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July
2006
To P.E. or Not to P.E.: That is the
Question
By Steven F. Barrett
In the late 1990s, I, like many mid-career engineers,
pondered whether I should go through the process of becoming
a licensed professional engineer (P.E.). The entire process was a
bit of a mystery. After a satisfying and successful career as
a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, I was
beginning to make plans for active duty "retirement" and a second
academic career. At the time I was serving as a faculty member in
the Department of Electrical Engineering at the United States Air
Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs.
It was a wonderful and fulfilling job, but
approaching the 20-year point in my military career, I had the
yearning to try new challenges. As I began to consider a second
career, my top choice was to start a second educational career
teaching electrical and computer engineering at a civilian
university. I also hoped to serve as an
engineering department head. I had judiciously studied the faculty
want ads in the back of IEEE Spectrum and noted that some of the
department head and dean positions required licensing as a
registered professional engineer. I had also hoped to serve as a
consulting engineer as an off-duty avocation. I really enjoyed
working tough embedded system design problems, and thought I would
enjoy doing this type of work for others. I understood that to
provide consulting services also required an engineering license.
Coincidentally (actually serendipitously), John
Steadman, Ph.D., P.E., was serving as a distinguished visiting
professor in our department. As you may know, John
has served the engineering community with distinction for many years
in many high-level positions as President of the National Council of
Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and IEEE-USA. John
and I discussed the registration process on several occasions. I had
also mentioned to my parents that I was considering becoming a
registered engineer. My mother quickly quipped, "Any professional
worth their salt is registered!" You have to understand that my
mother has been a registered nurse for more than 50 years and proudly served
as a commissioned flight nurse during the Korean Conflict.
As I investigated the registration process, I
realized I would first have to complete the Fundamentals of
Engineering (FE) examination. John suggested I check with other
faculty members in the department to see if they might be also
interested in pursuing registration. There were seven fellow faculty
members potentially interested. John met with us and explained that
the FE was an eight-hour examination, divided into two parts, offered twice a year, typically in late October and late March.
As its name implies, the FE examination tests the
fundamentals of engineering in two different parts: a 120-question,
four-hour morning session and a 60-question, four-hour afternoon session. All
are multiple-choice style questions. The morning session covers the
areas of basic science, mathematics, engineering, economics and
ethics. The afternoon session is discipline specific and covers all of
the primary subject areas within a given discipline. The NCEES
actually provides a detailed specification of the examination on
their Web site [www.ncees.org]. At that initial planning session, we
agreed to meet for one hour a week for the year. At each
meeting, one of our study group members would present a review
session on a specific topic and also work through representative
problems provided in NCEES study materials, as well as those provided
by other publishers. The NCEES also provides a reference
handbook containing key equations and information helpful during the
exam.
At our first meeting, John also suggested we contact
our state registration office to obtain application materials.
Although the FE examination is written, published and coordinated
at the national level by NCEES, it is under the jurisdiction and
legislation of each individual state and territory. We found out
that the application process requires attention to detail and time
to arrange for the forwarding of official transcripts from
universities we had attended.
The group effort worked well because we felt we owed
it to each other to keep at it. All eight of us successfully passed
the FE exam. John hosted a barbeque for us after the exam, and we
immediately began making plans to tackle the Professional
Engineering examination, since we all had at least the requisite four years of
practical engineering experience. We used the same study tactics as
we did for the FE exam to great success — all of us passed the PE
examination. With the eight of us successfully completing the exam,
the electrical engineering department at USAFA probably had the
highest percentage of registered engineers for a department at that
time — approximately 70 percent.
The PE examination is also an eight-hour
examination. The entire examination is discipline specific. The four-hour
morning session covers the breadth of a specific discipline of
your choice while the afternoon session allows you to test in a discipline
specialty of your choice. This is considered the depth portion of
the examination. For example, for electrical engineers, the
afternoon
specialties available include: power; computers; or electronics,
communications and control. For the P.E. examination, you are
allowed to bring your own reference material. I carefully chose a
key textbook from each of the different areas covered by the exam
and also an engineering mathematics textbook.
As I began looking for a civilian faculty position,
I proudly listed "Steven F. Barrett, Ph.D., P.E." at the top of my
resume. I accepted a faculty position at the University of Wyoming.
As I look back and wonder whether the P.E. was worth the effort, I
would respond with a resounding "yes." This became evident as UW prepared
for our ABET accreditation visit several years back. I found out
that ABET was interested in how many registered professional
engineers were in our department. Aside from my faculty position, I
also perform consulting work designing embedded control systems that
control entry point devices for various industrial applications. I
could not have done this work without my license. I have also been
asked to serve as an expert witness in a court of law. I had to
politely decline since the testimony was beyond my area of technical
expertise. I still hope to serve as a department head some day. My
P.E. license will allow me to pursue positions in any locale.
It is interesting to note that I originally obtained
my P.E. license in Colorado and was registered in that state. Upon
accepting the teaching position in Wyoming, I applied for licensing
in that state via a procedure called comity. This allows you to
obtain registration in another state once you have completed the
registration process in another state. I currently maintain
active registration in Colorado and Wyoming because of the
consulting work I perform.
On a side note, several years ago, I was asked to
submit questions to the NCEES for use on the P.E. examination. I
found this offer intriguing. As a result of submitting questions, I
was asked to serve on the NCEES committee that writes and edits the
P.E. examination. I have now served on this committee for several
years. I consider it a great honor and I hope to work on this
committee for many years to come.
The committee consists of
approximately 20 registered professional engineers from industry and
academia. We represent the different technical specialties within
electrical and computer engineering. What we all have in common is a
deep commitment and respect for our discipline and the registration
process. We consider it a great honor, and also a great
responsibility to construct the P.E. examinations that will be taken
by our fellow engineers.
We originate some of the questions and
edit those that are provided by other volunteers. Rest assured that
each examination and each examination question is
thoroughly reviewed by a number of dedicated professionals before it
becomes part of an exam. Furthermore, each examination is subjected
to a battery of post-exam statistical analyses by an external audit
agency to insure each examination question measures up under the
scrutiny of impartial experts.
If you, too, are considering "To P.E. or not to P.E.,"
I would highly recommend investing the time. My
only regret is that I waited until midway through my career to
obtain my license. I forgot to mention, mom was quite pleased that I,
too, was now a registered and licensed professional!
To learn more about licensure and registration, see:
Steven F. Barrett, Ph.D., P.E., is associate
professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University
of Wyoming, in Laramie Wyoming, and a member of IEEE-USA's Licensure
and Registration Committee. Comments may be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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