The Problems of Unlicensed Practice

Thank you for your articles (July/August 2019) concerning the use of the term engineer.

Regarding the Oregon case (“Title Bout”), a more serious issue, in my opinion, has been recognized regarding red-light cameras. Specifically, these are installed and set up to collect revenue by unlicensed individuals (typically the company that supplies the cameras) without regard to public safety. A while back, the Chicago Tribune published a study showing that red-light cameras increase accidents and injuries associated with rear end collisions.

Regarding “Volunteers Needed for Advocacy Campaign”, I recently wrote to my federal representatives, stating that it is time to take another look at licensure for all engineers. Unfortunately, I am not available to participate in the campaign on August 7, but I am interested in doing what I can. The BP oil leak in the Gulf a few years back, the pipeline explosion in Massachusetts, and more recent software engineering problems on Boeing’s aircraft are just a few examples of the need. Not to mention the concerns of many as we rush head long into self-driving cars.

I urge NSPE to be more aggressive in educating the public regarding the problems of unlicensed practice.

Roch J. Shipley, Ph.D., FASM, P.E.
Lisle, IL

Software Engineers: To License or Not?

As someone who was been writing software since 1981 and is employed as a software engineer who happens to hold an electrical (computer) engineering licensure, the one conclusion I come to is that the majority of engineers (if the folks posting are representative) appear to have very limited understanding of what software engineers are and do.

Coders write software using a defined methodology. These folks are given the requirements for the system and then write code to implement those requirements.

Software engineers do more than just code, in fact it is the “more” that defines the engineering part. Software engineering is the design of the software system/solution, not the code writing. And software design covers not just determining the steps needed to do the required tasks, but also putting them all together.

Software engineering is an art and a science. Now whether software engineering should be a licensed profession is up to the states and governments to decide. It is certainly true that software has already become and will continue to become a greater and greater critical component in a lot of the things we work with in our daily world, and many of those things, if the software isn’t designed well, can lead to damage to people, property, and the environment.

The problem in getting licensure going is, of course, the industrial exemption, as most software is written under a company for use in their products. But if professional engineering has any place in our society as a thing we need to continue to insist upon and enforce, I believe software engineering should have been part of that since the 1990s already.

Thomas Smailus, Ph.D., P.E.
Sammamish, WA

I am a licensed software engineer. I view coding analogous to soldering or machining; it is manufacturing! Soldering is not electrical engineering and machining is not mechanical engineering. Engineering is about designing, testing, and risk management. As long as the coders are not doing design or writing test protocols or analyzing test data, they are not doing engineering; the instant the solderer decides to change the circuit design or the machinist decides to change the tolerances, etc., they are doing engineering (whether they need to be licensed or are industrially exempt is a separate issue).

Much of the discussion of domain-dependent software (accounting, retail sales, medical, etc.) would be justifiable, but for an annoying little problem: connectivity. If all these programs were validated for their intended purpose and resided in inaccessible silos, there might be minimal risk to public health and welfare.

Unfortunately, in the current era of maximal connectivity (for legitimate uses like information distribution and program updating), connectivity begets cybervulnerability, which is a huge and expanding threat to public health and welfare.

Wonderful contemporary examples of these are work on autonomous vehicles and opaque stochastic algorithms used in “AI” systems. There is no legitimate and comprehensive safety case that I have seen and no consideration for the risks involved in introducing these “innovations” into the larger system, where we all live.

Much like prior history in industrial safety, consumer safety, and other arenas, as more of our families, friends, and fellow citizens suffer, are maimed, or are killed, politicians and regulators will slowly tip to the fact that “things must change.”

GM Samaras, Ph.D., D.Sc., P.E.
Pueblo, CO