The following is an abbreviated version of the remarks presented by Selçuk Güçeri , Engineer of the Year, at the Awards and Proclamation Luncheon, along with the PowerPoint presentation.

Engineers Make the World Go Round
Selcuk Guceri
2010 Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year

February 12 – 19 is designated as the National Engineers Week! This is the time that we celebrate engineers and the engineering profession that has contributed so much to our civilized society and our stature as a global leader. The scope of the collective accomplishments of engineers are astonishing! Recently, the National Academy of Engineers compiled the top 20 engineering accomplishments of the 20th Century including , Electrification, Automobile, Airplane, Water Supply and Distribution, Electronics, Radio and Television, Agricultural Mechanization, Computers, Telephone, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Highways, Spacecraft, Imaging, Household Appliances, Heathcare Technologies, Petroleum and Petrochemicals, Laser and Fiber Optics, Nuclear Technologies, High-Performance Materials. The best way to appreciate what engineers and engineering have accomplished for society is to imagine, for a moment, the kind of a world we would be in without them.

Engineering is not only an exciting profession but it is also a process of thinking and problem-solving. It is based on First Principles and applications of scientific rigor; it rejects dogma, distortion, and other forms of social and political illusions. Yet, engineering is becoming an increasingly endangered profession in the United States. China alone is producing more than 360,000 engineers every year while the U.S. only produces around 70,000. It is no longer a secret how much of our manufacturing and engineering design we have lost to outsourcing; which is now followed with research and technological developments also shifting to international locales with ready talent . Economical and political positioning of a nation almost entirely relies on its technological base and prowess and on its ability to continue to generate innovations that will produce high impact in improving the quality of life and help achieve a sustainable global community. At 6.67 Billion people, the world population has increased more than doubled during the last half a century alone and keeps going up! While we think of increasing needs of the growing population such as energy, transportation, food and water, education and healthcare, we should also think of the global impact such a massive population growth will have in polluting the environment, accelerating global warming, deforestation and devastation of our natural habitat on land and in water. We also need to be ever more mindful of the threat of terrorism that is also coupled to changing political platforms, shifting demographics, as well as distribution of limited natural resources.

In this era of a flat world, many countries are actively pursuing technological developments, knowing that it will help to position them more favorably in global strata. Those who come up with the highest impact in improving our environment, improving healthcare, solving transportation, energy and urbanization problems will capture leadership in these important platforms.

It’s also important to note that merely producing more engineers is not going to solve our problems. How many engineers a country produces is only an indicator of the national goals, priorities and policies. If we run our economy based only on financial manipulations ignoring value-added functions of innovations, manufacturing and development, we will continue to lose our core technological strengths. Additionally, the Internet has become the biggest equalizer in history bringing many new opportunities but also contributing to increased competition. We have to realize that, once we lose it, development of highly competent technical workforce is not something that can be recovered in a similar time scale. Hence, technological developments and support of engineering education and practices should become a major priority for the national agenda. Policies, business practices and financial operations should be aimed at developing and maintaining core technological competencies. If we fail, then the nation that invented the light bulb, the transistor, the pacemaker, and the first to reach the moon and beyond within a time frame less than a century after the first flight at Kitty Hawk, will find itself in a non-recoverable trailing position.

Engineers are known to be problem solvers. And, the way things are moving now, there are plenty of problems for engineers to solve. So the next time, you see an engineer, hug her and thank her for her contributions. Happy Engineers Week!

Click here for the PowerPoint presentation.