Concepts

The Future of Engineering

Cyber Security – A New Profession
It protects critical infrastructure, such as oil pipelines, water treatment facilities and hospitals, and supports the day-to-day operation of services, from online banking, to public transport, to food delivery.

Cybersecurity also poses a challenge: decisionmakers must balance the competitive advantage of digitizing their organization’s operating environment against the greater exposure it brings to malicious cyberthreats, alongside non-malicious – but often damaging – human error and systems errors.

Communities must see products and services as cybersecure and the experts that protect them as competent if they are to trust and adopt them. Yet headline-making attacks on essential services are commonplace and undermine trust in services and in the ability of societies to cope with technological change. Governments, organizations and the people that depend on them need to be able to trust that they are protected by recognized cybersecurity best practices that defend against cyberthreats.
Cyber Security – A New Profession (Video) – Mar 23, 2022

Governing Emerging Technology And Applied Science & Engineering Professional Practice

Show 2 of this series of 3 broadcasts was on April 20, 2022. In this show, we are saying that the accelerating growth of science and technology leads to new practices that can create either benefit or harm depending on how it is governed.

Who is permitted, that is licensed, to do these works? How do we govern all these professions?

In contrast to Cyber Security, many of these practices are not plainly visible to the public and government. Their growth has escaped notice as well as the profession’s ability to deal with them.

We must wake up.
Emerging Tech – Part 2

Transformative Advancement of Technology
Show 3 of this series of 3 broadcasts was on May 18, 2022. In this show we look at the lack of attention that has been paid to emerging areas of practice in Applied Science and engineering over the last 75 years. For the last 100 years the AG has been the caretaker of the Ontario Engineering Profession. Is this a fruitful relation?

The licensing of engineering practice is much more than a legal act. In the last 75 years, many new applied science and engineering practices have been created that are the foundation of our modern world. More is coming at an even faster rate. We are not coping now and we are not keeping up to what our technically talented people can do for Ontario and Canada. We will discuss what is happening to a core underpinning to our economic well being. We will begin with Cyber Security, a pressing and urgent practice to address. Our National security is at risk. The Russian war on the Ukraine is indicative of what is happening in virtual, cyber space. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many emerged and emerging practices that can be either good or bad depending on how well we govern and regulate them. We can do much better than we have. We can utilize our human resources much better. We can develop our natural resources here in Canada and keep the value-add to create high paying jobs and prosperity for our people. We will look at the issues and what needs to be done.
Emerging Tech – Part 3

Engineer General

Imagine living in Ontario without electricity, the Internet or cell phones. These are a fraction of the technology that now exists that is growing at ever faster rates. We cannot run a new world state without connecting our technology gurus to our political masters. It is simply moving too fast.

C.D. Howe, Engineer and Cabinet minister in the WW2 era, showed us how to drive our economies with innovations from applied science and engineering. We must have such a Cabinet ‘Minister of Everything’ today who can drive our Technology Strategy to inform and support an Industrial strategy for Ontario. We now have neither. We need to change this.

Many Chinese politicians are engineers. In contrast, almost no Canadian politicians are engineers.

Our governments need to have trustworthy and persistent technology advice on how to best develop our natural resources to create high value finished goods. Canadian engineering has a proven track record at the leading edge of communication, transportation and energy systems. Canada began with close connections between our engineers and politicians allowing us to build the trans Canada railroad and highway; to build the St Lawrence Sea Way; to invent the telephone, digital communications and the cell phone; to develop public power with the world’s first AC generators at Niagara Falls.

Today, we have advanced technologies coming from our Universities and Colleges among the best in the world, but, the growing gap between technology and politics means we do not fully benefit from our talented applied scientists and engineers

We are calling this CD Howe surrogate, the Engineering General. Please advance Ontario by supporting the creation of this ministry.

Internships

To assist new applied Science and Engineering graduates in obtaining their required experience to qualify for their P. Eng Licence, a two year fully funded internship program similar to what the medical profession enjoys is being advocated by E4P.