As a bare minimum, this grad student should have been under the direct supervision of a licensed professional engineer. The PE would have been obligated to check his work, especially since the PE’s stamp would be going on the drawings.
In civil engineering, the involvement of a licensed professional engineer is universal practice. If no PE was involved, then there is a serious liability problem.
Then again (help me out, California PE’s), was there a time when one could get a California PE license without taking an exam?
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>> “If no PE was involved, then there is a serious liability problem.” <<
Unless it was the government. The rules don’t apply to them, literally!
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>> “was there a time when one could get a California PE license without taking an exam?” <<
No!
Even a comity license requires a short exam, plus a valid license in another state.
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