Engineering Careers: Yesterday and Tomorrow

By Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: February 19, 2004 - 10:00 PM

Officially, National Engineers Week starts on February 22. It's cause to celebrate - after all, this is a profession that's literally as old as the pyramids.

Pyramids to Airplanes

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) defines engineering as a profession that applies knowledge of mathematics, physical sciences and "the forces of nature" to creative activities that include investigation, planning and design.

To see how much the profession of engineering has changed, compare the careers of a couple of Minnesota engineers that began just over 50 years apart.

Irma Wyman: Class of 1949

Irma Wyman was accepted into the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1945. There were seven women in her freshman class - a number that might have been even lower if so many young men hadn't still been in the military. The dean warned the students that only one in three of the entire class would be around for graduation. Wyman was one of the lucky ones.

By the time she graduated, the Cold War was in full swing. Wyman took a research position calculating guided missile trajectories. She was one of the first civilians to learn to use an "automatic computer." Eventually, Honeywell Information Systems acquired the company she worked for, and Wyman moved to Minneapolis.

By the time she retired, Wyman was vice president in charge of computing for Honeywell. She went on to a second career as archdeacon in the Minnesota Diocese of the Episcopal Church.

As an engineer, Wyman believes in research and planning. But, she told an interviewer in 1979, it's just as important to know when to ignore all the careful planning and seize an opportunity. Nothing in Wyman's education could have prepared her to be a computer engineer, she said. When she was in college, computers hadn't been invented.

For more on Wyman's career, go to: www.engin.umich.edu/150th/alum-profiles/wyman.html.

Julie Johnson: Class of 2002

For Julie Johnson, engineering was a second career. She graduated with a degree in history as a "traditional-age" student, and then spent several years working as a high school athletic coach, among other things.

Eventually, civil engineering beckoned, but Johnson was cautious: She took part-time course work, testing her interests and her abilities. The University of Minnesota's engineering programs are tough, Johnson says. Wyman's experience of one in three students completing the degree would be "about right," according to Johnson.

Although there were more than seven women in Johnson's class, the percentage of women students is still low: "In a class of 30, there would maybe be three women," she estimates. Johnson faced no overt hostility, although occasionally male classmates would check her contribution to a group project "a little more closely."

Civil engineering is one of the oldest branches of the profession, but Johnson's specialty, environmental engineering, is just emerging. She's helped to design wetlands and water treatment facilities. "As a civil engineer, you're working for the public," she says. "You really have to be a people person."

Meet More Engineers
The National Engineers Week Web site, www.eweek.org, introduces "50 engineers you should meet" and provides case studies in engineering creativity.

Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville, MN.

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