Make A Difference

Last week I asked what you imagine your obligation is to society.  I was pleased that no one challenged the premise of the question, which is that an engineer has an obligation to society.  Long gone are the days when an engineer’s professional obligation was simply to provide technical expertise to a company in exchange for a paycheck.   

The collaborative creation of new things that give us better ways to accomplish fundamental tasks – from providing basic nutrition, to providing aesthetic stimuli, to stretching our minds into new realms – has long been the defining human characteristic.  As much of this work has become professionalized as “engineering,” and made more powerful through this systemization and through a synergy with science and mathematical reasoning, it has become clear that the collective impact of engineering is as important in defining culture as is art.

Standard engineering ethics lays out the case that the negative impact of careless technological practice compels engineers to consider their obligation to safety. This is an important social contract, but it is not the only one. 

Engineering drives our economic engine and provides for human needs.  Engineering creates artifacts – products, technologies, networks – that shape the very way we live.  It is this power of our profession for impact that generates the tremendous social obligation compelling us to think carefully how our work will change the world.  Even though we cannot see all ends, we cannot fail to look and consider what the ends might be.  The primary driver for all our work must be an expectation of a positive impact on human well-being.  This pact to make a positive difference is our fundamental obligation.


This saturday is commencement at the University of Michigan.  I hope our students are thinking, "I will make a difference."

The Social Engineer

Last weekend in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan we undertook a simple ceremony called the Order of The Engineer.  Over seventy students approaching graduation elected to participate in the event and join the order.  The students recited an oath, and then lined up to proceed, one-by-one, to have a stainless steel ring placed on the small finger of their working hand.  It’s the only meeting of the Order of The Engineer in which they will ever participate.  Huh… what’s up with that?

The ceremony has a very simple purpose: it’s a moment to pause, right before their last set of final exams, and think about what they have committed to in undertaking to be engineers.

As part of the ceremony we recall an episode in engineering history when American and Canadian engineers building a bridge in Quebec screwed up.  During construction, on August 29, 1907, the bridge collapsed, killing over 70 workers.  The collapse was the fault of poor design, poor analysis, and poor construction management: errors squarely on the shoulders of the engineers.   Because of this collapse Canadian engineers commonly wear iron or steel rings, said originally to have been made from the wreckage of the bridge.   This ring is a reminder to the engineer of her obligation to those who rely on her skill for their livelihood and safety, and by its wear against paper as the ring moves over pages of plans and calculations the experience of the engineering is symbolically judged.

In the United States this same tradition has taken hold over the last 40 years through the Order of the Engineer ceremony for graduating engineers, reminding American engineering students to reflect on their obligation to society.   

What do you imagine is your obligation to society?