Comments

I agree with Keith on both items for the wish list. I was a product of an engineering apprenticeship program and wish we would add that to the wish list also.

Very nicely said, Keith. Education and technical management are very important.
When we can't measure, read drawings or visualize spacially, we're in trouble.

You really nailed it this time, Keith, especially in your comments about how fundamentally wrong-headed our higher education system is. I'll call you in the new year to see about making this some sort of cause celebre in our editorial coverage. Who are the individuals in government and in higher education whose blindness perpetuates this mistaken approach to education? Maybe we can marshall together the informed opinions of folks like you and use them to challenge the policy makers whose views of higher education could use a little challenging. In the meantime, here's hoping Santa agrees that you have indeed been a good boy.

Keith,

I agree!
I also think enginners tend to be able to form a concensus more easily than lawyers.
Happy Xmas.

Chris

You are right on both counts.
Our education system has for years under rated the trades. We will always need plumbers and electricians and technicians....and they are not currently being validated by our education system. We seem to have adopted as a society the notion that unless you have a university degree, you are a failure. Nothing could be further from the truth...Just try to call for a plumber or an electrician and see if he is lacking for work.
As for technical folks getting into management and politics...we techies are probably too pragmatic by nature to want to go to a place of huge frustration. Most politicians refuse to believe what the techies say, unless it is politically expedient.

I agree. Also, a part of the problem is our higher education institutions have become "tuition collectors" instead of educators. They have to have "X" number of students to keep the doors open, so they recruit to degrees, as you stated, that do not lead to jobs. They also place importance on research, which is important, over education.
We also need a renewed sense of purpose and work ethic among our younger people. I my business, I emplyee licensed professional and technicians. The technician side in lacking in available persons for positions, and the one that do work-seem to work for the car payment and insurance and the cellphone bill. The desire to work fulltime, god forbid overtime, is really cramping their life. As long as these basics are met, they can survive. Long term goals are not in their plans and responsibilty is a theory. Technical education is really what we need more of.

Thanks,

Amen to that, especially your first wish. I have been listening to NPR and the troops coming home...a perfect opportunity to utilize their technical skills.
Have a great holiday!!!!

I agree. That same thinking holds true for almost all so called developed nations. We need people who create real value not data manipulators. Lawyers exist because we are taught that confrontation is a profit generator.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I whole heartedly agree. Dunlop Holdings was once a huge world wide corporation - run and managed largly by "technocrats" and engineers. Now some influence from the Financial side is necessary but when the Accountants from BTR came along they dismantled a Britiash icon and sold off the parts. Now Dunlop is only a Logo and a marketed trade name little is MADE by Dunlop anymore. I retired from the remnants of Dunlop Holdings Limited and remember its achievements and contributions - they will be missed.

Great comments Keith. We definitely need more engineers in management and politics to restore technological common sense and to lead our country back to true prosperity, not just shuffling electronic money from here to there and creating no actual value and outsourcing all of our manufacturing base.

Right on! Two very legitimate requests that many of us can endorse personally. The question remains, will the current powers in place accept either one, even partially. Lets pull together to see what we can do!

Very good points! Thanks.

Great comment, hit all essential points on the head.

great post as usual!

It has been a pleasure to meet you at the PMMI Educational Committee meetings and the Mechatronics test session.

I read your "My Christmas List" post and you are right on all of your points. The one thing that I would like to add is a worrisome trend that is also happening. I have talked to older engineers/designers that learned their craft by first working with their hands and later with their minds to bring many new products and machine systems to reality. Along the way some of them took the time to study and pass the testing process to become PE licensed engineers. These self taught guys would not be allowed to sit and take the EIT exam today because of the academic requirements that have been changing recently.

I think this is the wrong path to go on. We should be doing what it takes to bring the bright and talented forward and if a there is highest level testing process as a measure of achievement we should not be putting up a stone wall to a MET graduate that can solve the problems but does not know how to derive Bernoulli's equation for example.

I disagree with my fellow ME's in that I do not believe engineering is about learning how to derive an equation and then not understand how it applies to a pump system. Engineering is about problem solving and finding solutions to simple and complex problems. Some engineers work in the purely research realm and need to understand why things work the way do but the vast majority work in the how things work realm and just need to figure out the problem

In all honesty, in my work I don't need an ME to set up a matirx of equations to derive the mass moment of inertia of a timing screw and create a system of motion equations to calculate the theoretical acceleration torque. I need engineers that can read the dynamic properties for the entire system modeled in CAD and than set up a motion system in AB's Motion Analyzer to simulate the running of the drive. The equation guy will take a week to set things up and another 1/2 day to solve the first scenario. The practical guy will take an hour to get the data into the program and then we can test 10 scenarios and what if's in another hour. More importantly the one doing the simulation will have a better understanding of the true system behavior since he can quickly see what changes effect what outcome.

Why should the guy or gal that can solve problems but not have the right degree be excluded from taking the EIT & PE exams? If they pass I think the engineer community as a whole will be better off and we can honor their talents and intellect

PMMI is going in the right direction by not setting some minimal academic requirement for the Mechatronic's program. If you can pass the exam you have displayed a certain amount of knowledge and that is what counts

Since I am a resident of Indiana I am going to try to find out why they are limiting access to these exams over the next couple of weeks

Cezary Mroz
Director of Engineering & Development