Remarks of William F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon. M.ASCE
ASCE Annual Conference, Oct. 21, 2006
Preparing the Civil Engineer for the Future
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Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge the thoughts and ideas of the many people I have admired, and express my gratitude for their insights and inspiration. Many ideas I express here are not my original ideas, but they are important and I gladly embrace them. I have taken ideas from colleagues such as Sam Bonasso, Ted Kennedy, Tom Lenox, Craig Barrett, Ralph Peterson, Ernie Smerdon, Stu Walesh, Bill Wulf and others. Let me also acknowledge, with special thanks, Dennis Martenson, Bill Henry, and Pat Natale, who have guided me this past year. They helped keep me out of the potholes and ditches along the way.
I wish to acknowledge the thoughts and ideas of the many people I have admired, and express my gratitude for their insights and inspiration. Many ideas I express here are not my original ideas, but they are important and I gladly embrace them. I have taken ideas from colleagues such as Sam Bonasso, Ted Kennedy, Tom Lenox, Craig Barrett, Ralph Peterson, Ernie Smerdon, Stu Walesh, Bill Wulf and others. Let me also acknowledge, with special thanks, Dennis Martenson, Bill Henry, and Pat Natale, who have guided me this past year. They helped keep me out of the potholes and ditches along the way.
During this past year, I have given a fair amount of thought to my role as ASCE president. As in most challenges I face, I like to go back to the basics. One basic fact about ASCE is that ASCE is the American Society of Civil Engineers. It is not the American Society of Civil Engineering. As president, I represent almost 140,000 individual civil engineers, not several hundred public and private engineering organizations. This is an important distinction. I work for each of you as individual members! As members of ASCE, you can be sure I will do my best to honor the trust you have placed in me. I truly look forward to this year of service.
There is a Chinese proverb that I particularly like. It goes like this-
If you want prosperity for one year-grow grain.
If you want prosperity for 10 years-grow trees, and
If you want prosperity for 100 years-grow people.
During my tenure as president I want to do all I can to help all our civil engineers grow. I consider it my duty, as your president, to do all I can do to prepare the civil engineer for his or her future. I see civil engineering students as our future. I see helping young civil engineers to develop as investing in our future. Without investment, there is no future... Therefore, the theme of my "watch" as president will be to prepare the professional civil engineer for the future. Note my emphasis on the word prepare. Success happens when preparation and opportunity meet, and each of us is in charge of our own preparation!
As I was preparing this presentation, I wondered if the president of the American Society of Telephone Operators had a similar talk with the members around 1965. Some of you may remember that prior to the 1970s, you placed a long distance phone call through a telephone operator who placed your call for you. I wonder what those telephone operators are doing today. Civil engineers must not follow the same path as these telephone operators.
That said, some of what I'm going to say this morning might sting a little. But to remain silent on this topic is a far worse alternative. I think Creighton Abrams said, "Bad news does not get better with age!" Remember what my objective is...to prepare the civil engineer for the future!
Let me touch on some current trends.
During the last 10 to 15 years, India, China, and much of Eastern Europe have come into our marketplace. Their borders have become much more economically permeable. The population of these countries is about 3 billion people. If you assume that 10 percent are educated for non-agrarian jobs, that leaves 300 million people. That is roughly equivalent to the combined workforce of North America, Western Europe, and Japan. Now that's competition!
Whether we want to admit it or not, engineering is starting to be priced as a commodity, not as a profession. This trend is increasing. Today there are few major global engineering firms that do not have offshore engineering partners.
These globalization trends not only affect civil engineering, they affect all American engineering, science, and technology. For example, a recent National Academy of Engineering publication entitled "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" presented a dozen or so worrisome trends all linked to globalization and foreign competition. Here are just a few-
- In 2003, only three American companies ranked among the top 10 recipients of patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- In 2001, U.S. industry spent more on tort litigation than on R&D.
- The U.S. trade balance in high-technology manufactured goods shifted from plus $33 billion in 1990 to a negative $24 billion in 2004. Among 21 countries, U.S. 12th graders recently performed below the international average on a test of mathematics and science knowledge.
Currently U.S. engineers cost 5 to 10 times what engineers cost in India and China. American civil engineers MUST deliver value that justifies that cost. Unless we adapt quickly, in 20 years we will know exactly what those telephone operators felt like in 1965.
The bottom line is there are more and more civil engineers in developing countries and, day by day, they are improving their technical qualifications. They are becoming more and more capable, available and accessible to do the technical work that many of us are currently doing.
Tom Lenox, a colleague I respect, likes to say,-"A problem well defined is a problem half solved." So let me try to state the problem in my own words. "What will make the U.S. civil engineer of the future an invaluable asset to the global marketplace despite requiring a salary which is an order of magnitude higher than many foreign engineers with comparable technical skills?" In other words, what will make the U.S. civil engineer so valuable in the future to be worth a much higher salary than that paid to foreign engineers? Here are my ideas for the solution.
I believe the U.S. civil engineer of the future must have advanced knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will set him or her apart from other technologically-capable civil engineers. The U.S. civil engineer must be better prepared to develop full leadership potential as a global leader.
In order to illustrate exactly what I'm talking about let me draw an analogy between the future world civil engineering community and my days in the U.S. Army. An Army division contains approximately 10,000 individuals. About 15 percent of those are commissioned officers. The other 85 percent of the soldiers are enlisted personnel. What sets the officers apart from the enlisted personnel-leadership! How do you become an officer in the U.S. Army? It takes education, training, specialization, and preparation. Officers are educated at military schools, like West Point, others go through ROTC, and still others go through Officer Candidate School. But, in general, one cannot become an officer without specialized education.
Exactly what is emphasized in this officer development? In a word-leadership. Officer candidates are trained in planning, organization, communication, coordination team building and Army ethics. Is this additional education necessary? The Army thinks so!
The Army's approach is to provide initial education followed by on-the-job experience; then additional education, more on-the-job experience, and so forth. You have lieutenants, majors, colonels. Are they all expected to be leaders? Yes, but at levels appropriate to their positions.
Within the future global civil engineering community, I see U.S. civil engineers as its officer corps. What will set the U.S. civil engineer apart is leadership. In the future, will he or she have the leadership education needed? -Yes! Is that important?-It is critical! U.S. civil engineers must be prepared!
The U.S. civil engineer of the future must be more broadly educated. In addition to the mastering current knowledge, skills and attitudes taught in our bachelor's degree curriculum, he or she must:
- Be proactive, not reactive; be "on top" not just "on tap."
- Understand and actively participate in the public policy process. As indicated by the "civil" in our profession's name, we have the responsibility to be a lead policy player. We bring vast environmental and infrastructure knowledge to the table.
- Communicate, via listening, speaking, writing and visuals, with technical and non-technical audiences. Recognize that any structure, facility or system we plan or design is and remains a figment of our imagination until it is communicated. More importantly, by striving to be a master communicator we improve our ability to understand and differentiate between wants and needs and we increase our potential to motivate and influence.
- Teach, coach and mentor and, most importantly, reinforce these roles by example. When the "chips are down," those who teach, coach and mentor must "walk the walk."
What will ASCE do to address these issues? At least three ongoing activities come to mind.
First we have initiated a Strategic Planning Process that clearly placed the issue of "Civil Engineering services increasingly being viewed as a commodity" on ASCE's radar screen for immediate action.
A second key ASCE activity was the Summit on the Civil Engineer of 2025 last June. This Summit focused on developing a vision of where we want the American civil engineer to be in 2025. It is clear that terms like "Master Integrator" and "Technology Leader" will be prominent in the forthcoming report.
Third, ASCE will work hard to clearly define the advanced knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to enter into the future practice of civil engineering at the professional level-to be prepared! We will also work to implement the fulfillment and validation of this advanced "Body of Knowledge" through our educational and licensure systems.
ASCE's Policy Statement # 465 title says it all in a nutshell-"Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice."
The bottom line is we must implement Policy # 465 with increased vigor. The issue is whether civil engineers will be leaders or technicians inadequately prepared for true leadership, reduced to competing in the world market on technology expertise, not leadership capability. On a dollar per technology ability basis, we will not win this battle. It has to be won on a leadership basis. If we are leaders, we must stick to this principle. We must prepare the civil engineer of the future to be a global technology leader. Remember success happens when opportunity and preparation meet and we are only in charge of preparation. The opportunities will be there. Will the American civil engineer be prepared?
In my opinion, a "no action" option is possible, but irresponsible; feasible but not future focused. "No action" would lead to a diminished role for the civil engineering profession and its members. Paralleling this declining role, society would gradually lose the benefit of the profession's infrastructure and environmental competence and long and caring tradition of placing the highest priority on protecting public safety, health, and welfare.
Unlike the 1965 telephone operators, civil works will always be in demand-that is certain. To be decided, however, is who will lead the planning, design, construction, and operation of civil works-civil engineers or others? Our environment will increasingly need protection. Civil engineers should lead this effort, but will they? Civil engineers can engineer their future, or others will engineer it for them. I strongly endorse the former-and pledge focused action within the next year to "Prepare the Civil Engineer for Their Future."
Thank you!
