Stodola chairs, discusses NSPE task force

To identify and address immediate areas in which the practice of professional engineering can adapt to evolving business models, the National Society of Professional Engineers created the Professional Engineering Task Force in 2016. Using the key theories, questions and, concepts described in “The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts," written by Richard and Daniel Susskind and published in 2016, among other resources, the task force is analyzing the current state of engineering.

Garver Project Manager Adam Stodola, who serves on the Transportation Team in the Kansas City, Missouri office, is the Chair of the task force and recently presented at the NSPE Professional Engineers Conference in Atlanta. There, Adam discussed the task force's goals and processes while it identifies opportunities, threats, and methods to expand the professional engineer’s charge to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The task force also aims to examine other regulated professions to find applicable comparisons and opportunities to learn from experiences.

“Of the many topics being evaluated, I believe that licensure and emerging technology are among the most important,” Adam said. “The license is the basis of what the professional engineer does and without it, our profession becomes extremely minimalized.  We must also be aware of emerging technologies and how they will directly impact our profession. I wanted the audience to see the threats to licensure and understand their implications and to be thinking about how technology will impact them moving forward.”

The task force will gather additional information from key stakeholders over the next year to develop a comprehensive report to be presented at the 2018 Professional Engineers Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.