Professional Regulation: The Beginnings 

In the United States, the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that individual states bear the responsibility for regulating professions including engineers. But the idea of defining what was acceptable engineering practice—and how engineers should be regulated—is much older than that. 

Laws dealing with the practice of engineering go back to ancient times—perhaps as far back as the Babylonian ruler Hammurabi (c. 1800 BC), whose code applied the “eye for an eye” policy toward engineering: 

“If a builder erect a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, and the house which he built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death. If it cause the death of the son of the owner of the house, they shall put to death the son of the builder.” 

But Hammurabi’s code didn’t have anything to say about professional licensing per se. That idea—defining what it means to be a licensed profession—can be traced back King Roger of Normandy in AD 1140, who issued a decree requiring doctors to present proof of competency before being allowed to practice on the public. Much like today, professional competency was determined through an examination and certification by a group of peers.

The Birth of Engineer Licensure in the U.S.

In the United States, engineering licensure was born in Wyoming, just as the Wild West was growing a bit less wild. Its father was Clarence Johnston.

In 1903, Johnston accepted the position of Wyoming state engineer. Almost immediately, he was confronted by unruliness fueled by greedy prospectors and developers rushing to gain water rights for irrigation that required maps outlining area streams, canals, and reservoirs to be used for irrigation.

Johnston soon realized that many untrained and unqualified individuals were performing the work of engineers and surveyors, and resultant inaccuracies made it difficult for Johnson and his staff to supervise the state’s water distribution. They decided that there needed to be legislation regulating who would be able to represent themselves to the public as an “engineer” or “land surveyor.” Johnston found himself in the unlikely position of founding a licensed profession. 

The First Licensure Laws

In 1907, the Wyoming Legislature was presented with a bill, written by Johnston and several colleagues, requiring registration for those who would represent themselves to the public as an engineer or land surveyor and creating a state board of examiners for the profession. Despite opposition from those who benefitted from the lack of standards, the state legislature approved the bill, which was signed into law later that year.

The following year, Louisiana passed an engineering registration law, followed by Florida and Illinois in 1915. Soon after that, Iowa, Colorado, Michigan, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon passed legislation requiring registration and establishing state boards of examiners for engineering. Momentum was building.

Working Toward License Uniformity

As more states began to require licensure for professional engineers, two problems soon emerged: none of the state boards accepted out-of-state licenses, and the requirements for professional licensure varied greatly from one state to another. 

In an attempt to address these issues, the Iowa State Board of Engineering Examiners in 1920 called for the 10 existing state boards to create “an organized and systemized method of procedure to be followed in interstate registration.” The Iowa board also asked the boards to send representatives to discuss the formation of a council representing the state boards.

Seven of the 10 state boards responded, and their representatives formed what would later become the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. The purpose of the Council was to examine the state laws concerning registration of engineers and provide recommendations for uniformity of practice and reciprocal interstate relations within the profession.

The Council worked throughout the 1920s to coordinate reciprocal relations among the state licensing boards. By 1925, reciprocal cards issued by licensing boards were in use, and licensed engineers possessing a reciprocal card were to be accepted by all member states.

In 1932, the Council took another important step when it created and ratified its Model Law. In addition to establishing uniform licensing guidelines for the state boards, the Model Law established record-keeping procedures to assist engineers working in different states. By then, 29 states and Puerto Rico had passed legislation establishing boards regulating the engineering profession.

The Creation of NSPE

As the growth of licensure continued, leaders emerged. One of the most influential was David Steinman, P.E., a renown builder of suspension bridges who would become the founder of the National Society of Professional Engineers. One of the profession’s strongest advocates in those early years, Steinman actively promoted licensure laws as the means by which engineers could best enhance their public stature.

In 1932, Steinman called representatives of professional engineering organizations in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania to discuss a new idea—the formation of a national membership organization for licensed professional engineers to be known as the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Much as today, NSPE’s early focus was on legislative issues, increased public understanding of and recognition for the profession, adequate compensation, ethical practice, and protecting PEs from attempts to restrict their right to practice engineering, among others. In its early years, NSPE adopted the Canons of Ethics for Engineers and Rules of Professional Conduct, founded National Engineers Week, adopted the Engineer’s Creed, published the first salary survey for professional engineers, and formed the Board of Ethical Review.

For individual members, Steinman wrote, participation in the new Society was the professional engineer’s opportunity “toward making engineering a better and more satisfying profession than he found it.”

Movement Toward Uniform Examinations

By 1950, every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had some form of engineering licensure law, with Montana being the last state to enact regulation in 1947.

Despite this achievement, there were problems. Licensure examinations differed greatly from one state to another. Some boards required only an oral examination; others required only written exams. Many exams were written so that items could be answered successfully by those trained in logic but not necessarily in engineering; others required simply the memorization of complicated equations. In all, the exams were found to be deficient in establishing consistent standards for competence.

State boards decided to revamp the examination system. A two-part exam was proposed, the first part of which would last two-and-a-half days and cover such fundamentals as math, applied science, electrical and machine design, and engineering economics, laws, and practice. The second part, to last half a day, required examinees to pass a test covering one of five specialty engineering areas: chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical/industrial, and mining/metallurgical. 

Despite some objections that the exam was too rigorous, the state boards eventually approved this examination structure with only a few modifications. During this same period, many states were establishing a regulatory category for recent engineering graduates without experience, the Engineer in Training. In recognition of this, the first part of the exam was administered to college seniors and to those interested in initiating the process of obtaining professional licensure. This was the forebear of the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

Growth of the Examinations; Expanded Practice Opportunities

It took time for true nationwide uniform exams to become reality. In 1955, eight northeast states administered the same EIT exam to 277 engineering seniors; six years later, they administered a uniform professional exam.

In May 1965, 30 states administered the first Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which contained 30 questions covering 10 subjects. The next year, a national uniform Principles and Practice of Engineering exam, also known as the PE exam, was made available for the first time. By 1984, all boards of examiners were administering both the FE and PE exams.

About the same time, the Council's Records Program—which had been in existence in one form or another since 1932—was reorganized to provide a centralized recordkeeping service located at Council headquarters. Once professional engineers established Council records, their education, experience, and licensure history were saved in one report that could be transmitted to licensing boards for expedited comity applications. Together, the uniform examinations and the Records Program were making practice across jurisdictions more feasible.

Evolution of the Exams

The past few decades have seen the FE and PE exams evolve a great deal. Originally, the FE and PE exams consisted of essay questions. Now, they are made up of multiple-choice questions developed by committees, graded by computers, and psychometrically tested for fairness and relevance. Exam items are written by licensed engineers from academia, consulting, and industry that devote their time and expertise on a volunteer basis.Extensive surveys of professionals across a range of industries are used to determine exam specifications.

The exams have also evolved to include many disciplines that did not exist at the time of the first PE exam administration, disciplines that combine new technical knowledge with time-proven engineering methods to create new branches and subspecialties within the profession. Engineering licensure is now offered in 16 disciplines, with exams in emerging specialties constantly in the works.

A Successful Idea With a Bright Future

Over the last century, the ranks of licensed professional engineers have grown from 1 to more than 500,000, representing about 28% of the 1.8 million engineers working in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These professional engineers have brought us the conveniences of modern life. There is little in the built environment that is not backed by the signature and seal of a PE.

In the next 100 years, professional engineers will continue solving society’s technical problems and leading the way on projects as inspiring as space exploration and as crucial as clean water supply and distribution. While it is uncertain what those advances will be, professional engineers will, undoubtedly, carry them out with the same high standards and commitment to the public welfare that Clarence Johnston and Wyoming lawmakers set out to establish in 1907.