The Role of Engineers: Designing Society
Angelene Gisela McDaniel
Braden Engineering-Communication Contest
The University of Texas at Austin
February 13, 2004
Angelene McDaniel
The Role of Engineers: Designing Society
Page 2 of 5
The impact of engineering and technology has often come under dispute in
society. The construction of dams and their effects on agriculture and the environment
gains the notice of politics, and technological innovations such as the internet and cell
phones change the way we live, work, and even think about the world we live in.
Highways often become man-made economic barriers that divide a low-income part of
town from a more affluent section. The engineer thus in a way takes on a major societal
role: the engineer has the opportunity to shape and even ‘design’ society, just as much as
the engineer has the ability to design his projects, be it bridges or computer programming.
The question then arises: are engineers responsible for the impact of their designs?
Should, say, civil engineers become ‘societal’ engineers as well? Engineers are
committed to designing systems that are safe for the use of society; yet should they be
deemed responsible for their systems ‘designing’ society? Yes: engineers should take the
responsibility of the impact of their designs. Just as an engineer accounts for the different
conditions his design must endure, he must account for the different societal conditions
his design will create.
The role of the engineer has been regarded as a purely technical or mechanical
one. Their education supports this view: an education firmly founded in science and
mathematics. The scientific and mathematical world accepts a well-defined viewpoint:
given a problem, there is either a right answer, or a wrong answer. Results meet safety
specifications, or they do not. The engineer, given a project, is provided a number of
requirements to meet, and his design or calculations must coincide with these. The
structural engineer concerns himself