Harry Potter and the vanishing engineer
Is engineering in the doldrums? Blame it on Harry Potter.
In a recent Viewpoint, editor Christina Nickolas asked “Would you recommend an EE degree to your child?” A good number of readers very thoughtfully and sincerely responded, “No.”
Is engineering as a career in danger of becoming “old hat?”
Why the discouraging replies? Certainly, some disillusionment can be attributed to the recent economic recession, as well as fears over outsourcing and corporate downsizing.
But perhaps there's more to it than that. A sense that engineering as a career just isn't what it once was.
It's no secret that in recent years many students with promising math and science skills have chosen to pursue seemingly more glamorous and lucrative careers in computer technology and software instead. With advanced technology now so pervasive and commonplace, the core engineering disciplines may simply seem old-fashioned and dated to many people.
And a look at today's most popular entertainment may hold further clues.
Many of today's engineers grew up in the '50s and '60s, when�perhaps not coincidentally�science fiction was in its heyday. With its spaceships, advanced technologies, and alien worlds, the genre offered entertainment that was at once fantastic and yet grounded in a sense of reality.
Even the popular comic book superheroes of the time�whether genetic mutants, recipients of radiation exposure, or of alien origin�were born of science. The entertainment of that era was undoubtedly originally responsible for instilling in many future engineers a sense of wonder about science and its possibilities.
Today, the immense popularity of the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings movies is testament to a public fascination with fantasy�not science. It's great entertainment for sure.
But can tales of magic, dragons, wizards, and elves�all elements clearly removed from reality�inspire a real sense of wonder about the world we actually live in? I doubt that years from now it will be noted as having inspired a generation of engineers.
What will? Maybe the recognition that engineering itself has so much to offer.
Engineering�and electrical engineering in particular�offers myriad opportunities to work with leading-edge technologies to solve real-world challenges in an ever-growing number of fields. But more important and exciting, it offers a sense of personal gratification and fulfillment from doing work that affects and improves every corner of our lives.
What's a wizard got over that?
R. Pell, Editor-in-Chief
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