Oil Leak Emphasizes the Value of Engineering

As the Gulf oil leak debate rages over who's to blame, who will pay what to whom and how much they owe, one thing remains clear: Bypassing recommended engineering process and materials is what led to this disaster and it will require some creative engineering to fix the problem. Which brings us to the crux of this issue - engineering has demonstrable value not just to the businesses for which it is carried out, but in its impact on our everyday lives.

So why is it that so many engineers feel overlooked or under-appreciated (as indicated by nearly 20 percent of respondents to our annual salary survey)?

Though there may be no clear answer to this perception, I see four clear trends that will serve to bring engineering more to the forefront in the coming years:

• A growing regulatory environment - Issues like the oil spill tend to create a more hyperactive regulatory environment across the board, thus  directly engaging engineers to address these issues in the design stage of system and product development.
• Globalization - This is not a new issue, of course, but it certainly hasn't reached its peak yet either. As more companies make their products and services available globally, more national and regional requirements will have to be faced (such as RoHS and WEEE). And this is not just an issue for lawyers; the rubber meets the road on these issues with product design engineering.
• Sustainability - Industries such as wind and solar are barely in their infancy, not to mention all the benefits to be gained from  increasing efficiencies of the products and systems we use regularly today.
• Heightened end-user expectations - While we may not have witnessed jaw-dropping engineering achievements in the past 20 years on par with the creation of the steam engine, the airplane or space travel, we have certainly seen a number of life-altering technology advances. Think about how much cell phones, the Internet and e-mail have changed our lives. Now look at what's happening with tablet devices such as the iPad. This rapid introduction and evolution of products is the new norm, and none of it happens without engineering.

In his book "The Post-American World," author Fareed Zakaria refers to a U-shaped curve that represents the product development, production and sales process. At the high, left edge of the U is the product idea development and high-level industrial design; lower down on the left side of the U is the detailed engineering plan; at the bottom of the U is manufacturing, assembly and shipping; rising up the right side of the U are distribution, marketing, sales, service, parts and accessories.

Zakaria contends that the left and right ends of the U will largely remain in the developed world, thereby requiring a strong emphasis on engineering - an area in which the U.S. still leads on a per capita basis,
despite numerous reports to the contrary.

We'll clearly need those engineers based on just the few obvious trends I've noted here. So it's a good thing that the majority of engineers responding to our salary survey indicated that they would recommend engineering to a son, daughter or friend. You can read more about this in the July 2010 cover story, "Design Engineering Salary and Career Insight."