The Nevada Connection – December 2017

Attendees came from all parts of the US, and included a variety of professional society members. Attendees were required to commit to having an open mind, be willing to think big, and most importantly get out of their own way while participating. Prior to attending the summit, attendees were encouraged to read four books—

• The Future of the Professions, Richard Susskind & Daniel Susskind, Oxford University Press, March 2017.
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Klaus Schwab, Crown Business, January 2017.
• A Whole New Engineer: The Coming Revolution in Engineering Education, David E. Goldberg and Mark Somerville, Threejoy Associates, 2013.
• Leaders Make the Future, Berrett-Kohler Publishers, May 2012.

The books were thought provoking, providing fodder for fueling discussions.

Currently, despite the demand for engineers, the US is not producing enough of them. In A Whole New Engineer, one of the reasons cited for this lack of engineers is that not enough students succeed in getting their degrees. Preparation and encouragement of high school students is one major cause for the lack of interest and success in the engineering related careers. This is especially true for women and minorities. Olin College has piloted a new approach to engineering education. Teachers collaborate with students to birth innovative ideas. Students build and make things prior to being taught the math and sciences. Creativity is encouraged, successes are celebrated, and failures are valued as opportunities for improving the engineering process. University of Illinois, unable to toss out its engineering education to create a new program, but knowing changes were needed to improve engineering education, adopted much of the Olin model on a voluntary basis and has seen 100% participation by staff and students. With the optimistic student approach of, “look to your right and look to your left, these will be the people to help you make it to the end of this program,” both of these programs have diverse student populations and impressive retention rates.

As engineers we often talk about concerns with engineering education, we may agree that changes are needed, but we passionately disagree on the fix. It’s exciting to watch Olin College lead the way in radically changing engineering education. Rather than working within the confines of current engineering education delivery systems, Olin has transformed delivery. It has no departments or tenured staff. Staff leads classes and collaborates with students to explore the boundaries of knowledge and innovation by working on research projects in addition to pursuing new ideas born by each student’s passionate pursuits. Olin has caught the attention of others and is collaborating with them, serving as a beacon for the future of engineering education in the world.

Technology is rapidly changing our world. The Future of the Professions describes how a number of professions have already been irrevocably changed by technology. Rather than seeking a Certified Public Accountant for tax preparation, taxpayers can simply use Turbo Tax, an online tax preparation software program. In the June issue of Builder magazine, which is the magazine for the National Association of Home Builders, there was an article on artificial intelligence based design. The article stated, “Currently, only professional designers know design rules and techniques. Our vision is to empower everyone to become interior designers with an app that combines AI with virtual reality.”  It’s not a stretch that artificial intelligence will eventually percolate into engineering design practice. The market will no doubt demand it. A business owner of a major engineering firm attending the Future of Engineering Summit commented there is no reason why engineering designs can’t live in the public domain. Owners currently demand ownership of engineered drawings wanting the ability to reuse. When the demand exists it becomes only a matter of time before the competitive free market meets the demand.

UBER is a great example of the market meeting demand. There are cars on roads everywhere and people ride in cars to get places. By employing new technologies and innovative business models, UBER became a ridesharing service, sidestepping the regulation of the taxi industry. UBER is thriving as an unregulated service while the highly regulated taxi industry steadily declines. This very well could be the beginning of the end for the taxi industry. When considering the future of engineering and that just 20% of graduate engineers become licensed, regulators and licensed professional engineers could easily find themselves in a similar position to the taxi industry.

This last year state regulatory boards across the country experienced increased challenges to licensure. There were a number of bills considered at the Nevada Legislature that would have significantly impacted how engineering is regulated. And, these challenges don’t appear to be abating. Recently, the National Conference of State Legislatures commissioned an occupational licensing study in eleven states to identify current regulatory policies that create unnecessary barriers. Government’s approach is to change laws to affect change. The reality is there is much that can be done by state regulating boards to eliminate unnecessary barriers just by changing administrative processes. This board did just that and reduced comity/endorsement licensure time from over 70 days to an average of 7 days. This ultimately results in a positive impact to Nevada’s economy. As we continue to review our internal administrative processes, we will continue to make improvements and eliminate perceived barriers. As licensed professionals we should not be naïve or arrogant to believe that status quo will continue to be acceptable. The times are changing and coupled with the increasing rate of innovative advancements, we must be willing to commit to having an open mind, be willing to think big, and most importantly get out of our own way to meet the future of engineering. If we don’t, we run the risk of possible extinction.