Design Engineers Competency?
Design Engineers Competency?
(OP)
My Names Dan, I'm a Civil Engineer. In the UK we have construction design and managemnet regulations, which look at the competency of civil engineers. for example how is this assessed. Im specifically looking at the USA and France regulations. will anyone be able to help point me in the right direction for the USA or france regulations especially looking into design engineers competency.





RE: Design Engineers Competency?
All that done - and you can call yourself a PE (Professional Engineer) and sign and seal any project that through training or experience you fell capable.
Go to NCEES.org or .com and find all the details. I may have missed something!!!
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
I don't think there are specific regulations in the US concerning competency, however there may be individual company policies and professional societies that address competency matricies of various kinds "privately", such as what SPE is suggesting here,
http://www.spe.org/training/competency.php I did not find much else. NASA had the best overall, but still seems voluntary, stopping short of regulatory requirements. http
The Professional Engineer criteria in the US is not (or was not at the time I went through the process) formalized towards either meeting a criteria for a wide general engineering branch, nor meeting any particular engineering competency skill completion matrix, but just generally confirms that the experience you had up until that point could be verified by other professional engineers as generally good enough verified professional experience to do pretty much anything that you think you are qualified to work on thereafter.
In the US, I think regulatory competency checks generally stop with testing for drug use.
From "BigInch's Extremely simple theory of everything."
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
They are coming out now not knowing how to do anything; get an entry level job somewhere for a few years; get a few "friends in the business" to vouch for them on SERs; then cram for the exam, maybe passing it on their second or third attempt. Then they come back to the job with their chests stuck out calling themselves Professional Engineers, but still not knowing how to do ANYTHING.
Wouldn't it be interesting if the people filling out the SERs could be held accountable if engineers they vouched for were ultimately determined to be incompetent?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
From "BigInch's Extremely simple theory of everything."
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
There are also some grandfathered in stamps from the older school that can also sign off on surveys. I think this was from the early 80's when the change happened.
To sit for the PE you need a certain amount of years of experience or first get your degree and pass the EIT/FE. That's why a lot of people seem to wait to take the PE so they qualify to skip the EIT/FE portion.
B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer
http://bwengr.com
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
"Sharing knowledge is the way to immortality"
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
http://waterhammer.hopout.com.au/
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
From "BigInch's Extremely simple theory of everything."
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
If you would like more information on the UK guide heres a link.
www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/session7.PPT
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
No. It's left up to the judgement of the PE to determine what s/he is qualified to do or not. As B31.3 lists its experience requirements, supposedly a licensed PE would adhere to those prerequisites. A P.E. would be subject to a complaint, hearing with the state engineering license board and a possible loss of licensure, a malpractice suit in civil court, or even criminal malpractice and prossecution, in the event of serious mishap.
dantalbot, Yes it is the same state boards that oversee PE licensure and subsequent practice. An engineer, or an engineering company, must have a license to practice as an engineer, a company by virtue of having a licensed engineer qualified in the discipline(s) they work in as a member of their staff. Certain projects, especially those falling somewhere within the public domain, federal, state and local government sponsored projects, although that is extended by further requlation into many private sectors, are mandated by law to allow only PEs to certify the validity of any engineering work carried out for them.
From "BigInch's Extremely simple theory of everything."
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=7231
http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Governance/3675.pdf
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
From "BigInch's Extremely simple theory of everything."
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
However things are changing with the harmonisation of OH & S laws between the states. Now the engineer is in the firing line. Managers can hide behind the "I dont know about that its technical" defence. So engineers have to get a back bone from other than KMart and stand up to management in matters technical. Some interesting times a ahead but guaranteed to fill the lawyers pockets and make engineers even poorer.
"Sharing knowledge is the way to immortality"
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
http://waterhammer.hopout.com.au/
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
Im born and bread from Newcastle upon Tyne in the North east but even i have to admit the Americans have it right.
BigInch I'm sad to say its true. gutted.
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
RE: Design Engineers Competency?
I attended a University with a 5 year curriculum (a luxury in hind site) and worked in engineering for 4 summers. I went to CA and worked under a PE/SE from IL in facilities engineering (aerospace industry) for 2 years. I ended up up supervising another SE for 6 months and then applied to take the test for PE, but left CA before testing. After 2 years in MN, I decided, as an EIT with experience, to take the PE test and listed my education, summer experience and CA experience and took my MN PE and passed.
I then decided is would be good to get my CA PE (not reciprocal at the time) and got accepted to take the test. On a lark, I applied for the CA SE test, which required working under a SE for 2 years and I was also scheduled for the next SE exam, which was scheduled immediately (the days after) the PE exam. Because of my interests and scheduling, I decided not to take the CA PE and SE tests even though I had 4 years of the publicly available tests as examples for study purposes.
I have not regretted it since I have rarely had to sign anything beyond a simple PE level, all though I worked on structural and site selection for nuclear power plants with previous co-workers (sub contractors GE, Westinghouse, Parsons, Dames and Moore). On one site we had to do a site seismic analysis and had D&M do the seismic analysis and the man sent from SF to do the job was a supervisor that I worked with when we instrumented an entire 200' high rocket test stand and every joint and converted the results into a theoretical comparison to the current AISC standards (nice when you have a big budget and an important project with no history).
So far, I have not been required to sign specific mayor plans, but have been lucky to get varied experience and sit on voting committees for ASTM, ACI, MJSC/TMS and various codes and standards groups because of the door opened by being a PE and active in the engineering community. My MN PE did not open many doors internationally, but provided credibility to participate, but I did get to 41 countries (some too many times) and get 5 "honorary" doctorate degrees (Brazil, China, Japan, Russia, Canada) just for working with local professionals. - At times, I was the expert and at other times I was the student learning concepts and trying to handle the language and terminology difference.
My suggestion is to at least get a PE and continue to be active, current and knowledgeable and be willing to work with other engineers whenever possible. After that, do what suits your background and interests.
Dick
Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.