F U T U R E O F C I V I L ENGINEERING PROFESSION

AND R O L E O F EDUCATION
By Ross B. Corotis, 1 Fellow, ASCE, and Robert H. Scanlan,2
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Member, ASCE

ABSTRACT: The professional civil engineer of the future must be a leader in so-
ciety. The 200-year heritage of civil engineering in the United States is that of a
great technological provider of shelter, transportation, and sanitation. Yet these
needs are increasingly taken for granted, a mark of success of the civil engineer's
task; in the process the profession has become a mature one. Together with this
circumstance the perception has grown that civil engineering does not offer suf-
ficient career excitement to potential young engineers. The current typical student
view of civil engineering is presented, along with implications this has for the
future. The real role of technology, and especially high technology, in many civil
engineering problems of today and tomorrow is reviewed. A clear conclusion is
that the profession must raise its image, and in doing so differentiate between an
applied technologist and a true professional. The latter will, increasingly, be a
leader and decision maker in society, no longer content to serve just as a technical
consultant to others. The role of education, and engineering schools in particular,
in producing this new professional is examined. It is recommended that a few
universities make a commitment to review their curricula and accommodate this
technologically and culturally educated individual. These exemplars will undoubt-
edly be programs involving both undergraduate and at least one graduate degree.

INTRODUCTION

The civil engineering profession is dedicated to advancing the great basic

needs of society: shelter, sanitation, transportation, clean water, and others.
The profession has a long and proud tradition, being the first to apply sci-
entific principles to meet the nonmilitary requirements of civilization. His-
torically, then, the profession has advanced on the basis of perceived public
need: for bridges, waterways, dams, sanitation systems, highways, build-
ings. This country's political priorities and economic status strongly affect
the directions in which civil engineers are called upon to serve. At present,
the United States economy is running on a public service infrastructure that
is noticeably aging. Inevitably, civil engineers are the professionals to be
called upon, now and in the future, to revitalize it. It is to be hoped that
national priorities can be evolved in such a manner that this process takes
place under orderly rather than crisis conditions. At the present time, this is
by no means a foregone conclusion.
The civil engineering profession has a rich and proud heritage, as well as
an important role in the future. The U.S. civil engineering profession is a
large one. However, in the last decade the civil engineering schools of the
country have been deficient in attracting students. There has been a decline
in the number of students choosing careers in civil engineering, a decline in
student quality relative to other engineering fields, and a decline in starting
'Hackerman Prof, and Chair, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., The Johns Hopkins Univ.,
Baltimore, MD 21218.
2
Prof., Dept. of Civ. Engrg., The Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD 21218.
Note. Discussion open until September 1, 1989. To extend the closing date one
month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The
manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and possible publication on July
11, 1988. This paper is part of the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering,
Vol. 115, No. 2, April, 1989. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-9380/89/0002-0117/$1.00 +
$.15 per page. Paper No. 23360.

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J. Prof. Issues in Engrg., 1989, 115(2): 117-124

 salaries after college compared to other disciplines of engineering.
When interviewed, students are quick to point out that there are more
lucrative opportunities in other niches of the job market, notably other branches
of engineering and, of course, business. The situation even has the prospect
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of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy: starting civil engineers are underpaid;

a lower echelon of talent is attracted into the profession; status and chal-
lenges are reduced concomitantly. A lowered level of expectation charac-
terizes the profession, and it becomes dull and unexciting, perpetuating the
stagnation.
The scenario is, of course, greatly oversimplified. Every profession—civil
engineering not excepted— has its wide distribution of talents, from out-
standing to mediocre. And, in particular, the highest levels of U.S. practi-
tioners in civil engineering are attested to be exceptional indeed, comparing
very well with the best worldwide, and actively exchanging advanced con-
cepts with their international counterparts. Yet even these U.S. leaders return
from abroad—especially from Japan in recent months—awed by the high
general level of competence and technology they have seen. The U.S. civil
engineering profession appears to be in the grip of more than a slight mal-
aise, and its precarious stature is but one symptom.
Some of the historical trends in civil engineering and its changes vis-a-
vis other engineering fields are a result of natural, and logical, evolution.
As mechanical engineering became a distinct and developed specialty, it broke
off from civil engineering. Later, chemical engineering and electrical en-
gineering did the same. As energy and communications became major con-
cerns of society, as technological breakthroughs in microelectronics led the
way to widespread affordability of computers—and soon robots—interest in
these fields was aroused and grew apace. But the fact remains that civil
engineering disciplines—based as many are on applied mechanics and so-
phisticated analytical modeling—are both technologically challenging and
crucial to society.
Can the profession, acting on its own, redress the U.S. society's percep-
tion of it? Probably not entirely through unilateral action, but certainly from
inside the profession the view should be to work through every applicable
means to bring about constructive improvement.
One of the problems facing civil engineering in the United States actually
stems from its long and productive heritage. In first-world countries such as
the United States, the infrastructure, the purview of the civil engineer, is in
place. Buildings, bridges, roadways, water distribution, and treatment fa-
cilities exist. True, they are often badly in need of repair. But the glamour
ascribed to repair or replacement, even to upgraded standards, is usually far
less than that ascribed to addressing a previously unmet need. This may
explain why the civil engineer is generally held in higher esteem in devel-
oping countries.

HIGH VERSUS LOW TECHNOLOGY

Casual comparison of day-to-day civil engineering accomplishments with

other engineering professions, notably electronics and aerospace, may leave
the initial impression that civil engineering is solely a low-technology field.
Deeper investigation, however, reveals that some of the recondite problems
requiring very sophisticated technological approaches are being successfully
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 addressed by highly qualified talent within the U.S. civil engineering profes-
sion. Methods of great accomplishment have been brought to bear at ad-
vanced levels of all branches of civil engineering. For example, in the struc-
tures, mechanics, and geotechnical areas, and in the related wind, earthquake,
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and offshore engineering areas, tremendous strides of theoretical understand-

ing and design are being made. (There is no intention of slighting other
areas; these are merely presented here as obvious examples from the writers'
own experiences.)
Is high technology the answer, then, to the stated problem? Should the
image of civil engineering be more oriented toward sophisticated and chal-
lenging problems, and toward computer-aided engineering, robotics, mate-
rials development,and artificial intelligence? The first part of the answer is
yes, of course. The profession does need to publicize—to glorify, if you
will—its more sophisticated achievements. Some of the accomplishments in
the mechanics-based fields were alluded to. In the area of computers, civil
engineers have since the earliest days pioneered in using automation and in
developing software. The complex three-dimensional nature of projects, the
uncertainties of natural and manmade phenomena impacting designs, the multi-
objective nature of constraints and optimization functions, have made ad-
vanced computer techniques a vital part of civil engineering operations. Tre-
mendous opportunities exist in the field for the application of robotics to a
plethora of well delineated, civil engineering-related tasks, especially in the
construction fields. The civil engineering profession can and should be plan-
ning, designing, and implementing robots. The development, refinement,
and testing, including nondestructive evaluation, of materials traditionally
has been an important part of civil engineering. Such "everyday" civil en-
gineering materials as concrete, timber, and soils exhibit extremely compli-
cated behaviors, including viscoelasticity, viscoplasticity, and anisotropy.
The intellectual challenge to the development of proper conceptual models
for the behavior of such materials is of very high order. The nature of civil
engineering projects also places a great premium on in situ nondestructive
testing and all that this implies conceptually and in test sophistication. The
further planning, scheduling and execution of construction projects in the
field offer challenges of high order.
A particularly interesting high technology application is the relatively new
field of artificial intelligence, particularly the subdiscipline of knowledge-
based expert systems. The complexity and uniqueness of most projects, yet
the underlying thread of similarity that interconnects many structural aspects
of their basic problems, make civil engineering an extremely fertile field for
application of expert systems. The emphasis and respect the profession places
on experts speaks to the value of a wealth of accumulated and comparative
expertise. To the extent such expertise can be captured and retained by ex-
pert systems, the latter presage a forward step in the sophistication of the
profession.
An important question then is how does the profession acquire more rec-
ognition for its sophisticated achievements and challenges? This is probably
not best accomplished through the current use of popular "media" ap-
proaches, which tend to be superficial, but by espousing a more appreciative
acceptance of those technological achievements that are based on true in-
tellectual quality. In short, the image of the engineer as a wise and deeply
trained intellectual counselor must be enhanced. Of course, this must be
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 based on fact. The educational process that the engineer undergoes must
warrant it. Scientists, medical doctors, and other professionals have long
fostered this self-image, primarily through the imposition of serious and se-
lective intellectual requirements during their basic schooling and apprentice-
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ships.
One immediate concern is the creation of an accurate image of the civil
engineering professional. Because of the tremendous scope and breadth of
the field, this may be quite difficult to achieve. There is a natural tendency
on the part of the general public to view all professionals in a given field
as "equivalent," or at least equally trained. However, many involved, for
example, in aspects of the construction trade, are not deeply trained tech-
nologically as professional engineers, skilled in design and analysis, al-
though they nevertheless contribute to society's composite image of civil
engineering. In other engineering fields, there seems to be a crisper distinc-
tion between the highly skilled design and analysis engineers and the en-
gineer whose work leans more toward that of technician. This would cer-
tainly be true, for example, between the mechanical engineers and the
mechanic, and between electrical engineers and electricians.
As a start, it is proposed that the civil engineering profession seek further
means to differentiate clearly among truly high-tech engineers, more general
civil engineering practice, and applied technology. At the present time, the
ABET certifications of engineering school curricula and the professional en-
gineer examinations do not in themselves fully accomplish the distinction
required. New methods of education, training, and recognition must be in-
stituted.

ENGINEER AND EDUCATION

To address the image problem arising from the breadth of civil engineer-
ing-related activity, the definition of a true professional must be made more
distinct. To accomplish this, a three-tiered approach is suggested. The cur-
rent two-year and four-year Bachelor of Technology programs serve an ex-
tremely useful purpose and graduates should have the opportunity to present
themselves to licensing boards for examination as a Licensed Technologist
(LT) or Registered Technologist (RT).
A majority of students attending engineering schools throughout the United
States neither immediately desire nor necessarily need further education. Many
of them go into engineering-related fields (such as construction) or into train-
ing for business, law, medicine; while others plan to practice engineering at
a relatively rudimentary level. It is suggested that these individuals have an
opportunity to apply by practice and examination for registration as a Li-
censed or Registered Engineering Practitioner (LEP or REP).
For the true Professional Engineer (PE), a somewhat broader undergrad-
uate education and a master's degree should be required. As will be ex-
plained, the desirable bachelor's curriculum will aim to educate a true en-
gineering intellectual with a breadth of outlook, one who will help frame
the future of society. His or her engineering education, however, should not
be considered complete without advanced specialization requiring at least
one graduate degree.
There is no immediate way, nor need, to attempt to reorient all civil en-
gineering schools across the board. The student capable of achieving profes-
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 sional status under a new, more far-reaching or intensive definition might
well complete an appropriately defined undergraduate curriculum at any one
of numerous existing engineering schools. However, while some of these
schools would primarily be oriented toward training engineering practition-
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ers, a relatively limited subset might set as their avowed goal the profound
education of the engineer as intellectual.
The requirement of a broad education combined with a graduate degree
will address several problems in the current system. For one, it will make
clearer the considerable distinction between applied, technology and engi-
neering, which has more recently become further blurred with the granting
of four-year Bachelor of Technology degrees (rather than the earlier more
common two-year Associate degrees). The second great advantage is the
extended use of the four-year undergraduate curriculum to provide a broader
education. This opportunity should be used to educate engineers broadly in
the sciences as well as in the humanities and social sciences. In addition, a
firm basis for engineering could be laid, with emphasis on a particular field,
such as civil engineering. In this latter case, a student would continue to
receive grounding in structures, geotechnics, water resources, transportation,
and environmental engineering, for instance. Since most undergraduate cur-
ricula are limited to 120-130 credit hours, this is the most that could be
reasonably expected.
There would undoubtedly be some students who would begin in an en-
gineering practitioner undergraduate program and decide to change to the
"preprofessional" engineering curriculum, and vice versa. Within con-
straints, a flexible system could accommodate such changes, requiring extra
courses and time only as necessary.

PLAN OF ACTION

Since reform and improvement are often best led by example, it is pro-
posed that a few engineering schools now set out to re-examine and revise
their curricula, especially undergraduate, to orient them expressly toward
educating this new engineer. Once the great intellectual challenge of such a
consciously sophisticated enterprise begins to impact society, there should
be no question of its attractiveness to bright young individuals. Meanwhile,
other civil engineering schools could assess their realistic goals and decide
whether to retain an engineering practitioner curriculum solely or to offer a
dual track, including the preprofessional engineer.
Regardless of present engineering acceptance standards, superior ones would
have to be introduced for the selective preprofessional program. Those schools,
especially, that would lead by example would have to develop a clear con-
cept of this new level of intellectual sophistication and set out to construct
the new curricula, provide scholarship incentives, and select exceptional stu-
dents to benefit from the new program. The American engineer of the recent
past has been considered—whether it is justified or not—rather unsophis-
ticated in cultural, economic, governmental, legal, and other societal mat-
ters. These deficiencies, real or imagined, must be erased. It must be the
aim of these changes to efface the image of the engineer as purely "high-
tech tool," and to replace it with the new, much broader, view of engineers
as inheritors of the culture of society and guardians and projectors of it to-
ward the clearly technological future. It is only through a deep commitment
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 to this view that civil engineering, the oldest field of nonmilitary engineering
and the one most broadly concerned with societal issues, can rise out of
certain doldrums of esteem into which it has allowed itself to drift.
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NEW ENGINEERING CURRICULUM

The new civil engineer must be so good at what he or she does that he
or she cannot be ignored, regarded merely as an adjunct "tool" or as a hired
technician. The civil engineer's career will influence those around him or
her and will contribute wisely to the choices society must make in the future.
He or she will understand the physical and sociological implications of those
choices and help govern by this knowledge. Clearly, the image projected
here is that the civil engineer will transcend not only the inadequacies of
the present common image of the engineer but those of Other professions
that now routinely dictate where and when the engineer shall apply his or
her art.
The engineering schools of the future must espouse this much more ex-
alted view of their potential contribution than they presently do. In fact, it
is the service-oriented training of "technicians," as some may be, that ef-
fectively prevents great engineering schools from developing into their full
potential as great technologically based universities.
What should be included in the undergraduate curriculum? Certainly only
those students should be accepted who feel comfortable with science and
mathematics, which should be taught with added emphasis. But these stu-
dents should not expect to become engineers in four years. They should be
busy gaining a cultural outlook by studying English as well as another lan-
guage and society; acquiring some depth of historical, sociological, and eco-
nomic sophistication; and, of course studying science, mathematics, and the
basics of engineering. Their education would be shaped by educators who
espouse the goal of a truly well-rounded, technically sophisticated person
who is not a servant except in the larger sense of serving all society.
Among the inclusions in a newly oriented technological curriculum should
be use of the most sophisticated and direct means by which the students may
acquire the necessary basic education.
The prerequisite graduate work for completion of an engineering education
should be a professional, technologically oriented program. The student would
normally concentrate in a particular field, such as structural engineering, or
in a coherent integration of fields. With the completion of the broad under-
graduate curriculum and the graduate program, this new engineer would
inevitably be in great demand. This engineer would serve in a complemen-
tary and directing role to the technologist and engineering practitioner. Whereas
the engineer of yesterday spent much of his (rarely her) time performing
repetitive tasks, the computer will allow tomorrow's true professional to be
freed for far more creative challenges: alternative designs, optimization, im-
proved functionality and aesthetics, sociological and economic impact, for
example. Sophisticated tools will not replace the real professionals; rather
they will dramatically aid and stimulate them. Some of the existing lower
technology niches of the profession may fear the new professional, as well
they might, for one of his or her unspoken roles is to see that they too
eventually evolve in a fashion appropriate to a growing technology-devel-
opment society.

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 EDUCATOR

The role and rewards of teacher in the new educational order must be
raised to a level comparable to that commonly reserved only for outstanding
researchers in present schools. A university must recognize its role in edu-
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cating professionals and in advancing the research knowledge basis as two

distinct, but intertwined, roles. The successful researcher has much to con-
tribute, as does the accomplished practicing engineer and teacher, who, al-
though he or she may do no traditionally defined research at all, brings an
important element of inventiveness, productivity, and creativity. Both of these
should coexist in the technological university.
At the doctorate level, the researcher and designer must also be defined
to coexist in a carefully coordinated fashion. Even the tradition of a Ph.D.
patterned after the science doctorate needs to be re-examined. Engineering
schools might seriously seek to define an alternate and equally honorable
path toward a doctorate.

RESPONSIBILITY OF INDUSTRY

Currently, the professional offices of civil engineering in the United States

contribute little—monetarily or cooperatively—to civil engineering re-
search. Their links to schools are minimal—except to expect good "work-
men" from them. This situation must change if civil engineering is to be
upgraded overall as a profession. Professional offices must raise their sights
to require their newly recruited engineering personnel to have at least a Mas-
ter's degree before assuming the duties of a professional engineer.
A further novel idea is for each office—large or small—to aspire to em-
ploying at least one civil engineering Ph.D.—an open avenue to new ideas,
methods, and intellectual stimulation. Many schools are now already turning
out such Ph.D.'s who, upon emerging, are often discouraged regarding em-
ployment in the profession due to their being "overeducated." The American
civil engineering profession could actively combat its lowered image by seeking
in this and other ways to become more intellectually alert.

CONCLUSION

What, then, is the lesson to be learned? First, it is an observable and

documentable fact that under present national awareness in the United States,
the image of civil engineers is not as attractive to students as that of some
other professions. Civil engineering, though superficially viewed as "low-
tech," actually deals uniquely with some highly sophisticated problems. There
must be increased awareness of the impact of the role of professional civil
engineers in society: higher technology, more education for true profession-
als, broader awareness of societal concerns. The new professional engineer,
to be more respected, must have a broad and deeper undergraduate educa-
tion, augmented by a sophisticated graduate program of specialization. Cer-
tain educational institutions can lead the way in designing a curriculum to
produce this new engineer. The undergraduate program must transcend the
narrow training that is still too often the rule. It must emphasize cultural,
economical, and political breadth, together with real scientific and engi-
neering grounding. The corresponding graduate-training must be at the high-
est design and research levels.

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 Civil engineering is a natural curriculum to take the lead in such a new
enterprise. It is the oldest of the engineering professions, it is most directly
responsive to public needs, and it most logically falls into the role of en-
gineering curator of the cultural heritage of the nation. Therefore, upgrading
the status of its professionals will be to the clear benefit of both the profes-
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sion and the country as a whole. We owe it to everyone to advance the

stature of the professional civil engineer, as we look not only back at our
proud tradition but forward at our important and future role.

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