Posted on 04/22/2011 12:08:44 AM PDT by Niuhuru
“Professionals” like you the world needs a lot less of off. Start working on developing a decent respect for the good of others, sir.
“The results speak for themselves. Either the results meet design goals, are cost effective, reliable and are completed in a timely cost affective manner or they are not.”
They do, however the results are often not apparent until much later or at the extremes of operating limits that are rarely reached. This is why experience matters - and to a certain extent licensing or some other professional oversight.
Raleigh homeowner won't face charges in Falls of Neuse traffic signal debate
Published: April 04, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. --A Raleigh homeowner will not face charges in the fight over two traffic signals, after an engineer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation accused the homeowner of practicing engineering without a license.
David Cox and the North Carolina Coalition of Homeowner’s Association, whom Cox is a member, have been fighting to have two traffic signals at Falls of Neuse Road and Ravens Ridge Road.
The debate all started when the neighborhood association petitioned to get traffic signals at the neighborhood’s entrance. After the NCDOT rejected the neighborhood’s request, the homeowner’s association performed its own traffic study.
An engineer with the NCDOT alleged that Cox performed the traffic study without an engineering license. The City of Raleigh said it would pay for the lights, but approval had to come from the state DOT since the road is owned by the state.
On Monday, the review committee of the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors looked over the allegations by the DOT engineer. As a result of its investigation into Cox and the allegations, the committee told the board to close the case due to a lack of evidence.
The report released Monday said that because the DOT engineer is a professional, he was obligated to reported the matter to the board.
http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2011/apr/04/raleigh-homeowner-wont-face-charges-falls-neuse-tr-ar-918599/
Thuggery, not professionalism.
Nothing in the report filed by the Coalition indicated or even eluded that a member of the group was a professional engineer."Never claimed to be licensed engineers, never claimed anything, other than a citizens group trying to protect and make it as safe as we possibly can in our neighborhood"
http://www.charlottecriminalattorneyblog.com/2011/03/criminal-charges-possible-for-north-carolina-homeowner.shtml:
I remember participating on this earlier thread.
The right thing for the DOT engineer would be to compliment the homeowner on his professional work, make any necessary modifications, and then stamp it.
Problem solved. To get the apparatus of bureaucracy going on a mere technicality was unprofessional.
Now if the guy was doing boob jobs in his garage, throw the book at him, this, not so much.
I remember participating on this earlier thread.
The right thing for the DOT engineer would be to compliment the homeowner on his professional work, make any necessary modifications, and then stamp it.
Problem solved. To get the apparatus of bureaucracy going on a mere technicality was unprofessional.
Now if the guy was doing boob jobs in his garage, throw the book at him, this, not so much.
I actually agree with you.
I was just speaking of the way things are, right or wrong.
Experience matters enormously.
I have a long history of designs that work well over time. A better history than our competitors.
I happen to be working on a low cost high performance IF to L-band up and down converters at the moment...
I can only hope he is young and will grow with time.
so DB is really dB?
dB, dBm, dBc, dBc/Hz... ;-)
It’s rare for me to work in dBW or dBV.
You should respect the Professional Engineer. You ask me to respect what you have done. OK I will take you at your word. My credentials are obtainable thru the state licensing.
When I was teenager, before I even had a drivers license, I fixed TVs, radios, and the occasional VCR at a local TV repair shop. That was my first real job outside of my family’s business (vacuum cleaner and sewing machine sales and repairs). It was about 50% tubes verses transistor then... I gained a lot of experience on what works and what doesn’t long term, particularly in terms of physical construction and going just a little too far in cutting corners design wise. It was a great thing on the experience ladder...
I was pretty much the same way. I started playing with Ham Radios before high school - the only equipment I could afford, rather - scrounge - was tube based. Tinkering with that stuff was very instructive. It also taught me how to and not to blow components up.
I used to love getting stuff that didn’t work - because by my reasoning, I couldn’t make it any worse. I got better at it as time went on.
College taught me different stuff, but a lot of the important stuff I learned on my own outside of a classroom setting. - engineers that tinkered seemed to be better than those that did not I often observed.
I don’t get overly enamored with credentials - be they degrees, or certifications, or licenses. But I have them.
They don’t guarantee performance - but they won’t hurt performance either.
I have also observed that folks that won’t get or are stubborn about degrees, certifications, or licenses are often a problem in other ways - when you ask them why didn’t you just get it, the answers are telling of what sort of team member they will be.
I too was fascinated with radio. I made various transmitters an receivers in my early teens - all tube. TV horizontal output tubes made great RF power tubes in the AM and lower shortwave bands... All for free... I never got a license for anything... I guess that's the rebel in me... Fortunately I lived in the country outside a small town. Neither I or my family could afford parts - I just built stuff out of junked TV’s and radios. It was a time when you could “see” how things worked and you could tweak/modify things and see what happened.
I do worry about how kids get exposure to how things work today considering how things are now made. In our day you could follow each connection and see the why and how of how things work. You could disassemble a typical TV and make any number of other things from those parts. Those days are essentially over.
How do kids get hands on experience with all that today?
If that exposure and learning isn't at an early age, will they ever really get to love it which drives them for life or will it simply be a career choice in later schooling?
“How do kids get hands on experience with all that today?”
I interviewed a recent EE graduate a few weeks ago. I had to coax the words “Low Pass Filter” out of him. Then I asked if he built one - he said “no we only simulated them”.
He was a “no hire”. There is nothing you can do with an EE graduate who didn’t pick up sophomore-level basics in 4 (or maybe even 5) years of study, and hasn’t even bothered to build anything.
It is pretty sad that a power supply, a breadboard, an op amp, a few discreet components and an oscilloscope were not forced upon this young man at some point in his EE education. I also asked if he had taken his EIT exam (prerequisite to getting a PE) and he didn’t know what it was.
What kind of success have you had at hiring young EE’s in recent years? Particularly in the analog/RF area.
I don’t look for chip-level folks - They are definitely harder to find - particularly in the analog area.....as you know, I’m sure.
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