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Oregon Man Fined For Writing 'I Am An Engineer' Temporarily Wins Right To Call Himself An 'Engineer' (vice.com)
Mats Jarlstrom, an electrical engineer fined by the Oregon engineering board for calling himself an "engineer" and talking about traffic lights, has been granted the temporary right by a judge to both publicly call himself an "engineer" and talk about traffic lights. Jason Koebler reports via Motherboard: Last month, Jarlstrom sued the engineering board for violating his First Amendment rights, and Tuesday a federal judge gave Jarlstrom the temporary right to call himself an engineer, pending the results of his case. "Plaintiff Jarlstrom may study, communicate publicly about, and communicate privately his theories relating to traffic lights throughout the pendency of this litigation as long as [his] communications occur outside the context of a paid employment or contractual relationship," Anna Brown, a federal district court judge for the district of Oregon, ordered. He "may describe himself publicly and privately using the word 'engineer' throughout the pendency of this litigation." Jarlstrom's attorneys say this is a promising sign and a "critical first step in protecting Oregonians' First Amendment rights."
Except the dude is an engineer. He's an electrical engineer
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Except that he isn't because he isn't licensed.
He might have an engineering degree, and he might design stuff, but under Oregon law you must be licensed to be an engineer.
In a sense, this attacks any point he was trying to make: if he doesn't know the law about his own profession, what does he know about traffic lights?
He didn't lie about his qualifications. He is fully qualified as an engineer - with a degree from a top-notch university.
He just isn't certified as one in Oregon because he has never worked as one there.
He did not present himself as one in any scenario where government has reasonable justification to restrict the usage of the title. He wasn't trying to sell a bridge design or anything. He was just publicly commenting on public infrastructure and stated the qualifications he has to form those opinions - he didn't try to get employment.
It is a much more complicated case than you let on.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
> under Oregon law you must be licensed to be an engineer
To work as an engineer, you mean.
There can be a slight tension between degreed engineers who don't especially need registration for large employers, research or other well paid jobs not requiring their registration, and some registered engineers. Some registered engineers have overblown egos, that I think suffer from "big fish in a small pond" conceits in small, pedestrian firms. Obviously there are some small firms that are not "pedestrian".
I worked for a large, wealthy company, decades ago. Some of the best hotshots, including MIT, CalTech etc alums, never got registered, and worked with the most difficult, advanced stuff. Some registered discipline engineers were viewed as lesser lights that were less intellectually powerful and somewhat expendable, best given the more routine work, checking the others work and signing off...
Under Oregon law, you have to be a licensed engineer to call yourself one publicly. For other states, they add clarifications like "professional engineer" or "licensed engineer"
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
All the industry boards like this are full of rednecks in Oregon. It is unlikely they consulted anybody with a clue before issuing the fine. These would be civic engineers with experience mostly in road building.
The NY Times had an article about this case a month or two ago and in the article they listed multiple other cases in Oregon where this sort of thing had happened. That included a person who had been licensed in Oregon for decades and then retired, but then testified in court on behalf of his daughter in a land dispute.
So it's not a one-off problem. It's standard operating procedure there.
Common sense would be not to write to the engineering licensing body while illegally and falsely claiming to be an engineer.
Common sense would dictate it, which is why Mats Jarlstrom never did that. Oregon Revised Statutes 672.020, 672.045 do not allow someone to practice engineering in Oregon without a license. Oregon Administrative Rule 820-010-0730 states that no unregistered persons may hold themselves out as an engineer in Oregon by use of the title “professional engineer,” “registered professional engineer,” or any of their abbreviations or derivatives. Mats Jarlstrom did no such thing. He was very specific about what his credentials were and in no way misrepresented himself as holding a valid certificate in Oregon or any other US state or territory. His exact words are displayed below, and they are both very specific about his credentials and completely void of any mention of being a professional or registered professional engineer.
My Swedish engineering degree is in electronics and I’m an expert in motional feedback (displacement, velocity and acceleration feedback) of powered speakers which includes the full understanding of motion of an object such as a loudspeaker cone (or a vehicle stopping or traveling through an intersection as in ORS811.260(4)).
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
So much wrong here. No, you don't have to add PE to the title engineer for it to be the illegal use of the term. Using the title engineer where professional engineering can reasonably be assumed is the test. He crossed the line on this by using "engineer" to reinforce his opinions on a technical subject. I hope it costs him a small fortune in court.
But it could not be reasonably assumed that he was a PE based on his words, which were as follows:
My Swedish engineering degree is in electronics and I’m an expert in motional feedback (displacement, velocity and acceleration feedback) of powered speakers which includes the full understanding of motion of an object such as a loudspeaker cone (or a vehicle stopping or traveling through an intersection as in ORS811.260(4)).
He doesn't even call himself an engineer. He just says he has an engineering degree from Sweden.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
He is not a licensed engineer in the state of Oregon. Claiming to be an engineer is lying about his qualifications, because to claim to be an engineer you must be licensed.
His exact words were:
My Swedish engineering degree is in electronics and I’m an expert in motional feedback (displacement, velocity and acceleration feedback) of powered speakers which includes the full understanding of motion of an object such as a loudspeaker cone (or a vehicle stopping or traveling through an intersection as in ORS811.260(4)).
No reasonable person could believe he is implying he is a registered professional engineer in the state of Oregon from this statement.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke