A few years ago, I was in a department store looking at the specifications for a new Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for my home workstation.  A young gentleman asked if I needed some assistance.  I assumed he was a store employee.  He seemed knowledgeable enough, and after selecting an UPS to purchase, I asked him how long he had been working for the store.  He said he did not work for the store and proudly proclaimed to be an engineer.  I told him I was also an engineer, and I asked him were he got his degree.  I was shocked when he told me he had just graduated from High School.  I worked long and hard for my credentials.  I was incensed that this kid could claim to be an engineer just because he got a job with a high tech company.

This problem is not new.  Many people try to dress up their job titles by claming to be an engineer.  Some housewives claim to be domestic engineers, the usher at the movie theatre calls himself a crowd control engineer, and the fellow driving the garbage truck proclaims himself to be a sanitation engineer.  These attempts to dress up job titles by adding the term engineer may be flattering to some, but it does raise the question of whom or what is an engineer?

Engineers are professionals, just like doctors and lawyers.  A profession requires extensive education, specialized training, and experience.  It is much more than just an occupation.  As a member of the profession, we have a duty and a responsibility to use our education, training and experience to protect the health, welfare and safety of the public.  Just like doctors and lawyers, we are expected to have high standards and ethics commensurate with the public trust bestowed upon us.  To ensure that practitioners are properly qualified, and to protect the public from incompetent and unscrupulous practitioners, all 50 states have enacted licensure laws.  In the state of Alabama, it is illegal for anyone to practice or offer to practice engineering, publicly or privately, without a license.  So why are there so many unlicensed electrical, electronics and computer engineers?

Many people feel that licensure only applies to Civil Engineers and engineers involved in constructing roads, bridges, buildings and utilities.  The licensure laws make no such distinctions, and other professions do not subdivide their ranks based on the discipline or branch of specialized study within their profession.  Such division would reduce their ability to affect public policy and regulate their profession.  Our profession is engineering.  We have specialties and disciplines within the profession, but we are first and foremost engineers.

There are also grey areas, like engineering products for sale to the public instead of offering engineering services directly to the public.  This is especially problematic when the products are sold nationally or internationally.  Because of the many jurisdictions involved, it is unreasonable to expect the engineering services that went into building that product to be licensed in each jurisdiction in which the products are sold.  As a result, many engineers developing products for the public sector are unlicensed.

Exemptions do exist for U. S. Government officers and employees, and for certain jobs that are regulated under different organizations or agencies.  This discourages many engineers working for the U. S. Government from seeking a license.  As an electrical engineer for the U. S. Air Force, I had a difficult time finding enough Professional Engineers to certify my experience when I applied for my license.

So who should be licensed?  In my opinion, every practicing engineer should be licensed.  It is just one of the ways we have to distinguish ourselves from people who want to dress up their job title by calling themselves engineers.  We spend years studying mathematics, physical sciences, and the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to obtain degrees, but that is not enough.  The world is changing rapidly, and we must remain cognizant of the latest technology.  We need continuing education to augment the experience we gain on the job.  The designation of Professional Engineer shows that you have demonstrated education, experience, competence, ethics and currency to engineering peers empowered by the State to bestow that title.  The IEEE strongly supports professional licensing.  I was glad to see some interest in licensing from the Huntsville Section, and I hope all engineers will strive for professional recognition through licensure.  I am proud to be a Professional Engineer.