WHAT

IS
AN
ENGINEER
?
Bernard M. Gordon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Analogic Corporation, Peabody, Mass. U.S.A.
Invited Keynote Presentation
at the
European Society for Engineering Annual Conference, 1984
University of Erlangen-Nurnberg

First Edition
August, 1984

WHAT IS AN ENGINEER?

INTRODUCTION
Historical Perspective Some Definitions

OVERVIEW OF ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES

Duties, Functions, and Responsibilities

PREREQUISITES FOR THE ENTRY-LEVEL

ENGINEER
Formal Schooling Preparation
Knowledges, Skills, Attitudes

THE ENGINEERING CAREER

The Design Career Ladder
Evolving Functions and Responsibilities

THE ENGINEERING-BASED COMPANY

An Integrated Viewpoint of the Engineering
Tree Engineering-Based Company Structures

ROLE OF COMPUTER AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Technique versus Content

About the Gordon Prize

Introduction
The Gordon Prize is expressly intended to recognize and to
reward originators and developers of innovative education
programs that encourage young engineer with recognized
leadership potential to understand and to acquire the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to become
engineering leaders. The Prize also provides funding to
encourage and support the institution in which the innovation
has been nurtured to continue its efforts to improve the
education of future engineering leaders.
describing the End Product
It almost goes without saying that any valid evaluation of a
nomination for the prize requires a vision and an
understanding, in depth, of the character of a real-world
engineer. It is, in effect, a specification of the end product of
the program.
Our vision of a real-world engineering leader was presa ged in
an Invited Keynote Presentation to the European Society for
Engineering Annual Conference (SEFI) at the University of
Erlangen-Numberg in 1984. Its content is surprisingly relevant
now, more than 20 years later.
It is interesting to note that, at a recent public occasion, the officers of the
Technion Institute of Israel held up a copy of the Keynote Presentation that
had been printed as a red-covered pamphlet, and announced that the Institute
had adopted the recommendations therein for their Engineering programs.
(The pamphlet is often referred to as the "Red Book".

A Real-World-Leaders Actions
It may be useful for Committee evaluators to consider some of
the characteristics of a real-world engineer that capture and
update the earlier presentation in somewhat less than the 30page "WHAT IS AN ENGINEER" (Red Book) of 1984.
Consider the experience and wisdom of a real-world
engineering leader who:

Performs or directs market research in order to

identify- possible niches for new products, or even
for more-bang-for-the-buck replacements of existing
products;

Has the breadth and depth of knowledge to

understand the capabilities and limitations of
emerging hardware and software techniques;

Is the forceful, literate, and convincing advocate for

adopting proposals as part of an accepted business
plan or as the start of new ventures;

Takes risks in exploring and/or inventing innovative

designs and processes that may be needed in order to meet
the performance goals anew products;

Accepts the responsibility and accountability for the

decisions and actions that are necessary in the
completion of projects;
Recruits team members with the necessary knowledge,
skills, and attitudes to perform the designated tasks, as
well as members who can be led to raise the level of
their current capabilities;

Educates and trains team members to bring their

knowledge, skills, and attitudes up to the leadership levels
required for optimum use of their capabilities;

Understands that the assignment as project leader is

much, much more than a recognition of prior leadership
in bringing projects to completion within the specified
performance specifications, budgeted costs, and
scheduled completion time;
Empathizes with the with team members who have
developed lowered expectations of their abilities, and
accepts a personal involvement in heightening their
levels of expectation and in meeting a higher level of
their hierarchy of needs (Maslow):

Monitors prowess in real terms by demanding attention

to detail, maintaining time and budget schedules, and by
delivering documented design, development and
production on time;

Recognizes the leader's moral responsibility for

advancing the careers of team members by publicly
acknowledging their contributions to the successes of the
program and assuming personal responsibility for
project shortcomings by identifying problems and
assessing possible solutions ("the buck stops here"); and
Brings an innovative product to market within
specified performance, budget, and time.
These qualities cannot be outsourced after an abbreviated
indoctrination and taking of possible replacements. The
leadership characteristics may be identified easily enough,
but their acquisition to any degree of utility bespeaks years of
self-directed education and training, as well as years of realworld experience.

Putting it simply the Question before this Committee is:

In what ways does the nominated program equip the future engineering
leaders to understand the burdens of leadership and to encourage their
confirmed dedication to pursue careers to that goal?

One aspect of the Failure to Develop Real-World

Engineering Leaders
The benefits of a successful engineering leadership education
program go beyond the added value to the nominees and to the
institution. Consider, for example, the problem of outsourcing
that grows more serious every day. While the outsourcing of
so-called "blue-collar" manufacturing is an expected result of
the natural life cycle of a product that has become a
commodity, the outsourcing of "white-collar" hardware and
software engineering is a relatively recent phenomenon, but no
less significant today arid in the foreseeable future.
Should we be surprised to find that only two to three weeks of
training an outsourced resource by the soon-to-be dismissed
programmer is required to being the replacement up to
acceptable efficiency and speed?
Evidently, m too many instances, the soon-to-be-replaced
software engineer who claims to have had 5, 10, or
even 15 years of continuous growth experience, really has
had, perhaps, 1 to 2 years of growth experience that has been
put to use in the 5, 10, or 15 years of follow-on work
assignments. They may even have been trained (or educated)
to accept a lowered level of expectations in their careers. As
long as the capabilities to perform the task can be transferred
in a very, very short time to a reasonably well educated, and
competent, lower-cost engineer, outsourcing is inevitable.
Engineering Leadership to the Rescue
The stream of new products emerging from Real-World
Engineering Leaders will enter the increasing production
lines so that American industry will welcome the outsourcing
of manufacturing of commodities in order to make room for
the new product lines.
In summary, it should be of no surprise that real world
engineering leaders find a more receptive corporate
environment among the Startups and in product development
laboratories who place a high degree of interest and support for
the Engineering Leaders who can wrap their arms around a
whole design and development project, and who are able to
present the risk factors in a competitive global marketplace
fairly and completely.

WHAT IS AN ENGINEER?
Bernard M. Gordon
Analogic Corporation, Wakefield, Mass. U.S.A.
Invited Keynote Presentation
at the
European Society for Engineering Education
Annual Conference, 1984
University of Erlangen-Nurnberg.
Chairman Prof. Dr. Golling, Professor Dr. Seitzer,
Members of the Society, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a fundamental maxim that engineering education systems

and techniques must be designed to produce individuals
qualified to become engineers. What our industrial society
perceives engineering to be and what successful engineers
actually do should be the driving forces behind curriculum
content and educational method development. An educational
system that does not produce "societally acceptable" engineers
cannot survive for long.
In the rush to embrace technological advances to improve our
educational techniques we may possibly lose sight of this
fundamental goal of the educational process: to produce
qualified potential engineers. In terms of dynamic memory
technology: we must occasionally "refresh" our view of this
requirement so as to prevent its loss. We could start by
stepping backwards and by trying to classify engineering.
Labels that classify are sometimes useful in defining broader
terminology. Labelling engineering as a profession and
engineers as professional, or labelling engineering as a
technology and engineers as technologists, or labelling
engineering as a science and engineers as scientists, or
labelling engineering as an art and engineers as artists may be
considered by some to be useful approaches to an acceptable
definition. Their value is directly proportional to the extent to
which the label's connotation is universally understood, and
especially the extent to which it can be translated into a
meaningful list of performance parameters. In most cases,
however, such labels merely introduce additional ambiguities.
That your Society has chosen to start this annual meeting with a definition
of the output of the educational process, as seen from the viewpoint of an

Engineering Education's goal

is to produce qualified
potential engineers

Labelling Engineering and

Engineers

industrial user of that product, bodes well for the Society and for the
activities of its members. That you have invited me to contribute to that
definition is an honor that I deeply appreciate, and I approach the task
with a deep respect.
My reply to the question, What is an Engineer?, is couched in mundane everyday
engineering language. I shall present my definition and then elucidate
performance requirements in measurable functional career parameters Engineering Education
and will avoid ambiguous labels wherever possible.

Development along different

paths
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Each one of us brings to his or her understanding of an Engineer the cumulative effects of
personal education, training, and experiences. In many respects, our concepts reflect the
tradition and mores of the engineering culture in which we are nurtured. It is not
unexpected, therefore, that the development of engineering education in relatively
independent societal structures should have taken different paths.
Our present concepts are fed by the streams of history from many diverse sources. Bear
with me please, if you will, for a brief historical perspective.
While engineering probably has been practiced for longer than written history can
determine, it is only relatively recently that the title of Engineer
was applied to others than "military engineers". Unfortunately, we
Military and Civil Engineering
have lost the threads of historic continuity with the engineering that
built the pyramids in Egypt and the great wall in China. But we still marvel at the feats of
Roman engineers who built the roads and aqueducts to support their Legions, and which
we still use today. Their influence still persists.
The formal education of civil (as opposed to military) engineers appears to have started
no earlier than the mid 18th century. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, one Jean
Rodolphe Perronet was charged in 1747 with the responsibility for directing the design of
plans and maps of roads and... "to instruct the said designers in the sciences and practices
needful to fulfilling with competency the different occupations relating to said bridges
and highways."
The Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausses was established in that year (1747), followed
by others specializing in different civil engineering branches. The French model greatly
influenced the curricula in the United States. For example, that of Rensselaer
French Origins
Polytechnical Institute in New York, in 1849 was modeled after that of the Ecole Centrale
des Arts et Manufactures, and the first professor of civil engineering in America appears to
have been Claude Crozet at West Point He was a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique.
In Great Britain, the accepted form of vocational training of engineers was a system of
indenture and pupilage, and this persisted almost up to the start of
the
English Origins
20th century, when the

Institution of Civil Engineers endorsed the system of higher education, including postgraduate study and research, for
engineering educatio
nIn Germany, the polytechnic school at Karlsruhe, created
in 1825 as a combination of two older institutions, appears
to have been the first of its kind in that country. However,

in 1833 its curriculum was changed to emphasize a high

scientific discipline with less dexterity. A Bauakademie was
established in Berlin in 1799; a technische Schule was
established in 1822, and it evolved into a Gewerbeakademie
in 1866. Technical schools developed rapidly after 1871 to
meet the needs for the expanding industry.
This early German cleavage between the "professionalism
of a science" and the "lesser vocationalism of a
technology" persists in the lower esteem with which
vocational schools are held in the United States, for
example. It is only by virtue of the high quality of the work
of its staff and of its graduates have the major institutes of
technology in the United States, such as the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the California Institute of
Technology, been afforded appropriate academic recognition.

German Origins

To this brief recital of an earlier history, one could also add

the influences on the educational systems of the Oriental
and Indian cultures.
But, regardless of origins of these developments, a basic
societal value remains paramount. To quote from the
charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London, 1828):
Engineering is... "the art of directing the great sources of
power in nature for the use and convenience of man,..."
This paramount concern with the societal values is reflected
in the current definition of a PROFESSION as presented in
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
PROFESSION A calling requiring specialized
knowledge and often long and intensive preparation
including instruction in skills and methods as well as
in the scientific, historical, or scholarly principles
underlying such skills and methods, maintaining by
force of organization, or concerted opinion, high
standards of achievement and conduct, and
committing its members to continued study and to
a kind of work which has for its prime purpose the
rendering of a public service.
The perceptions of Engineering and of an Engineer in a societal
context are dynamic: changing in response to society's
evolving perception of the engineering role, as well as
responding to technological breakthroughs. Engineers and
educators do not play a passive role in determining the societal
needs for engineers. By their actions, alone, if not
also by their expressed opinions, they have an important role to play in determining societal
needs, along with their fellow citizens.
At this stage in the maturation of engineering education, we see strong move to
internationalize the development of curriculum and technique, brought about, no doubt, by
the significant advances in communication technology. The world has been made "smaller"

Defining a Profession

by, among other developments, satellite-based international communication networks, by

internationally accepted standards for hardware and software, and by
exchanges of ideas and practices, exemplified by international
Internationalizing Engineering
meetings such as this. Engineering, however defined, is an activity
Education
that has world-wide consequences; engineers cannot avoid the international consequences of
their products. Engineering education that is parochial or provincial will be doomed to fail.
Its products will not be societally useful, and its student sources and government support will
inevitably be withdrawn.
Unfortunately, it is apparent that society around the world, particularly the western world, is
not entirely pleased with the current state of general education. Its displeasure is reflected in
the barrage of criticism leveled at the graduate who cannot read effectively, cannot write
effectively, and cannot master moderately complex arithmetic. The
Engineering Performance leaves
well-publicized question, "Why can't Johnny read?" sums up the
something to be desired
societal concerns.
A parallel question, "Why can't Mr./Dr. Engineer engineer
effectively?" is now increasingly being asked, and sums up the frustration of engineering
supervisors and of the public who suffer from the failures of inadequate designs. Critics of
engineering education often cite the following inadequacies among the complaints about the
educational system's "product"
Disproportionately low and increasingly poor economic return for the amount of employed
engineering resources;
Limited formal training in and exposure to a breadth of basic technical knowledge, and
inadequate training and orientation to a meaningful depth of engineering skills;
Inadequate understanding of the importance of precise test and measurement;
Insufficient competitive drive and perseverance; Inadequate communication skills;
Lack of discipline and control in work habits;
Fear of taking personal risks.
Therefore, it is appropriate that we reexamine our perceptions of real engineering so as to
focus our attention on the content in terms of what we want engineers to do in their careers,
while we are exploring the application of new technology to the methods of education
DEFINITION
I propose to define a REAL (i.e., professional) ENGINEER as "one who has attained and
Defining a REAL. skills,
ENGINEER
continuously enhances technical, communications, and human-relations knowledges,
and attitudes, and who contributes effectively to society by theorizing, conceiving,
developing, and producing reliable structures and machines of practical and economic
value."
"The greater the breadth of knowledge, the more varied and accomplished the skills, and the
more dedicated the attitude of any individual engineer, the more significant will be the
accomplishment, resulting in proper recognition as a role model, teacher, and leader."
Let us examine each of these three parameters of KNOWLEDGE, SKILL, and ATTITUDE,
in turn, first with a brief overview and then with regard to some specific implications for the
development of engineering education.
KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge, for a real engineer, is more than acquired data, and certainly much more than
acquired engineering data. The cognitive process is different from the acquisitive process.

While today's computer and information technology may make any of the world's data
Cognitive learning involves
instantly available, the real engineer has developed a relational understanding
of the
data
correlating
relevant
data
and will have learned how to recall and correlatively process relevant data in order to
synthesize new information to solve problems.
The areas of required knowledge are not limited to those of science or technology, as a
consideration of the role of the engineer as a leader will reveal. An understanding of societal
evolution through study of history, economics, sociology, psychology, literature, and arts will
enhance the value of the engineering contribution. And, in the shrinking world that the new
communications technology is producing, we should not forget the study of foreign
languages; an item often ignored on the western side of the Atlantic.

SKILLS
A real engineer's skills are essentially scheduled problem-solving techniques of design in
which the concentrated disciplines of science and technology are exercised with the personal
Judgment
and experience.
creativity and judgment developed from training and experience. In addition,
because
contributions to skills
engineering accomplishments are achieved in a group environment, the communication
skills are critical to the roles as follower, and then, leader .
These skills can be acquired only by doing: the practice may
be on simulated problems, or, as for the entry-level medical
doctor, on real cases under expert supervision. However, no
amount of "study" can replace the "practice" in learning how
to "debug" a design, for example. The case study technique
may be useful, but it is not sufficient to qualify the real
engineer.
ATTITUDES
A real engineer's attitudes will directly affect the quality of
his design solutions, whatever the problem. The real
engineer is a leader of a team of resources: financial,
personal, and material, at all levels of engineering activity.
Successful team leadership implies a degree of self criticism, where
egotism and modesty have counterbalancing influences. It requires a
spirit of curiosity and courage that leads to creativity and innovation.
It is characterized by a forcefulness that gives orders, as well as
receives orders, and accepts the challenges of competition in the
market place with a perseverance to succeed. Leadership exhibits a
loyalty downward as well as loyalty upward, and requires the
earning of respect of project team members for personal competence,
tolerance, and supervisory guidance.

Leadership is essential

* OVERVIEW OF ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES

Duties, Functions, and Responsibilities
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ENGINEERING AS A CAREER
Almost all definitions of engineering imply a career activity
of acquiring new knowledges and insights, of sharpening old
skills and acquiring new ones, and of maturing attitudes and
personality. In effect, a person who pursues an engineering
career is always practicing to become an engineer, and never
really completes the required education, training, and
experience. Along the route, however, we can identify
milestones of achievement, and, although we may not reach the
end of the road, we can certainly recognize progress along
the route. Among my objectives for today is that of specifying
some recognizable milestones along the route. Allow me to
start by sharing with you my perceptions of what an
engineer actually may be assigned to do during his career,
without allocating any particular activity to any specific
career position: entry-level, junior, senior, or higher levels of
engineering. This brief and incomplete listing is oriented
towards the task activities of a design-development engineer in
almost any engineering discipline. No significance is implied by
the order in which these activities are presented.
AN ENGINEER MAY BE ASSIGNED TO:.
STUDY the market potential for a proposed product.
PREPARE specifications.
MODEL solutions in terms of major functional blocks.
ORGANIZE work efforts into manageable subdivisions.
ANALYZE designs and test data.
ESTABLISH performance error budgets for each major
subdivision so as to meet design goals.
ESTABLISH performance error budgets for each major
subdivision so as to meet design goals.
ESTABLISH milestone schedules.
ALLOCATE personnel and financial resources to
engineering activities.
MONITOR project results against established product
performance, financial budgets, and time schedules.
PERFORM detailed checking of designs or insure that all
details have been verified.

INSURE that produceability, maintainability, and reliability

arc designed into the product.

A lifelong quest to become an

engineer

An Engineer's assigned
tasks are varied, and not
all technical/scientific

TRAIN, EDUCATE, and SUPERVISE subordinates.

SERVE as a project team member in an "apprentice" or

"journeyman" role at the start of a career.
DOCUMENT test procedures, test results.
DESIGN and BUILD special-purpose test equipment.

BUILD prototypes to validate production documentation.

STUDY new technologies, new components, new instruments for
applicability to product design.
DEFEND design to reviewing superiors.
SUPPORT marketing and sales activities with product
presentations and literature.
CONDUCT design reviews.
CONDUCT training and indoctrination sessions for in-house
and customer personnel.
SUPPORT customer service with repairs, maintenance, and
on-site assistance.
PLAN production schedules.
ANALYZE inventory requirements.
HELP qualify vendors' and suppliers' products and services.
RESPOND to the changing requirements on design imposed
by various regulatory agencies, both governmental and trade.
ASSIST corporate management in contract negotiations.
INTERVIEW and EVALUATE prospective employees.
PROTECT corporate investments by assisting in patent
filings design disclosure, and copyrights.
SERVE on national and international committees.
LECTURE on state-of-the-art technology.

Most who are part of the industrial engineering scene probably would
agree to the inclusion of these functions in such a list of their engineers'
duties. In all likelihood, a poll of engineering executives from diverse
fields would add yet additional duties, functions, and task activities.
Clearly, engineering is a multifaceted activity. Specifying the requisite
knowledges, skills, and attitudes that will prepare a neophyte for an
engineering career is a complex task.
Most educational institutions (public or private, governmental or
industrial) who profess to train engineers probably would claim that
preparatory knowledges for the type of activities and skills
represented in the previous listing are provided as part of the required
curriculum or are available as electives. Or, they might, with some
justification, claim that only minor modifications to the curriculum
may be required, but that no radical changes are needed and they
would be right... If our concept of real engineering is limited to
carrying out assigned tasks. In accordance with our definition the
REAL ENGINEER conceives and invents. His outputs result in
products that are innovative, inventive and economically accessible.

They are useful to society.

The REAL ENGINEER does not wait to be told to initiate the design
of a new product. He (or she) imagines, conceives, proposes,
propagandizes, pleads, and debates for a "cause", for "an impossible
dream", ... and succeeds, in spite of the opposition of doubters and the
discouragement of setbacks, in bringing order out of chaos, in
producing something that is new, and, in the process, advancing the
state of the art of engineering. The REAL ENGINEER is willing to
take a risk, a risk upon which his professional reputation will be at
stake.
The definition of REAL ENGINEERING implies at least one other
significant characteristic: that of multi-disciplinary project activity.
Generally, a product is not brought to fruition solely by the talents of
a single REAL ENGINEER, no matter how knowledgeable and
skilled. The REAL ENGINEER calls on the specialized knowledge
and skills of others as needed. However, the REAL ENGINEER does
not abdicate responsibility for any phase of the project work, no
matter how minor or how foreign it may appear.
The REAL ENGINEER is intimately aware of every facet of design,
development, test, and production, and he is capable of understanding
and evaluating the minutest design detail that matters. He
continuously evaluates and redirects the different efforts in the course
of the project, planting new ideas and furthering inventions on the
part of those who will contribute. Each capable talent is inspired
and exhorted to perform beyond his (or her) recognizable limits. The
REAL ENGINEER motivates each contributor to the project to
want to excel, to grow, and to take personal pride in the project's
successful completion.
In a word, the REAL ENGINEER is a LEADER. When the
education and training (both in academia and industry) add
LEADERSHIP programs to the curriculum and to the work ethic,
then we shall move closer to educating and training
REAL ENGINEERS.

Invention
and innovation
areappears
Engineering
Education
the keys
to be adequate, but more is
required

Engineering means taking a ink

The broad basis of engineering

actions

Motivation, pride, and

achievement

Leadership

We, of course, must recognize that not all ENGINEERS will

become primary LEADERS. First of all, not everyone will have
the necessary genes or will develop the necessary temperament. In
fact, such an expectation may be counterproductive. To paraphrase a
popular American expression, a team of all Chiefs and no Indians
is ineffective.

I am convinced that, with adequate supervision, the broadly

experienced engineering leader can increase the
productivity of less experienced engineers by a factor of "e"
or 2.7183. At Analogic, this is jokingly referred to as
Gordon's Rule.
In every project, at every level, educated engineers are

Leadership and Productivity

needed to respond to the direction of the primary

LEADERS. They are needed to design according to
specifications, to build development models, to test them, to
design manufacturing jigs and fixtures, etc. Certainly, one
of the prerequisites to becoming a REAL ENGINEER, and
henceforth, synonymously an ENGINEERING LEADER at
some level of engineering activity, is to serve some
apprenticeship at a lesser level of accomplishment.
However, at every level of engineering some degree of
leadership is required to function effectively in a
recognizable manner.
There will always be a need for qualified engineers, even
though not all will become outstanding, leading, REAL
ENGINEERS. No career promises the top to every neophyte
entering at the bottom. But, as will be described later, there
are, indeed, leadership opportunities at every level of
accomplishment. What is necessary is an approach that
encourages each individual to reach the highest level of
leadership for which the personal talents are capable.
We need, and will continue to honor, the contributions of the
"loner" who almost singlehandedly makes significant
contributions to society's store of engineering knowledge and
skills. For example, Alan Cormack, a physicist of Tufts
University, was awarded the Nobel prize (1979) for his
original conceptual dissertation (1963) on the feasibility of
using the mathematical relationships developed by Radon
(1917) as a basis for instrumentation that would reconstruct
images of the human body. Simultaneously, an identical
award was made to Geoffrey Hounsfield, a real engineer, for
his leadership of the engineering team that developed (1971)
the first actual machine to do so.

Leadership at all levels

The Engineer "loner"

The engineering and scientific community, and society, need to

and should encourage those who have the talents to pursue
independent, creative, analytical work. However, we must be
careful not to point to such examples of achievements as proof
Shortage of engineersor really a
that engineering education is adequately producing engineering
shortage of real engineers In an
leaders.
abundance of technologists
Furthermore, it would be misleading to suggest that all individual engineering
achievements which we honor are the results of isolated, individual efforts. Practically
without exception, these so-called individual accomplishments are not possible without the
interaction with contemporaries and, more important, without the contributions of earlier
achievements. We honor, and rightly so, the individual who has added the creative spark,
who has taken the lead, and who has made a quantum jump in the evolution of our
The debt we owe to those who
engineering knowledge. The engineers so honored have usually credited a measure of their
success to these foundations and peer contributions. Our educational programs should have come before us
teach students to do likewise.
The development and training of REAL ENGINEERS will be
Character building
accomplished mainly in the caldron of the real-world marketplace and
in post-graduate experience. However, attitude development and character building
programs are most effective if started early.
What may be most important is that the formal education does all that can be done to
maximize the student's potential for practical leadership, implying, of course, that nothing
is done inadvertently, let alone deliberately, to discourage or demean such leadership
tendencies. This may be accomplished, in part, by first recognizing academia's significant
role in contributing to the character building and attitude formation that are essential for
leadership. It is encouraging, in this connection, to read in a recent edition of the New York
Times that some experimental efforts are now underway to introduce leadership training in
the formal curricula.
There may be some who will conclude that educating REAL ENGINEERS (as distinct
from Engineering Technologists) will lead to an "elitist" educational program for some.
This very well may be a desirable solution, as long as the opportunities to participate and
benefit from that elitist program are available to all who are qualified, and....as long as
society does all it can to foster the development of qualified entrants. Graduates of this
program will truly understand their role as professionals to lead in the invention and
production of new products beneficial to society.
Much has been written about the problems in training adequate
An Elitist program
numbers of engineers for tomorrow's high technology society,
for Engineering
predicting tremendous shortages. However, some believe that the socalled "shortage of engineers" is overstated, if not a myth. There may, in fact, be a surplus
of engineering technologists. But we might agree that there is a shortage of REAL
ENGINEERS. To expand the instructional opportunities to produce more of the same
quality of engineers, who may even be misdirected and discouraged from assuming the
responsibilities of REAL ENGINEERS, will not relieve the real shortage.
On the other hand, if there were an elitist engineering education program, whose graduates
would surely be recognized and rewarded handsomely in the industrial marketplace, perhaps
the competition for entry would, at the very least, raise the general standards, and, therefore,
raise the level of performance of all engineers.
With this perspective in mind, let us proceed to identify the knowledges, skills, and attitudes
in the evolution of the REAL ENGINEER.
We begin with some prerequisites for the practice as an ENTRY-LEVEL ENGINEER.

* PREREQUISITES FOR THE ENTRY-LEVEL ENGINEER

Formal Schooling Preparation
Knowledges, Skills, Attitudes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------THE ENTRY-LEVEL ENGINEER PREREQUISITES
What knowledges, skills, and attitudes should be specified for
engineering education graduates as they embark on their
careers?
We would expect, first of all, that the formal education has
filtered out the truly incompetent, and that, at the very least, the
graduate of the formal program suffers no intellectual
handicaps. Almost any curriculum which demands performance
against some graded levels of difficulty will accomplish this
function. In this regard, we would expect industry to continue
the filtering action by dissuading some of the less competent
who may have slipped through the academic sieve.
There are, indeed, established procedures for evaluating the
content of the curriculum in order to accredit such education for
specific professions. These vary from country to country, and,
within the United States, for example, they vary from state to
state. We may accept, for the most part, that successful
completion of some formal educational program is normally a
necessary, but not necessarily a sufficient requirement for
successful entry into the engineering "profession".
Accreditation procedures are usually confined to a
consideration of the subject-matter content (KNOWLEDGE)
and, sometimes, of the performance of a minimum number of
hours of laboratory exercises (SKILLS). Consideration of
ATTITUDES, if, indeed, they can be taught and evaluated, are
not generally involved, except as they may influence the
successful completion of the course subject matter.
Attitude and personality growth are occasionally recognized,
however, although not usually in a formal manner. Nationwide
"Honor Societies" provide recognition for outstanding
competitive scholarship, and, in some cases, recognize
leadership qualities and "civic" contributions in extra-curricular
activities. Unfortunately, these "attitude acquisitions" are rarely,
if ever, considered a formal prerequisite for conferring of the
degree.
As far as I can determine, only the military academies establish
a "leadership" requirement for successful completion of the

Engineering schools concentrate

on KNOWLEDGES, develop some
SKILLS, but do not stress
ATTITUDES/LEADERSHIP

course of study.

KNOWLEDGE
The required formal education for a baccalaureate degree, in all
specialities in the arts, sciences, engineering, technology, etc.,
should produce an educated individual. Such an education
will provide a broad background that will include "college
level" courses in many subjects.
In addition to the intensive courses deemed necessary for the
pursuit of a chosen career, at the very least, acquired
knowledge should include some exposure to and appreciation
of:
Social and Political Sciences:
Psychology
Philosophy/Ethics
Sociology/Comparative Cultures
Economics
History
Natural Sciences:
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Astronomy
Geology
The Arts:
Literature
Music
Drama
Painting
Sculpture
To the list of subjects we specify for the broad-based
"education", we must now add the fundamental courses that are
needed to acquire the specialized knowledges and skills of the
focused professional engineering disciplines and their
applications. Whether these courses should lead to narrow,
intensive, specialization, or whether they should involve a
broad, extensive exposure to the widest possible range of
engineering disciplines remains, surprisingly, a matter of
controversy on some campuses. We will find, I believe, that

Plan for an EDUCATED Engineer

real engineering requires a strong inter-disciplinary base.

PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
The curriculum should require engineering students to achieve
a mastery of certain basic analytical skills through a
concentration in mathematics that would include, at least:
Logic and the Scientific Method
Calculu
sAnalytical Geometry
Probability
Statistics
Differential Equations,
Numerical Analysis and Programmed Calculating

The engineering graduate should have more than a "token acquaintance" with some of the
realities of the real world of industrial and manufacturing engineering. Incorporation of this
material into formal courses of study, without, in fact, requiring some on-the-job training
and experience may present an interesting challenge. But I am convinced that it can be
woven into the curriculum and should be done. Some of the topics to be included are:
Industrial Business practices
Economics of the Marketplace
The role of inventions, patents, copyrights Product life cycles
Inventory Control
The role of documentation, specifications, assembly procedures, test procedures, test
reports, etc.
The factory, its machinery, its control
Reliability, Maintainability
The role of national and international regulations, both governmental and trade.
Safety and product liability, warranty, etc.
Project management, scheduling, control
It is safe to say that topics of these types are of importance to all branches of engineering.
Although our specification for the ENTRY-LEVEL ENGINEER will not require a high
level of expertise in any of these areas, these "facts-of-life" should not come as a shock
upon first exposure.
COMMUNICATION SKILL
Special emphasis should be placed on acquiring at least one skill that
will play a significant part in determining an engineer's career success:
Engineers must intend to
that of COMMUNICATION. While some engineering may be an
produce results
intensely individual activity, most engineers will 'operate as members
of a group.
If engineers' designs are to become useful products:

Their benefits must be explained to the potential consumers;

They must be manufactured, operated, and maintained by people of different

backgrounds, training, and cultures around the world.
It is interesting to note that in a recent formal survey of representative Electronics Engineers
of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, more than 80% of the respondents cited
the lack of adequate training in communications skills as a deficiency of their education and
training. It was the one subject that most agreed should be added to the curriculum.

USING THE SLIDE RULE

AS A "TOOL

Introduction to the Real

World processes

COMPUTER OPERATION SKILL

Proficiency in the operation of computers and computer-based equipment is rapidly becoming
an important part of an engineer's education and training, if it is not already a mandated
requisite for admission. The computer's use as a tool is a skill that can and should be acquired
as a 'by product' of the normal individual study and practice.
In an earlier age, when the slide rule was an Engineer's "Badge of Distinction", facility in its
use was obtained as part of the problem solving exercises in the class room and as part of the
student's assignments. After-hours instruction was available for the novice, but such extracurricula "help" was not elevated by credit towards a degree study program.
There are numerous on-going experiments that explore the extent to which the computer can
be incorporated as a tool in today's courses of study. In my opinion, except for the engineering
students who are going to specialize in actual computer design, "computer-worship" is a
misdirected activity. It may serve negatively to focus attention on a technique for learning,
rather than on the objective and content of the learning process.
ATTITUDES
It is doubtful that attitudes can be "taught" explicitly. It is certain, however, that they will be
acquired as part of the individual's growth and maturation, and that they will be the result of
many influencing factors. The individual's family traditions, values, and practices, early
schooling (and, more important, the individual's teachers in those schools), peer pressures,
religious groups, and governmental practices and procedures, all contribute to the developed
attitudes that an engineering-school graduate brings to his first career position.
However they may be acquired, modified, or developed, the specified attitudes of an engineerto-be should include at least the following: (Again, no significance is implied
by theTHEorder
inAS A
WORSHIPPING
COMPUTER
PANACEA
which these are listed.)
Cheerful acceptance of work assignments
Perseverance and determination to complete assigned work
Attention to detail

Confidence in one's abilities; recognition of strengths and

limitations
Desire to improve, to grow
Recognition of the "apprenticeship" nature of early career
assignments
Acceptance of deadlines, and a commitment to meet them;
Drive to compete for excellence/superiority
Willingness to cooperate in group work efforts: to contribute for
common goals, and to recognize the contribu-tions of others in the

group
Willingness to accept risks for suggested solutions, design
approaches, and procedures
Willingness to accept responsibility for results, both successes and
failures
Willingness to learn from the failures
Willingness to accept constructive criticism and to respond
positively
Forcefulness in advancing one's own concepts and ideas
(becoming a strong advocate)
Intellectual honesty and self-criticism Willingness to supervise
and train subordinates
It is not necessary to include courses of study on "Engineering
Attitudes" in order to assist the engineers-to-be in their character
development. In fact, attempts to "teach attitudes" may have just
the opposite result from that which is desired. Attitudes reflect a
self-discipline, that comes about from reinforced, controlled
practice. Attitudes are indicated by the "way one goes about one's
work", whatever that work may be.
Students who are required to perform work assignments within
specified time limits, and who are required to maintain written
records of their work, may soon learn how to apportion their time
and how to communicate. And if reports are presented for group
discussion and evaluation, students may soon learn to accept
criticism, and to profit by it.
To the student, a goal is to perform so as to achieve a high grade.
While to the professor, who assigns grades, there should be an
additional goal: to develop good attitudes, work habits, and
communication skills in the student.
On the other hand, the student who is allowed to reject an
assigned topic anti replace it with one of greater personal interest,
or who is permitted to extend deadlines indefinitely and without
good cause, or who is excused from the reporting because it is a

personally painful experience, or who recognizes the professor's

indifference to these "peripheral" requirements and performs
them perfunctorily, etc.,... may never acquire these beneficial
attitudes for the industrial workplace. Unless early career
experience results in a modified behavior pattern, these students
will find very limited opportunities for a successful career, with

BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL

LEARNING TOMEET DEADLINES

very few exceptions, no matter how highly placed their first

assignment may be.
Attitudes are influenced greatly by the role model offered by the
professors to the students. Respected professors, renowned for
their practicality as well as their scholarship, their wit, their
classroom manner, and concern for, their students, become
positive role models and have a profound influence on their
students behavior development by the very force of their
character. If their expressed classroom interest and activity are
directed solely toward "so-called scientific research" that may, in
part, enhance their salaries, and if their contact with the problems
and success-driven excitement of practical engineering is
minimal, it is not surprising that their students are not
"comfortable" when they are called upon to perform real-world
engineering.
CURRICULUM IMPACT
To include acquisition of the specified knowledges, skills, and
attitudes within the scope of the normal engineering course of
study may appear, to some, an impossible task. Some critics will
argue that the student's time is already so completely
programmed with the "necessary" courses demanded of the
engineering discipline, that there is no way to make room for any
new ones. In fact, some argue, the "information" in the
engineering specialties is increasing at such a rapid rate that
ways must be found to reduce the "irrelevant" in order to make
room for the increased data.
The avalanche of relatively low-cost data processing hardware
and an almost-infinite variety of application software have
inevitable impact on all knowledge/data intensive activities. Not
the least of these is education, and, in particular, the education of
engineers. The speed with which engineering and scientific data
are being added to our store of literature, and the relative ease
with which the student can access them through "dumb" and
"smart" networked terminals have exerted tremendous pressures
on the educational institutions to redefine the content of the
curricula to include both the new data and the new techniques.
The theme of this meeting is but another indication of the
immediacy of this topic.
There is no question that the amount of engineering "data" is proliferating at a
tremendous pace. But how much of the new data must be incorporated into the
curriculum is not
clear. For example, I am informed that at least 5,000 new chemical
compounds are "invented" each year.

There is probably an equally large number of electronic components and

devices added to catalogs each year. And the mechanical engineers could cite
similarly large numbers of added materials, alloys, tools, and fixtures
.

FOLLOWING THE ROLE MODEL

Making room for the necessary

and Important

The new library

There is no doubt that the store of data has expanded, but how much
new knowledge has been added for our benefit?
If we assume, for the moment, that the most, if not all, the new data is
somehow useful, the new information retrieval technology can provide
us with tons of hardcopy,... that we would never have time to read, let
alone digest.
Today's technology can be utilized to provide every student access to
any book, pamphlet, article, including graphics, that was ever produced.
Should the present trend in miniaturization and economy of scale
persist, every student will be able to retrieve and store a sizable subset
of this entire human knowledge data bank at his side, and to exchange it
for a new subset as often as desired; at an insignificant cost.
Whatever the achievements of the new information storage and retrieval
technology, the basic problem still remains:
How does the student learn to identify those data items that are relevant
to the problem at hand?
How does the student learn to make the correlative organization of data
to gain fundamental insights?
Filling the student's head with data, ad infinitum in the hope that some
of it will become relevant at some later date does not appear to be a
profitable use of the student's time.
In view of the fact that the expected half-life of today's data is 3-to-5
years, one might find it difficult to justify any extensive efforts to
acquire the wealth of new data available each year. In about 4 years,
50% of the data we learn will be obsolete.
It would appear to be far more valuable to teach broad
fundamentals and library search techniques so that data can be
retrieved when needs arc identified
We should specify the undergraduate course content for maximum
life expectancy. We should remember, also, that for most engineers,
their undergraduate education will be the primary, if not the only
formal education to which they will be exposed in their career. We
should define that content, therefore, not only for its viability, but

also for its adaptability to ancillary career development processes.

It is beyond the scope of this presentation to define the viable
basics in each engineering discipline. Perhaps the next section, in
which we describe the duties and responsibilities of the engineer at
various steps in his career, may serve to guide the curriculum
developers in this selection.

Half-life of engineering data is

short, but that of fundamentals
is long

* THE

ENGINEERING CAREER

The Design Career Ladder

Evolving Functions and Responsibilities
CAREER LADDER
The engineer's growth in the engineering career is recognized in a
number of ways. As a member of an organization, the engineer's
growth is recognized by assignment to positions of increasing
responsibility and leadership, with commensurate greater authority
and remuneration. As an individual, the engineer's professional title
reflects increased knowledges and skills, and should also reflect
maturing attitudes.
A set of professional engineering titles that may distinguish among
levels of individual knowledge and skill accomplishments are in a
typical career ladder:

Titles that recognize

Professional growth

Engineering Aide (Entry-Level)

Junior Engineer
Engineer
Senior Engineer
Principal Engineer or Chief Engineer
Clearly, these titles are indicative only; different names and a
different number of levels may be appropriate for various
organizations. A suitable adjective may be used to indicate the
engineering specialization; such as: Mechanical, Electronic,
Chemical, etc.
Titles of specific organizational assignments frequently reflect an
engineer's position, but not necessarily increased leadership
responsibility and authority. This may introduce some ambiguity
between the two "titling" systems. Typical organizational assignment
titles (without any "laddering" significance) are:
Program Manager
Project Engineer

Test Engineer
Component Engineer
Product Engineer
Engineering Supervisor

Quality Engineer
Manufacturing Engineer
Software Designer
Service Manager
Applications Engineer
Sales Engineer

It is often very misleading to consider the organizational titles as valid indications of

progressive individual professional accomplishments. A "Project Engineer" who successfully

Titles that recognize

Organizational status

leads a team in the development of a new medical imaging system, for example, requires far
more qualifications than a "Project Engineer" assigned to develop a CRT
power supply. Or a "Quality Engineer" of automobile engines is probably far How can we compare
Engineers by their titles?
better qualified than a "Quality Engineer" of ball-point pens.
Absence of some reasonable standards for the career "grading" of engineers
makes for expensive and time-consuming personnel recruitment and hiring procedures. The
work experience of prospective engineers must be carefully reviewed and interpreted to
establish some confidence in the engineering accomplishments claimed in the "curriculum
vitae".
For this presentation, therefore, we shall briefly identify the progressively greater breadth of
knowledge and diversity of experience as the engineer advances in career accomplishments.
At each level, we shall point out opportunities for leadership development, and, most
importantly, we shall consider some of the indications of leadership that are to be expected.
ENGINEERING AIDE
The "engineer-to-be", in this entry-level position, is assigned under close supervision to
perform specific elementary engineering tasks that require direct
application of a formally educated engineering skill and knowledge. For Getting started in the Real World
example, the Electronic ENGINEERING AIDE may be directed to prepare
test instructions for a new power supply. The Electrical ENGINEERING AIDE may be
directed to calculate the heat transfer through the case of a power transformer. Or the
Mechanical ENGINEERING AIDE may be directed to calculate the stresses on the support
members of a simple structure.
The assigned tasks will probably be of relatively short duration, and the ENGINEERING
AIDE can be assigned to different departments in the organization,
performing engineering tasks in test, manufacturing, inspection, design,
Serving an apprenticeship
quality control, purchasing, and sales, depending upon the organization and
scope of its activities. The rotation is desirable to indicate the importance of interacting
disciplines (whatever the branch of engineering practiced by the organization), and to indicate
the great variety of skills required to bring a product from conception through production,
sales, distribution, and maintenance

Performance evaluation of the ENGINEERING AIDE will consider

the engineering knowledge and skill competence in the work
performed by noting the speed and accuracy of the work effort.
The evaluation will also consider the "attitude" shown by the
ENGINEERING AIDE in order to obtain an early assessment of
the leadership potential.
Were the assignments accepted cheerfully and with good grace?
Or was the detail nature of the work resented? Was there
adequate recognition of the apprenticeship nature of the
assignments?
Was the documentation completed? Was the importance of the
documentation recognized? Or was it treated cavalierly?
How did the ENGINEERING AIDE "get along" with technicians in
the group? Were there any evident personality conflicts?
What were the work habits? Neatness? Responsiveness? What
evidence was there of being a self-starter?
Was there a requirement to acquire new information? Is the
Aide a "quick-study"?
Was there any overt leadership evidenced? Was Communication

Attitude development and

assessment

effective? Concise? Precise? Forceful?

JUNIOR ENGINEER
JUNIOR ENGINEERS are assigned relatively straightforward
design tasks. They usually encompass a limited technological
scope, such as a sub-unit of a larger project. In such tasks, the
performance requirements are pre-specified, but considerable
latitude exists for design implementation. Thus, an opportunity is
presented for orignal and creative approaches.
Work assignments to JUNIOR ENGINEERS need not depend
upon specific prior training or experience. In fact, it would be
advantageous for the growth of the Engineer-to-be if the
technology of the assigned design task is relatively new, in order
to encourage literature search and study.
A Junior Mechanical Engineer, for example, may be assigned the task of
designing the air conditioning portion of the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and
Air Conditioning) System of an auxilliary building in a larger construction
complex. A Junior Electronic Engineer may be assigned the task of designing the
power supply for an instrument. In these examples, the performance
requirements, mechanical, environmental, and electrical interfaces for the enditem are provided in well-defined specifications
.

Stepping up the ladder

In performing this assignment, the JUNIOR ENGINEER will have to

study the specifications and thoroughly understand the implications
of every requirement. In most instances, the intended use of the
complete project unit (of which the task design may be only a small
part) also must be studied and understood before accomplishing any
useful design work. JUNIOR ENGINEERS are usually assigned as
members of a larger design team, where they are directed and
supervised by more senior staff. In their assignments, JUNIOR
ENGINEERS may supervise and direct other technical support staff
and will be directly responsible for their work.

Opportunities to study
and to invent

Task assignments for the JUNIOR ENGINEER vary in duration,

depending upon the scope of the assigned design. However, they are
of sufficient short-time duration so as to allow for several different
assignments at this career level. Depending upon the breadth of the
organization, tasks will be assigned in different departments,
exposing the JUNIOR ENGINEER to a variety of applications.
Knowledge and skill performance evaluation of the JUNIOR
ENGINEER considers the following factors:
How well were the application and specifications understood?
Were alternative design approaches studied? Were new technologies
investigated? Studied?
Was the assigned design work completed? Was it carried out on
schedule? Was it well-documented?
Did the development include adequately directed testing under

Knowledge and skill

growth assessment

varying degrees of environmental stresses?

Were the economic factors adequately considered? The human
interface factors? The maintainability? Reliability?
How well was the work planned? Were milestones checked within
the project, or were excess supervisory forces required? Were
budgets properly established? Maintained?
Were details checked on a self-disciplinary basis? Thoroughly? Or
were external resources required?
Attitudes and leadership performance evaluation consider the
following factors, in addition to those that were described for the
Entry-Level Engineer?

Opportunities to expand the horizons

of technical, fiscal, and social
interfaces

Attitude growth

Were directions to others, such as drafting, documentation, and test

personnel, presented clearly? Forcefully?
Was the design elegantly simple and clever? Did it show any
imagination? Did it show the benefits of judgment derived from the
earlier experience?
ENGINEER
The ENGINEER is assigned complete technical and administrative responsibility
for the effective design of a major subassembly or end-item involving several
significant functional blocks and different technologies. Autoritative direction may
specify only the general mission and interfaces; detailed specifications must be
developed
.

In effect, the ENGINEER assumes "project leader"

characteristics.
The ENGINEER is responsible for the preparation of all
documentation relating to the equipment, such as mechanical
drawings, qualification test procedures, parts lists, and any
instructional materials. He (or she) must maintain close
liaison with personnel responsible for interfacing physical hardware
and documented software to assure compatibility in the initial
design and in subsequent engineering changes.
The ENGINEER interacts with members of different internal
departments/divisions:
With finance and accounting in the preparation of budget
and resource scheduling;
With production to assist in the efficient transfer of the
product to construction or full-scale production, as
appropriate;
With purchasing to assist in the procurement of unique
components;
With quality control to assist in the development of proper
inspection procedures;
With sales and marketing to assist in the development of

A significant step up the ladder

proper sales literature;

With customer service to assist in development of proper
servicing and repair policies and procedures, and to assist in
training programs.

Knowledge and skill factors in evaluating performance of the

ENGINEER are evident in the end products.
Were the products economically delivered on time?
Do the end products meet all their performance
specifications, including cost?
Were assigned budgets of personnel and capital resources
exceeded?
Attitudes and leadership qualities of the ENGINEER's performance are
increasingly more important to the successful completion of the assigned work
as he (or she) advances in an engineering career. At this level, for example,
there is an opportunity to assess the willingness of the ENGINEER to take
risks and to propose unconventional, but well defended, design approaches. In
addition, because of the increased interfaces with other organizational
departments, there are more opportunities to observe how the ENGINEER
interacts with others, of how bureaucratic obstacles are overcome, and how
effectively assistance from non-project personnel is incorporated into the project
.

SENIOR ENGINEER
The SENIOR ENGINEER is assigned responsibility for a system or
process that incorporates a number of related elements, each of
considerable functional scope.
For example, the Senior Mechanical Engineer may be assigned the
task of designing the complete HVAC system in one or more
buildings in a complex. Or the Senior Electronic Engineer may be
assigned the task of designing and developing a sophisticated,
microprocessor-based, analytical instrument that includes both the
hardware and software for analog interfacing and signal conditioning
circuits, digitizing and data storage circuits, digital signal
processing, display and display control circuits, as well as several
power supplies.
The SENIOR ENGINEER's duties include all those described
previously for the subordinate position. However, because of the
scope of the different technologies and disciplines that are involved
in the project, the breadth of technical knowledge required is
considerably greater than at any lower level. Moreover, because the
SENIOR ENGINEER is probably at least 8 to 10 years beyond his
full-time formal education, the detailed technologies involved in the
project are most likely beyond any that were studied in that
schooling. Therefore, at this level, considerable time must be spent
surveying and studying state-of-the-art technologies, and in creating
new combinations of those developments and the most advanced
components.
The responsibilities are increased significantly: there are

Widening the horizons of

responsibility

Putting your reputation on the

line
Keeping abreast of new
technologies

considerably more and different types of resources involved; risks

are greater; and many more interfacing organizations must be
consulted.
The SENIOR ENGINEER is also required to represent the
company's and the project's interests in meetings with the
customer/end-user both at the organization's headquarters and at
those of the customer.

Interfacing with
user/customer

Evaluation of the KNOWLEDGE and SKILL factors in the SENIOR

ENGINEER's performance may be performed as for the earlier
career level: by examining the on-time economic completion of the
end-product.
The extended scope of the projects assigned to SENIOR
ENGINEER's at this level provide ample opportunity to evaluate the
ATTITUDE and LEADERSHIP qualities of the SENIOR
ENGINEER's performance.

Were the many contributing resources integrated effectively? Or did

the mass of detail overwhelm the SENIOR ENGINEER?
Was effective leadership asserted to encourage innovative design
approaches by subordinates? Or were all details superimposed from
above. What is the morale of the subordinates? Are they looking
forward to working together on the next project?
How well were the interactions with the end-item user/customer
handled? Was there a willingness to see the problems from the
user's/customer's viewpoint?
Were creative approaches planted in and encouraged from
subordinates, and were they credited to the subordinate when
adopted?
PRI NCIPAL ENGINEER or CHIEF ENGINEER
Career progression to these two equally high levels of individual
professional advancement is characterized by continuing
expansion of the acquired KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS and by
increasing responsibility for projects of greater complexity,
substance, economic value, and for the greater amounts of human and
physical resources involved.
Assignments of these advanced ENGINEERS to positions of
greater responsibility and authority recognize their record of
continuing invention, innovation, and successful project completion.
These are not "one-time" successful engineers. They do not, in
their career, design and produce just one award-winning structure
or generate just one novel idea. Their achievements are many and
varied. Their success is consistent.
The PRINCIPAL ENGINEER is recognized for the high level

Top levels of Professional

achievement

of his intellect and for the breadth and depth of his knowledge. He is
primarily a High-Technology Problem Solver, who is called on to
solve engineering problems over a very broad range of disciplines.
The PRINCIPAL ENGINEER is recognized for his ability to see the
"whole picture"; to relate to the end-user values and concerns; and
to bring to bear the benefits of the latest developments in scientific
and technological disciplines, creating elegantly simple solutions.
The CHIEF ENGINEER is recognized for the high level of his
ability to exercise control simultaneously over a number of
projects of widely different scope and complexity. His record of
proven successes is marked with consistently high performance in
meeting project performance criteria, schedule deadlines, and
budgetary constraints.

Principal Engineer is a HighTechnology trouble-shooter

Chief Engineer is a high-level

technology team manager

The PRINCIPAL or CHIEF ENGINEER will have gained the

respect of subordinates by virtue of the higher technical ability
and stronger leadership characteristics.
At this point, it should be clear that many titled "engineers", with as
many as twenty years or more of so-called "experience" are really
functioning as JUNIOR ENGINEERS. Their years of employment
have not been translated into progressively more valuable
knowledge, skills, or attitudes.
They may have had, perhaps, only a few initial years of progressively
increasing engineering experience and responsibility, and then have
repeated that for an additional decade or longer.
How would we distinguish the upper levels of REAL
ENGINEERS from their entry-level subordinates?
The CHIEF ENGINEER, PRINCIPAL ENGINEER, and
SENIOR ENGINEER:

Demonstrate a continually increasing breadth of

knowledge;

Have a record of successful project completion;

Have a record of useful, meaningful inventions;

Demonstrate art above-average skill of effective
communication; and, above all,

Demonstrate a leadership that is recognized by the

expressed desire of subordinates to be assigned to their
projects, and by the trust and responsibility assigned by
supervisors.

Recognizing the achievement at

high-level engineers

* THE ENGINEERING-BASED COMPANY

An Integrated Viewpoint of the Engineering Tree
Engineering-Based Company Structures
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------THE ENGINEERING-BASED COMPANY
AN INTEGRATED VIEWPOINT
Conceptualizing, designing, developing, producing, and
distributing products that benefit society require much more
than the professional product-engineering knowledges, skills,
and attitudes that have been specified in the previous
discussions. Specialized knowledge of finance and accounting,
international law, regulatory procedures, personnel
administration, etc., and non-design skills in operating sales
agencies and distributorships, in contract negotiation, in
manufacturing, packaging and shipping, etc. are also necessary
for the successful enterprise.
In many engineering-based companies, these "staff" and support
functions are considered as distinct careers, separate from that of
engineering. In fact, an engineer who is assigned into these
careers is often considered as "leaving engineering for
management". Sometimes, these tangential careers are
considered appropriate for design engineering "dropouts", and
except for the leaders of such functions, the staffs are often
perceived as being inferior, especially by engineers.
With the proper career growth as described in this presentation, a
better understanding and appreciation of the functions of these
staff/support divisions are developed. In fact, the successful
engineering-based company encourages the shift of some of the
talented, but perhaps less technically creative, engineers into
these staff/support divisions in order to assure that such support
functions will be performed effectively and efficiently, and that
they advance the company's long-range engineering goals. When
support functions are led by engineering-trained and
engineering-oriented personnel, fiscal policies are not
promulgated "in vacuuo"; purchasing agents do not short-circuit
technical performance for price/delivery inducements; sales
personnel do not oversell products and mislead customers; and
personnel administrators do not waste engineer's time
interviewing unqualified candidates.
The Integrated View of an engineering-based company may be illustrated
by a well-cultivated, and well-pruned tree.

Successful engineering
enterprises need more than
engineering expertise

Tangential careers for

engineering "dropouts"

Engineers are needed for stall

functions

The Engineering Career Tree

Includes staff functions

The 'root-seeds' of the tree come from the Student Input root
structure that reaches out to be nourished from all strata of
society.
Formal engineering schooling of 4-5 years completes the
protected environment of the entry-level engineer-to-be, who
'breaks' into the real world at graduation.
Growth in the early post-graduation years through the levels of
ENGINEERING AIDE and JUNIOR ENGINEER expose the
growing engineer-to-be to the duties and responsibilities of the
staff/support functions, as well as to the inter-disciplinary
specialties of design.
At any level of ENGINEER and above, the 'tree' nourishes the
branches of:
ENGINEERING RESEARCHAND DEVELOPMENT
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING
SALES AND MARKETING
QUALITY CONTROL AND RELIABILITY
INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING
CUSTOMER SERVICE ENGINEERING
PERSONNEL AND ADMINISTRATION

The tree's growth requires continuous 'fertilization'. This comes

from the continuing input of new technologies, new scientific
discoveries, and community support. They may be acquired by
both formal and informal programs.
Our 'tree' may also be nourished from above ground. In fact, it
can receive "grafts" of additional branches from other
organizational "trees". And this provides the opportunity to
acquire engineering and support personnel at any level, from any
source.
It is of some significance to note that nearly all the successful
innovative high-technology companies are led by chief
executives who have come up through a "tree" of progressively
more complex engineering project experiences and
developments. They provide a direction that is based on sound
engineering judgment and have taken, and continue to take, risks
for innovative directions.

* ROLE OF COMPUTER AND NEW

TECHNOLOGIES
Technique versus Content
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------ROLE OF COMPUTER AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES The
foregoing description of an engineer's duties and responsibilities
are relatively invariant. That is, they describe functions that were
just as relevant for the building of the Roman roads and aqueducts,
the Egyptian pyramids and temples, and the Chinese wall, as they
are for the building of today's communication networks,
skyscraper cities, and modern aircraft; and as they will be for the
space stations, the underwater habitats, and the transport systems
of the future.

Engineering functions
are invariant

New materials, new technology, new insights into natural laws,

and new insights into human relationships will change the "raw
materials" with which an engineer works, but they will not change
the basic functions!
For example, today's engineer may sit at a work-station console
and explore a technical library of designs that, in an earlier day,
may have taken a significant time to research. But, archived
designs only repeat earlier limitations. The essence of design is to
"innovate"; to envision products and approaches that cannot be
synthesized merely by manipulating tried and true concepts; to
conceive and to take advantage of newer, less expensive, better
performing, more efficient routes to products that meet the
requirements of new problem solutions.
The REAL ENGINEER achieves a "gestalt" that includes an
instinct to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
The modern work station can serve a very useful function: it can
free the engineer from laborious calculations and hours of detail
drafting. It will be beneficial only if the engineer is able to use the
new-found time to exercise his intellect and imagination, to initiate
new designs, to explore new concepts, as well as to modify and
improve old designs.
Similarly, we should have no objection to the introduction of
automated drafting machines, provided they do not destroy or
remove the disciplines and attention to detail that were developed
by the manual drafting techniques.

Engineer's gestalt makes the

whole greater than the sum of
the parts

Nor should we object to the use of programmed test equipment,

provided its introduction does not compromise the development of
disciplines of precision tests and measurements to assure product
integrity and performance.
One of the more significant functions of the maturing engineer is to
exercise judgment, based on experience and insight, in order to
make engineering decisions and to exert the leadership essential to
direct and manage company resources. This decision-making
function, some would suggest, can be routinized and programmed
for computer execution, and thereby relieve the engineers of this
function. Even the most ardent early proponents of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) are now reluctant to make such claims. And,
however thorough we may become in programming "consensus"
solutions for legal, medical, biological, chemical, etc. problems, the
computer solution is still a routine or a "statistic", and the
departures from the norm require human insight.
We cannot stress too strongly the role of vision and judgment and of
the absolute necessity for the engineer to control the computer, and
not vice-versa. In this connection, it is essential that our engineers
become "computer-literate"... not so that they can design and build
computers, but so that they can recognize the computer's
capabilities and particularly its limitations. Dire consequences will
follow any blind acceptance of computer-generated decisions;
whether they are in engineering, medicine, politics, or law.
As the size and cost of electronic memories continue their dramatic
decline, it may soon be possible to package a memory in the size of
a human fist that could store as many bits of data as we currently
estimate are represented by the memory "cells" of the human brain.
It is conceivable; therefore, that such a memory could store
whatever may be stored in the human brain ... even including some
combinatorial rules and algorithms that relate to human-to human
conduct, as well as those of the engineering disciplines. Given the
complex nature of our society, and the difficulty of determining the
correctness of a decision (including its ethical character), allowing
the computer to render unchallenged decisions of even the simplest
of judgment problems ought to be avoided.
As Dr. Egon Loebner of Hewlett-Packard has suggested (in an
interview reported in the Silicon Valley Tech News, June 18, 1984),
"...we should set up the computer in such a way that its
understanding and manipulation of rules ....would be applied to
check whether the human rules and regulations are being followed."

The computer's
store of consensus
solutions is not
Artificial Intelligence

Blind acceptance of Computer

solutions can be disastrous

Master the Computer

A proper expectation
of computer use

New technology is a "fact-of-life" in a free, dynamic society.

The competent engineer remains alert and sensitive to the
availability of new ways to implement design solutions. For
the most part, this awareness is developed from a continuing
informal self-education; by scanning periodicals and
professional journals, and by attending seminars and
conventions.
However, from time to time a new set of tools requires a major
assessment. This is not a new phenomenon. We are fortunate
to have the following record from the August 1884 edition of
the Scientific American.
"The brilliant discoveries by Pasteur and by Koch are as
much due to the perfected microscope as to any one cause.
The nature and habits of the tubercular bacillus have only
been capable of study since the microscope was so improved
that organisms heretofore unrecognizable stand revealed.
Disease has been traced to its source; the presence of bacteria
and germs, by the use of the finest microscopic appliances;
and in fact a thorough course of study in the art of
intelligently using this instrument is becoming yearly a
greater necessity". (Emphasis added.)
One hundred years later we are faced with the same problem:
how to make intelligent use of computer-based information
processing technology.
As long as we do not become so enamored of the
technique that we lose sight of our mission, we shall
intelligently take advantage or and use the new
technology.
SUMMARY
If there is a single message I would like to leave you
with, it is this:
"You who are concerned with improving the
education and training of engineers have a challenge
to use the tools of the latest technology not only to
broaden the knowledge-base and to strengthen the
acquired fundamental analytical skills of the
engineers-to-be, but especially to develop methods to
encourage and train the real engineers-to-be, the
leaders-to-be, to be imaginative, creative, daring, and
responsible." Thank you.

New technology is a "fact-of-life"

100 years ago...

..and today