May and June are the time for graduations in the USA. My third son graduated from high school this month and will be pursuing a major in Aerospace Engineering. My oldest son is finishing his third year in Mining Engineering and my second son has started into a Mechanical Engineering major. Engineering education and the future of engineering is a frequent discussion topic around our home.

So what is the future of engineering?

Well, it is safe to say that a knowledge-based society like today’s society will always need engineers. From that point of view the future of engineering is secure.

However, more troubling to many engineers at different points in their careers is the real or perceived lack of job security. In many Western nations there are industries that have seen downward pressure on employment demand for engineers due to technology outsourcing to emerging economies. But the story is not necessarily bright for engineers in emerging economies either. I spent 10 days in India in late 2011. India graduates a large number of engineers. However, it seems many Indian engineers are looking to take their engineering skills abroad because of insufficient demand inside the country.

If one cannot have a secure job then is engineering a good career choice?

It has been said that in today’s world the only constant is change. It should be obvious to all engineers that an engineering education is no longer enough. With the rate of change in technology, engineers need to be re-trained over and again. I have heard that an engineer needs to be re-trained three times in his or her career.

I think we can stop at this point and draw a conclusion about the future of engineering:

An engineering education is not enough. An engineer needs to plan for continual self-education if he or she wishes to continue to practice in this rapidly changing career.

With this reality, engineers would be well advised to look for employers who have a track record of investing in their staff. But engineers should not depend completely on their employer. They should take some initiative to re-educate themselves.

Another thing I tell my oldest son (the Mining Engineering student) is not to pay so much attention to the monetary compensation of any job. By far what will matter most to an engineer’s future is the experience they gain on the job. A highly compensated engineer that is not getting good experience has a higher chance of being out of a job some day. So we can now draw a second conclusion about the future of engineering:

Employers pay engineers in two ways – in salary and in experience. In the end the experience gained is what gives more secure employment prospects.

Recent decades have seen an increase in globalization trends. The BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have economies that are growing faster than many of those in developed Western nations. They all have significant internal societal and political challenges. Nevertheless it is safe to say that globalization trends will increase and not decrease.

With the global scope of Applied Flow Technology (we have clients in 70+ countries) I have been fortunate to have traveled extensively internationally to work with clients. My engineering student sons mentioned earlier have been fortunate to have traveled with me on many occasions. Moreover, they have each lived abroad for a semester while in high school and learned a foreign language. The second language learned and increased global awareness will serve them well in the global marketplace.

A third conclusion about the future of engineering can be drawn:

Increases in globalization means engineers should think globally about their future. Engineers should pay attention to global trends and try to develop their skills such that they will be relevant not just to future domestic demands but also future global demands. This could include living abroad for a time period to gain improved understanding of other cultures and/or learning a second language.

Another obvious trend is that towards communication and networking. My sons and their generation are very comfortable with the virtual world of mobile access and social networking. It is clear that this will increasingly influence how engineering is performed. Bill Knoke talks about “the placeless society” (see The Hyperconnecting Corporation) and how this is transforming businesses. We can add this as a fourth conclusion about the future of engineering :

Mobile and remote networking will continue to change how engineering work is performed. Becoming more comfortable with remote, collaborative processes and tools will allow an engineer to better fit into future work processes.

Consider these trends as you plan your career. Next month we will continue the discussion on the future of engineering.

I have an iPod – to which I am very attached. I have had my iPod Nano for a couple years now. All of my kids and my wife have iPods. I hike frequently in the Colorado Mountains near where I live and I can’t do it without my iPod. I can’t work out at the gym without my iPod. I can’t drive my car without my iPod.

I have an iPhone – to which I am very attached. I have had my iPhone for about 6 months now. It goes with me everywhere and – along with AT&T – was a reliable tool for me in Australia and Asia late last year. My wife has an iPhone. All the sales and technical staff at Applied Flow Technology have company-provided iPhones.

For my iPod and iPhone I frequently download music on iTunes. iTunes holds my entire precious music library.

I am emotionally attached to my iPod and my iPhone.

My first experience with a graphical user interface was on an Apple Macintosh. Although I never owned an Apple computer, at my first engineering job I worked regularly on a Mac for five years. It was at my second job where I first became acquainted with Microsoft Windows. Version 3.1.

My first PC was an 8086 IBM clone (from Dell) running Microsoft DOS 3. Command lines. Arcane. High barriers to usage. Definitely the tool for an engineer.

When Steve Jobs passed away a few months ago there was understandably a lot of discussion in the media on his contributions to society and the marketplace. Like many of you I read a number of articles on Steve Jobs and watched several news programs and documentaries. Somewhere along the way I picked up on Steve Jobs’ apparent disdain for Bill Gates and Microsoft.

That sentiment has been bothering me ever since.

Today Apple is the most valuable public company in the world. Microsoft – which not too long ago held that distinction – has, in the opinion of many, seen its better days.

Steve Jobs created Apple out of a garage and was instrumental in building that into a multi-billion dollar company. Twice. Once originally and then, after being kicked out of his own company for ten years, when he saved Apple from potential bankruptcy in the 1990’s. During that time away from Apple he was an early investor in Pixar – another multi-billion dollar company which he helped build. A person who helped create two and arguably three multi-billion dollar companies is one amazing individual. Steve Jobs was amazing, no doubt.

However, Steve Jobs’ (and Apple in particular) always seemed to be about control. His lack of an open architecture for the Apple computer was a big turn off for me. I much preferred the openness of the IBM “PC” so my preferences went that way – along with a huge percentage of the marketplace. Bill Gates and Microsoft were instrumental in propagating the graphical user interface to the masses – both in business and consumers.

Bill Gates and Microsoft is what made Applied Flow Technology possible.

But that is not the only or even the main reason why I like Bill Gates’ more than Steve Jobs’. Microsoft was always open and supportive of outside innovators (as long as they did not compete with Microsoft – a subject for another day!).

Steve Jobs’ disdain for Bill Gates and Microsoft was based, I believe, on creativity. That Microsoft was not creative. And as far as that goes he was mostly right. Apple has been a more creative company than Microsoft.

However, Microsoft has been a more open company than Apple and that has allowed outsiders to achieve their own independent success.

Apple invented the PC but they lost their lead to IBM heritage PCs because of Apple’s closed system mentality. The PC and Microsoft achieved dominance because they were on an open platform, and Microsoft was further open by developing and providing tools to an army of independent software developers who built applications for the PC to run on their Windows operating system.

For the first time the world opened up to small companies (even one-person companies) who could cost-effectively leverage Microsoft’s efforts and tools to influence their own industries and build their own new companies. The software tools developed by these small companies allowed other small non-software companies to exist and thrive. There was and is a multiplier effect from Microsoft’s efforts that has allowed countless individuals and new companies to find success.

In parallel, Microsoft’s tools allowed large companies to collaborate at a level never possible previously. This provided numerous efficiencies in large companies that helped them become more capable and competitive.

I liked Steve Jobs because he made our lives more enjoyable. I like Bill Gates more because he has made our lives more successful.

As President of AFT, I often hear from our customers about how one of AFT’s software products has helped them solve a problem or made their lives easier. Sometimes I’ll notice something in the news and think how AFT’s products COULD have helped avoid a problem. Every month, I’d like to share these insights with you in hopes that we can all work together to make our pipelines safer and more efficient.

Last week I met an AFT Impulse user at a conference and was reminded of how profoundly our products affect the safety of industrial systems. I made a presentation at an engineering conference on the imbalanced forces generated during waterhammer and how they can impact pipe structures. As many of you know, our AFT Impulse software can predict these forces and then pass them automatically to pipe stress software products like CAESAR II® and TRIFLEX®.

The customer attended my presentation and had used AFT Impulse last year to forensically model the waterhammer transients in a combustible liquid pipe system. The transient had damaged a pipe flange, caused a leak, which resulted in an explosion which destroyed the facility. I did not find out if there was any loss of life, but as we all know this is always of great concern in many industrial facilities.

I am frequently amazed at the level of misunderstanding that exists in industry on subjects like waterhammer and am concerned about the risk to human life and property. Engineering overdesign and built-in safety systems usually compensate for the misunderstandings. But not always.

Engineers have the difficult job of assessing and balancing risk and safety issues in industrial facilities. I am proud that AFT Impulse has emerged as a key tool for many such engineers to improve safety and reliability.

If you have a success story or are curious about how AFT products relate to something you hear in the news, feel free to email me at prez@aft.com

Trey