Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduation Ceremony, May 6, 2005
“It Aint Over Yet”
<Introductory
remarks>
Thank you Steven. It is a great honor to be standing before this audience on this important occasion and I am most thankful to be invited by the students to speak.
I love graduations because they are one hundred per cent celebratory and everyone is happy…as they should be. You have achieved a major accomplishment by joining the company of educated men and women.
I would like to say a particular thank you to parents of the graduates. A few years ago you entrusted your son or daughter to us to help them learn. Now, we turn them back not to you, but to the world, as educated people. Thank you for your trust and I hope we did a good job.
I was planning this speech and building it up to about an hour when I read a piece on the op-ed page of the Daily titled “Keep Graduation Speeches Short”. It started out, “Let’s face the facts here. Graduations are a bore.”, then went on to describe the speeches: “…blah, blah blah, ‘you are the leaders of the future’, blah, blah blah”, and gave the final indictment, “those speeches all start to resemble classroom lectures after a while, which invariably leads graduates to wonder if they are really leaving school at all.”.
I will keep this to the point, and not at all like one of my lectures.
I come bearing some good news. You are in your seats thinking it’s over, I’ve paid my dues, gotten my mechanical engineering degree from a top notch university, and can check out.
Well, I am here to alert you that, “It Aint Over Yet”.
There are two reasons why it aint over yet. The first reason is globalization. The second reason is your responsibilities as an active citizen. I will now elaborate on each.
Reason number one: globalization.
Thomas Friedman’s new book, “The World is Flat”, has been getting considerable press, and makes the case that global interconnectedness and cheap communication, means that information-based tasks can now be done anywhere in the world.
In 2005 almost 400,000 American tax
returns were prepared in
Global means that routine engineering, sometimes called “routineering”, can be done anywhere in the world. That C++ programming task, that ANSYS finite element analysis, that Pro/E CAD drawing can just as easily be done in Shanghai China or Bangalore India as it can be done in Minneapolis Minnesota, and for a fraction of the cost.
On Wednesday I participated in a
design review with a small startup company located in
At the meeting I suggested that doing the detail design and building the early production run of the product in Bloomington was a waste of time and money and that instead the company should take the early prototype to one of the many original design manufacturers that are sprouting up like weeds in southern China and have them do the whole job from start to finish in less time and for less money. The company head turned to me and said, “I can’t believe I’m actually at a meeting and hearing a University of Minnesota engineering professor saying that we should take our work to China rather than having it done right here by engineering graduates from the U.” Well, believe it because that’s the reality of this century
The Pearl River Delta area of
The current issue of Newsweek
reports that 65,000 American high school students participated in local science
fairs…compared to 6 million Chinese students. In five years,
A lot of factories. A lot of engineers. A lot of outsourcing. What is the solution?
Outsourcing is inevitable.
Regulations in the
Don’t fight globalization;
celebrate it. Why should you be upset about routine finite element analysis jobs
going to
What will it take to compete in this brave new world where the other players are in all four corners of the globe? The answer is simple. Use your mind.
Invention and innovation. These are the hallmark of American education and the hallmark of American engineers.
You are the innovators. You are the inventors. Americans invented the iPod, the pacemaker and the airplane. You are going to invent the next big thing and you will develop the next amazing service that the world doesn’t even know it needs yet.
What tools do you need to innovate? An open mind, a solid, basic education, the ability to see opportunities, and a willingness to learn continuously.
Most of all, use what you know.
Engineering graduates often complain that, “I don’t use anything I learned in college in my job.” I don’t believe this is true.
Last week I spoke with a former mechanical engineering student who is about five years out and now works for Seagate. I asked her what courses were most useful in her job. Her first response? “I don’t use anything because I work with customers, interact with manufacturing in Taiwan, set up quality experiments, deal with vendors, handle six sigma and sometimes do frequency response tests”.
“Whoa”, I said. “Let’s look in a little more detail. Manufacturing. Sounds like 3221 and 3222 might have been useful courses.” “I guess so”, she said. “And design of experiments? Sounds like 4521 might have come into play.” “Sure”, she said. “And, I think I heard you say, ‘frequency response’. Did the material in 3281 help you understand Bode plots? “Well, I suppose so”, she admitted sheepishly. And so it went.
Put it this way. You have to use what you learned in college, otherwise there is nothing that separates you from a high school kid. And if that’s the case, the company will hire the high school kid at a much lower salary.
So let
To innovate and invent, you have to stay smart, you have to be nimble, you have to look for opportunities, and you have to learn continuously.
That is reason number one why it aint over for you yet.
Reason number two. Becoming an informed member of society.
The second reason why it aint over for you yet is that by joining the company of educated men and women you have assumed an important, new responsibility. That responsibility is to be an informed, participating member of society.
Your responsibility to society is not tied to a salary but rather to your ability to examine facts, scrutinize evidence objectively, form rational opinions, and express yourself clearly. You can do this and now it is time to use those skills.
When you speak up at your city council meeting, or write to your state legislator or write to the president, and I hope you do all of these, please identify yourself as an engineer. Your opinion will be taken seriously.
There are no end of difficult, controversial, societal issues that you must weigh in on.
Intelligent design. Global warming. Energy efficient cars. Stem cell research. Cloning. What is your opinion on each of these? You should have an opinion and it should be an opinion you can articulate and defend based on the facts.
I don’t care which side of controversial issues you are on, but I do care, that you have an opinion, that the opinion be based on a solid argument, and that you can and will express your opinion in a reasoned, rational, respectful tone.
The new windmill just dedicated at
the
Can the opinion of engineers make a difference? Here is one example.
You may remember when every year
you had to drive your car to a state inspection station where they would stick
a probe up the car’s rear end to see if your vehicle passed state and federal standards
for carbon monoxide emission. Some thought this program, started in 1991, was
essential to keep our
What you may not know is the direct
and important role that an engineer played in forcing this policy change. That
engineer is our very own Professor David Kittelson whose research specialty is
understanding the particulate emissions of internal combustion engines. Kittelson’s
lab had just completed a multi year study tracking particulate matter in
several locations across the Twin Cities, including
He testified in a committee hearing at the State Legislature and presented compelling evidence that while pollution levels had dropped since inspections went into effect, it really had nothing to do with the inspections because there was not a step change in the data at the time inspections were started. Kittelson went on to demonstrate that reductions in pollution were entirely due to improved automobiles with more efficient engines and better emissions controls and that inspections were pretty much pointless as almost all cars passed.
While advocates on both sides of the issue screamed and jumped up and down, it was the engineer with rigorous analysis, real data, and a rational argument who won the day.
So celebrate your education and celebrate your geekness because you can make a difference. As engineers, be proud of your urge to mentally and physically dissect the world.
A graduate student of mine married recently. On their wedding web site the couple, both engineers, each described how they met and their early dates. My student describes how it was to walk while holding hands. It reminded him of a four-bar linkage. Wonderful.
Celebrate your knowledge and use it. Become an informed citizen and express your views. As an engineer, others will value your opinion on societal issues because engineers have a reputation for rational thinking and for problem solving. Don’t disappoint your neighbors. Have an opinion.
To form those opinions you have to be aware and you have to stay in touch with local, national and world events.
That is reason number two why it aint over for you yet.
In closing.
Being educated, staying educated, and continuing to use your brain is how you are going to do well in the bold new engineering frontier that is now the entire world. Being educated, staying educated, paying attention to the issues, and making your opinion known is how you will make this bold new world a better place for all of us.
I’m not afraid of outsourcing and
neither should you. I am absolutely convinced that American engineering
students are second to none and I am absolutely convinced that
You will be the envy of the world.
Thank you for your kind attention and best wishes for all of the wonderful and exciting adventures that lie ahead.