Design Engineers Competency? 6

[dantalbot]

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.

 

[ukengineer58]

i fail to see how cdm enforces competancy. it only basically deals with risks. its really becoming more of a paper chase for compliance

 

[MiketheEngineer]

First time I have EVER heard a Brit saying the US might have it right!!

 

[ukengineer58]

not right just better

 

[concretemasonry]

I had strange experiences in registration.

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.