And what about the software that causes the death and harm?? The hardware can generally do no harm without faulty software.
What about faulty SW that allows a defective part to pass inspection and then fails -- causing death or harm?
sys-eng
By requiring a Professional Engineering (PE)license, the PE assumes liability for their work.
Let us assume that a SW engineer wrote an application for the Fire Department to help them route their trucks to the emergency quickly. The program failed to understand the direction of one-way streets thus causing the fire truck to go the wrong way down a one-way street and causing a fatal accident. The SW engineer who put his engineering seal on the program would be liable for the death and $$ millions in damages. Fortunately PE's are usually bonded for several million dollars to protect them. A seat-of-the-pants, self-taught, hacker-tweaker, may not be insurable regardless of how good he is. The insurance companies who write the liability bonds will simply not take the risk on someone without a PE license. Without the PE license, the family of the deceased is simply told that, "Well, it was just a bug in some software. No big deal to fix." No big deal; someone was killed because of it.!!!!
You could easily imagine a similar situation with a pharmacy dispensing medicine in error and causing death.
I hope this sheds some light on the subject.
For the record, I am generally against the PE license because the exams are much too rigorous and generally irrelavent to real world application of the discipline. For instance, an electrical engineer working in a electric generating station for the power company does not need to know how to design a VHF antenna.
sys-eng
Several years ago, many states attempted to enforce the laws on their books to require anyone acting as a professional engineer to be licensed as such by the state. As anyone who has ever achieved a Professional Engineering (PE) license can attest, there is no comparison between a PE and a MCSE. Comparing the exams would be like comparing middle school to college. The PE exams in most states are brutal.
As far as I know, Texas is the last state to enforce the law as it applies to software. Many of the companies in "Silicon Valley" threatened to relocate of California enforced the law there. So, California (like many other states) changed the law to apply to structural and electrical engineering disciplines.
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And what about the software that causes the death and harm?? The hardware can generally do no harm without faulty software. What about faulty SW that allows a defective part to pass inspection and then fails -- causing death or harm? sys-eng
I don't believe that most states in the USA recognize Canadian engineering licenses.
By requiring a Professional Engineering (PE)license, the PE assumes liability for their work. Let us assume that a SW engineer wrote an application for the Fire Department to help them route their trucks to the emergency quickly. The program failed to understand the direction of one-way streets thus causing the fire truck to go the wrong way down a one-way street and causing a fatal accident. The SW engineer who put his engineering seal on the program would be liable for the death and $$ millions in damages. Fortunately PE's are usually bonded for several million dollars to protect them. A seat-of-the-pants, self-taught, hacker-tweaker, may not be insurable regardless of how good he is. The insurance companies who write the liability bonds will simply not take the risk on someone without a PE license. Without the PE license, the family of the deceased is simply told that, "Well, it was just a bug in some software. No big deal to fix." No big deal; someone was killed because of it.!!!! You could easily imagine a similar situation with a pharmacy dispensing medicine in error and causing death. I hope this sheds some light on the subject. For the record, I am generally against the PE license because the exams are much too rigorous and generally irrelavent to real world application of the discipline. For instance, an electrical engineer working in a electric generating station for the power company does not need to know how to design a VHF antenna. sys-eng
Several years ago, many states attempted to enforce the laws on their books to require anyone acting as a professional engineer to be licensed as such by the state. As anyone who has ever achieved a Professional Engineering (PE) license can attest, there is no comparison between a PE and a MCSE. Comparing the exams would be like comparing middle school to college. The PE exams in most states are brutal. As far as I know, Texas is the last state to enforce the law as it applies to software. Many of the companies in "Silicon Valley" threatened to relocate of California enforced the law there. So, California (like many other states) changed the law to apply to structural and electrical engineering disciplines.
Engineering -- the application of science for the benefit of man.