Being a professional engineer has always implied following a career in which the highest standards have to be upheld. This is more true as the varied and allied engineering fields are under pressure to meet modern demands.
Engineering has its roots in a time long before the first buildings were erected in South Africa. The ancient Greeks and Romans can be credited with much in this field.
Today, when population growth and the migration of people in their thousands is inevitable, the challenges for engineers are diverse.
In September 2006 the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) said that lack of funding was not the main cause of the poor condition of the country’s road infrastructure. The lack of a scientific approach to management and the shortage of technical skills and appropriate project management capabilities formed part of the problem. The DBSA said that capacity problems were a key hurdle in planning, managing and effecting road maintenance. Trained engineering professionals must ensure not only proper maintenance, but proper planning and execution.
Universities agree that technological innovation and the management and application thereof are essential for the prosperity of the country.
The University of Johannesburg’s executive dean of engineering and the built environment, Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, said: “The art of engineering shapes our future. That there is a demand for professionals in all the specialist areas in this field is well known. At this time in our history there is a great need for our country to become a developmental state, so that it can galvanise its capacity to respond to social, political and economic needs in a positive way.
“Engineering education is a key enabling driver in this process. We are looking at educating planners who are highly numerate and possess highly developed visualisation skills and can plan in large cycles spanning 30 years. These skills are continually developed at our faculty, even from undergraduate level.”
At the University of the Witwatersrand, there are more than 3 000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The faculty has added information engineering and biomedical engineering in the electrical engineering school and environmental engineering under the auspices of the civil engineering school.
At UCT there is an understanding that students should be prepared in a practical way. All undergraduate courses emphasise design skills, entrepreneurship and project management. The faculty has a significant research base. It incorporates the Centre for Transport Studies and the Cities in Africa project, undertaken by the faculty’s African Centre for Cities. These projects form a platform for interdisciplinary research, underscoring this trend in the profession.
The Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) was established in terms of the Engineering Professions Act No 46 of 2000. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor and in terms of the new Act, it has widened its scope to include engineering technicians and certificated engineers, and the ability to register those who are qualified by experience.
It reports a growth in engineering professionals in the past few years. Its membership tops 30 000 registered engineering professionals.
Apart from registering professionals, it promotes a high level of education and training with the various higher education facilities and qualification authorities. Through numerous international accords and agreements, Ecsa members are internationally recognised.
“The engineering profession, a profession that uses technology for the benefit of the public, has had to make huge strides in harnessing technology which has rapidly become sophisticated. It has managed to do so quite well,” said Ecsa’s longest-serving past president Bob Pullen.
“In times past engineers worked only with engineers. Now there has been a shift towards multi-disciplinary task teams in which the engineer plays a part. We are more aware than ever that engineering projects, even in the farthest corners of the country, affect the lives of local communities.
“Engineers have had to learn to communicate their plans to communities from which they were removed in the past,” Pullen said.