New year calls for exchange of ideas

Finally, the 21st century is here, and all the hoopla of the Centennial Year is nearly over. The line was drawn in the sands of time. We have crossed over into the third millennium of the Common Era, the third century of ASME, and my third year of writing this column. Consequently, I believe it is time to refocus our energy as engineers and entrepreneurs within the context of this column.

As part of this refocus, I would like to be able to act as editor as much as originator of what appears in this column. When I started to write this column, I very much wanted it to be an exchange. An exchange of ideas, concepts and philosophies toward the engineering process, and how society as a whole shapes what we as mechanical engineers do or are expected to do.

Much has changed in the mechanical engineering field during the two previous centuries. During the 19th century, engineering knowledge was part of the field of natural philosophy. This is one of the reasons why the top degree in our field is called a Ph.D. at many universities.

More than half of all these changes have taken place in the 20-plus years that I have been a degreed engineer, and the extent of the changes will more than double in the next 20.

The mechanical engineering arts and sciences have also gone from being a visual science prior to the 20th century to being an analytical science and now, with the advent of computers and the use of computer-aided drawing and design, are once again becoming visual. Yet, this time, the visual nature of the science must be much tempered by a complete understanding of the analysis that underlies the technology.

Computers are allowing us to see the results of our designs before we actually have to take the risks involved with building our inventions. Yes, our inventions. Each new engineering system is an invention because it must be designed to meet new needs and requirements using new materials and technologies.

Consequently, each of us has a story to tell about our experiences and what we have encountered while becoming entrepreneurial mechanical engineers in the 21st century. I invite all of you to provide a glimpse of what you see as important issues to our chosen profession.

Please e-mail them directly to me, and I will see that they are considered for inclusion here.

— Niel Leon
Committee on Engineering
Entrepreneurship
leonn@asme.org

back to columns