Rhetorical Anlaysis of "Leadership and Management in Engineering"

Each of the articles posted on my blog the last several weeks have come from the journal, "Leadership and Management in Engineering" published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE is an organization of design professionals and educators that seek to protect the integrity of the civil engineering profession as well as promote research and development within the industry. 

One of ASCE's goals as a society is to teach and encourage the development of young leaders within the profession. The major concern is how the society approaches adapting the old master-apprentice form of training to complement new technological advances in the industry. Many of the young engineers are being instructed on how to operate the latest software and the real master's of the profession have no experience or desire to learn the new technologies. Ensuring that the next generation is equipped with leaders ready to take the profession into the future is top priority.
 
The articles are generally structured according to the typical style of engineering decision making process. First, the problem or question is identified. Then, the various solutions are presented along with supporting evidence. Finally, a best logical choice is selected according to good principles.

Care is taken to promote integrity and ethics in the engineering profession. These ideals are interwoven throughout each of the articles. Engineers are regarded as some of the most ethical individuals on the planet. It is this integrity that allows them to maintain the faith and confidence of the general public who rely on their decisions everyday.

Leadership is a quality that is timeless. There will always be a need for great leaders in our society. There are no qualifications to be a leader other than to be willing to lead. Though a wise leader will seek to learn the lessons of those that have gone before, not to follow in their footsteps but to use the principles they stood behind as a launching point to the next major achievement. The world is always in need of great leaders and these journal articles seek to promote those qualities of great leadership throughout the civil engineering community. 


 

Ethics of Technology

In his article "Tales of Technology and Ethics", Ken Maschke tackles the question of is it ethical for a young engineer to use computer software to complete calculations that he cannot do by hand. This is somewhat an extension of the question from before of whether it is best to teach fundamental knowledge to young engineers or to teach them the software. Ken discusses two main types of computer aid spreadsheet formation and the use of commercially available software and concludes that yes it is ethical for the engineer to use these tools to complete his job though he does offer a few observations of the necessity of good engineering judgment.

He discusses the topic of standardized spreadsheet formation to begin with and how some older engineers lacked confidence in these spreadsheets because they believed it could lead to repetitive bad calculations if a mistake was made in the formula. I had the experience during one of my internships of finding an error in one of our companies standardized spreadsheets. I had just taken a class that taught the theory behind what I was working on and though the error was minor, it had been used probably hundreds or thousands of times inaccurately. While spreadsheets can be a good tool, it is the engineers ethical responsibility to ensure that the formulas employed to complete the assigned task are accurate and complete.

Second he mentions about using some finite element analysis program to model a building and how the young engineers were taught the theory and inputs but never actually completed the calculations by hand. Also their supervisors allowed them to use the software because they didn't have time to complete the hand calculations themselves. He discusses how it is important to understand the assumptions being made by yourself and the software program as well as the importance of using good engineering judgment. Maschke recommends that teams should be comprised of a variety of age groups and experience levels for optimum performance and use of software and engineering judgment.

After all the engineer is ethically responsible for the spreadsheets that he makes and the software developer for ensuring that the software produces the appropriate results. Mistakes can be made just as easily by hand as they can be by computer. Do you feel safe allowing your fate to rest in a computer's calculations?

Knowledge or Skills

The advancement of computing has created a great challenge in today's engineering education. J.K. Yates explores this divide in her article "Engineering Knowledge versus Skills" in ASCE's Leadership and Management in Engineering Journal. She discusses the debate between whether or not it is best to teach engineering fundamentals or "Knowledge", or if it is best to teach engineering "Skills" or software manipulation. She states that there is a debate between many engineering faculty and professionals regarding this issue. Some argue that the skills of computer software should be taught in the classroom as that is what will be relied upon in the industry. However, others contend that if knowledge is taught in the classroom, young engineers can easily learn the software skills and will be able to recognize inconsistencies in the software results.

I know where I stand on this issue, but you may believe different. I feel that it is absurd to replace engineering fundamentals with teaching software in the classroom. I will admit that a short course in AutoCAD and LandDesktop Software specific to Civil Engineering would have been beneficial for our Capstone Design Project. However, it is hard to believe how anyone feel safe leaving engineering judgment to someone who only understood how to input data into a computer with no "Knowledge" of how the results should appear.

It is difficult though to determine what level of computing should be incorporated into the classroom setting. If students are completely unskilled in computer it will be very difficult for them to make the transition to the industry. However, most students today seem to be well versed general computing and far less concerned for the details. You decide an experienced, knowledgeable, fundamental engineer, or a highly skilled AutoCAD monkey.

The Little Black Box

In his article "Civil Engineering: A Way of Life" Michael Garrett describes the loss of tradition and care of the profession within engineering due to a thing called progress. He uses a story of an old farmer who was a pillar of his community. This farmer was always taking care of his farm and helping his neighbors in their difficult times to ensure that the community around him thrived. The farmer happened to have a son. Upon the birth of the son, the farmer built a small black box that he would carry with him on his walk around the boundaries of his farm every morning. The son grew up, went to the university to study agriculture, began to resent the traditions of his father, and embrace the new ideals of progress.

The father soon died and with his final breaths asked the son to maintain the tradition of walking the boundaries with the black box each morning. The son put the box on the shelf and forgot the ways of his father. Progress allowed the fences to tater, the cattle to flee, and the weeds to grow. The son also alienated the town which dwindled as it was lost to this thing called progress. Therefore, the once thriving community ceased to exist.

In the engineering community the tradition has long been for the senior engineers to pass along the knowledge of the profession to the younger generation. For centuries this knowledge has been passed along and many problems are solved by the logic of "well this is how we have always done it." Sure new methods have been developed, but the standard remains. In the last few years though, technology has made tremendous strides in the design field. It has opened new doors that were never dreamed of 50 or 100 years ago. This technology has alienated some of the older generation, and caused younger engineers to distance themselves in lieu of progress.

Garrett warns that if we as engineers want to ensure our place in society as the respected individuals within the community system, we must not put the little black box aside, and we must continue the traditions that we have always maintained, particularly our responsibility as the voice to maintain the safety of the community. Though the older generation may have difficulty keeping up with the progress, they are experts in paying attention to the finer details. After all, these are the guys that put a man on the moon, built the Hoover Dam, and any number of other amazing feats long before the additions of AutoCAD and the incredible computing tools of today. As engineers we need to remember to always revert to the basics and never to allow progress to impede our better judgment.

Entry Level Leaders

Ken Maschke discusses the viability for young engineers to take on prominent leadership rules within the engineering workplace in his article "So Crazy It Might Just Work" in ASCE's journal Leadership and Management in Engineering. He discusses the engineering challenges associated with the gulf oil spill and how no experience in this world could have prepared BP's engineers to plug the leak. What better opportunity for a young engineer to make their mark on history than to suggest the idea to finally stop the leak. He suggests a new age in engineering where technology is expanding the field and new opportunities are becoming available for women and other minorities. Maschke is calling for a new generation of engineers to step out and take the lead in the ever changing profession of civil engineering.

This particular issue in the journal is dedicated to women in Civil Engineering, if you are interested you can read more about 2 famous women engineers read here Engineering Legends.

Capstone

The ultimate finale to 4 years of a Civil Engineering education is now here, the Capstone design project. It can be a lot of fun but it can be just plain torturous as well depending on the group you are in. Some students choose their closest CE friends thinking that will make for a good group while others show up the first day not knowing who their group members will be. The class is divided into four person teams with each person taking on a certain expertise, structures, hydrology, site/transportation, and construction scheduling/cost estimating.

The task you are charged with is to recommend and design a facility on a certain piece of property at Clemson University. We are given a survey of the site and the decision on what to build and how to build it is left up to the group. There are four required submittals and  presentations, the proposal, the conceptual design, calculations, and the final report.

Our conceptual report was due on Wednesday and several groups spent Tuesday night working in the computer labs most of the evening. One of my team members stayed all night until 7 AM. Wednesday in lab was spent assembling our documents and trying to hold our heads up off of the desk. All in all though we did well. We turned our report in with about 45 minutes to spare. Halfway home, but its definitely an uphill road.

Smart Mobs

Tuesday in class we spoke about this ideal of the smart mob and the implications that it has for our society. Technology has greatly transformed our society and the general flow of knowledge within different circles of life. The Internet and text messaging have allowed us to transfer large quantities of information to great numbers of different individuals within a matter of seconds. A friend of mine is living in Australia and it is amazing how we can Skype with each other with very little noticeable delay.

The advancement of knowledge were once a mostly individual effort. Sure there was some collaboration between scientist and student/apprentice but most of the great discoveries were made by individual who dedicated there lives to research a particular topic. Today devices such as the Internet have allowed collaboration and the transfer of information between many individuals working concurrently on a given project. Information can be shared around the world in just a few seconds where in days gone by it could have taken months or even years to receive correspondence.

The smart mob dynamic appears to improve the overall accuracy of the facts being presented. While medias such as Wikipedia do allow for the possibility of sabotage, most users I believe hope to aid in increasing the accuracy of the work. After all what we perceive as scientific fact are merely the observations of others before us that we have agreed to believe. Over time we have modified them to improve upon the accuracy of most of these concepts there by creating a more perfect fit model due to various observations and opinions. The smart mob, thanks to technology, has merely expedited this process.