As we look into the crystal ball, what do we see for our profession? Mostly, it’s potentially good things! Specifically, we see the demand for structural engineering services dramatically increasing in the coming decades for three reasons: society’s increasing dependence on emerging and advancing technologies, new and sophisticated structural engineering materials and systems, and the world’s exploding population. By the end of this century, it’s predicted that our population worldwide will reach 10 billion people. In the United States, our population is expected to double.

This doubling of America’s population means that we’ll need to double the size of our national infrastructure, as well as upgrade and repair our existing public facilities. Accompanying this extensive public sector development will be a massive building effort by the private sector.Large numbers of structural engineers will be needed to build countless projects that will be required.

Among the major questions American structural engineers will face going forward are the following:

• How much of this needed structural engineering work for domestic projects will be done by American engineers, and how much by low-cost, engineers from other parts of the world?
• For how much of this work will structural engineers be hired by the lowest bid rather than by quality-based selection procedures?
• How much of this work will be done automatically on computers without the need for professional engineering? To answer these questions that address the implications of current trends—and play a bigger hand in setting industry direction—more structural engineers will need to hone their leadership potential to the fullest.

They’ll have to get out of the backrooms and move up the food chain to where the controlling decisions are made.

In tomorrow’s world, effectively addressing and solving industry problems will require that structural engineers be articulate, big-picture-thinking leaders rather than humble, narrowlyfocused followers. Otherwise, there’s little hope of significantly altering practices that treat structural engineering as a commodity and engineers as technicians.

These are practices that put American engineers in a price war with non-Americans for every scrap of work, even in this country.We could see trends that will rob generations of American structural engineers of the opportunity to work as respected, properly reimbursed professionals on projects here in the United States, let alone overseas.

Bright, young Americans see the handwriting on the wall with regard to dropping engineering salaries and opportunities.

They often result from abuses in the nation’s H-1B visa programs, outsourcing, off-shoring, and from design-build tactics that relegate structural engineers to subordinate subcontractor status. As a result, in contrast to countries such as China, Russia, and India, American students are shying away from choosing engineering as a career.

Rather, America is educating more people to be lawyers, stockbrokers, and the like—people orientated to dividing up the country’s economic pie. But just the opposite is required! We need more engineers, producers, and wealth creators in high positions to have a stable economy and maintain a sound infrastructure. We don’t need more pie dividers.

To reverse those trends and interest top students in becoming engineers, we need to remember that young men and women today want role models in their chosen field—people they can look up to and connect with. That means practicing engineers should do everything possible—including being public figures—to convince would-be engineers that there are, indeed, heroes in their ranks; that structural engineers are involved in shaping the nation’s future, and that structural engineering is relevant to everyday events, the economy, and people’s living standards.

Some current trends contain too many negatives to think that they will go away on their own. Rather, structural engineers must address them head on, which requires becoming more visible and involved in society than ever before.

Even though tomorrow’s engineers potentially will be in great demand, because they’re so infrequently mentioned in the mainstream media or favorably featured in the movies or on TV, it’s difficult for the average person to relate to them. Many people don’t really know what engineers actually do. The general perception is that engineers make things run, but they don’t run things.

These views will never change if engineers remain invisible and silent about the issues affecting their profession.

What would make a difference? Having increasing numbers of structural engineers be visible publicly, boldly insisting that their profession receive full credit for its valuable part in building America’s infrastructure. Ultimately, top engineers need to create a national dialogue on how best to deal with current trends.

Richard Weingardt, P.E., is CEO and chairman of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc., a Denver-based structural engineering firm. He can be reached via e-mail at rweingardt@gostructural.com.