well versed in engineering and technology at the table when crucial decisions dealing with those issues are being made.

According to Daniel Evans, former U.S. Senator, three-term governor of the state of Washington, and a registered professional engineer, "Society is too dependent on technology not to have engineers in public leadership. It's a waste of talent not to have those with strong engineering backgrounds making vital decisions involving growth, infrastructure, and the environment."

This is especially true in light of the following six major trends that will tremendously affect the future of the world as well as the United States:

1. Population Growth: The United Nations forecasts 10 billion people on this planet by the end of the 21st century. The population of the United States alone will double, as will the need to double the size of its infrastructure.


2. International Terrorism: The war on terrorism isn't going away any time soon; it will continue to affect our lifestyle in count- less ways. So will the need to incorporate elaborate and costly security and safety features into building and product designs.


3. Natural Disasters: Population growth will continue to concentrate in areas that are highly susceptible to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, etc., because these locations tend to attract people. Yet this pattern presents more potential for heavy loss of life and property when disasters strike.


4. Proliferation of Computer-driven Technologies and Communication Tools: With technological development comes access to low-price labor markets from every corner of the globe because foreign engineers will work for much lower salaries than their U.S. counterparts. It also allows for the instantaneous transfer of technology, including designs and drawings, to places around the globe, thus encouraging 24-hour engineering design assignments. And today's advanced and user-friendly computer software programs increasingly allow non-engineers to create designs and "do" engineering.


5. Environment and Sustainable Development: Concerns over issues like global warming will continue. So will dealing with a looming shortage of safe drinkable water, even in the United States.


6. Exploration of Space and the Oceans: As it has in the past, engineering will be crucial to unraveling the earth's and the universe's unknown frontiers.

In the United States, the implications of these global developments couple with the fact that Americans are "lawsuit crazy," which stifles engineering innovations and progress. To adequately confront these issues, significant numbers of engineering leaders need to step forward and be heard in a wide array of venues. They need to participate in making critical public judgment calls.

One way to accomplish this is for engineers to serve on consequential advisory boards that counsel elected officials. They need to get appointed to public boards and commissions themselves, choosing meaningful ones that make policy or set direction. These groups should include long-range planning boards, economic development and highway commissions, and so forth. But engineers need to be more than members of such groups; they need to be the leaders of boards and commissions to really make a difference.

One of the best ways engineers can have their voices heard is to befriend representatives of the mainstream media — editors, reporters, and newscasters. They could write op-ed pieces or monthly columns in large circulation newspapers and magazines. They could appear on TV and radio talk shows to explain how sound engineering policy can advance progress and preserve the environment.

This quip by humorist/philosopher Will Rogers rings true for engineers: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." The demands that tomorrow's rapidly changing America will put on its learned professionals won't allow engineers to sit idle. More than any time in history, it's imperative that large numbers of razor-sharp engineers show up to lead and run things — to speak out loud and clear.

Because the world changes fast and the need for engineering talent increases every year, it behooves tomorrow's engineers to hone their leadership and communications skills to the fullest. If they do, if they can seize the moment as well-rounded professionals, not as narrowly focused technicians, then they will lead, not follow, as they tackle the exciting and amazing challenges the future holds.

Richard G. Weingardt (CivEngr '60, MS '64) is the CEO of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc., in Denver, and the author of eight books. His latest, Engineering Legends, published by ASCE Press, describes great American engineers and their impact on the nation's progress from the 1700s to the present. He can be reached at rweingardt@aol.com.