2016 Issue

O n February 28, 2016, the 88th Academy Awards were hosted in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California. Just two days prior, the Utah Engineers Council Awards Banquet was hosted at Rickenbacker’s Restaurant in Ogden, Utah. The press cov- erage for our Utah event, however, did not appear to diminish the attention paid to its counterpart in California. Having worked on committees that attempt to nominate engineers for an award, it can be safely generalized that the average engineer is less drawn to the spotlight than the average Hollywood starlet. After a couple of rejections, we would find an engineer that, with enough begging, would finally acquiesce to being singled out for recognition. Perhaps one reason they do not seek validation is that thework done by engineers is inherently meaningful. It satisfies an innate desire to make a significant contribution and spares the engineer from asking such existential questions as, “Do I make a difference?” And while much of what they do is taken for granted, without their role, many other more celebrated endeavors could not take place. For example, what would the Academy Awards be without the roads, bridges and airports; private jets and limousines used to convey the glitterati to their venue? What would they walk on, without the automated tufting machines churning out yards and yards of red carpet? And what kind of event would it be with no lights, cameras or HVAC at the Dolby Theater? Not to mention indoor plumbing… None of this is meant to minimize the significance of the work done by some artists and entertainers. Perhaps engineers, more than most, enjoy the escape these entertainers provide from the hard-edged realties of physics demanded by their jobs. It is more often the entertainers themselves who question the importance of their craft. In their quest to find meaning, some are found quix- otically tilting at the windmills of the latest cause célèbre. Others attempt to remedy their sense of emptiness with various elixirs. And then there are those who, with wry self-critical wit, poke fun at themselves and their trade. A particularly acerbic example of the latter was Oscar Levant, an actor and musician who once quipped that if you “strip the phony tinsel off Hollywood, you’ll find the real tinsel underneath”. Besides acting, there are other fields of endeavor, where the top performers are celebrated in circles far wider than their own group of peers. Like actors, the accomplishments of athletes andmusicians attract attention and accolades from those who have never thrown a football or played a single note of music. There is, however, little commensurate attention paid to engineers by non-engineers. And most engineers seem content to have it re- main so. As mentioned above, many times the efforts to recognize them publicly are deflected with self-deprecating protests. Or, in some cases, timid advances suggesting that they consider an honor are more abruptly rebuffed with “…go stare at your own shoes!” usually causing the would-be-suitor, typically an engineer himself, to retreat back to his calculations, swearing oaths to never venture again so far into the strange world of people. There is one, who has managed to highlight the accomplishments of engineers to a broader audience. While not an engineer himself, this best-selling, Pulitzer Prize winning author has done more to advance the profession of engineering than any trained engineer could have managed. He has accomplished this through telling ENGINEERING MORE ENGINEERS By Jed Lyman , P.E. 38