Engineering Liked It So It Put A Ring On It

My precious.

On March 20th, 2019, the International Day of Happiness, the York University graduating class of Engineering students will collect in an almost cult-like ceremony with their sponsors and the regional chapter of engineers to receive their Iron Ring.

Following the collapse of a bridge in Quebec, engineers crafted a ceremony to demonstrate their commitment to the ethical and social responsibility for the work they dedicate their lives to. The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, like any commitment (and as most of Canadian society has demonstrated to me), is purely symbolic, and driven by each individual engineer’s devotion to the society, and not just the self. Though our license ensures we are accountable for all actions, the Ritual and ultimately the ring, is a promise we make to do right by the world we have chosen to serve.

The ceremony can be traced back to 1922, when Presidents of the Engineering Institute of Canada attended a meeting in Montreal and devised the Ritual, ceremony seeking to make newly qualified Canadian engineers conscious of their profession.

For many, the engineering profession, and most of STEM, for that matter, is a cold-cut field of calculation and physics, abstract concepts, and socially inept advanced learners. The stereotypes in engineering abound, and are worth an entire discussion of its own, but the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer seems to transcend such notions.

Social responsibility and social consciousness may not be concepts one associates with the analytical nature of engineering and science, but for years, we have been calling for a greater presence of science and engineering experts in politics, business and matters of the environment. In response, engineers are now challenging their field to take up the mantle of global leadership.

Now more than ever, it is critical that engineers shape solutions to the world’s problems by interweaving applied science with the applied understanding of our communities, people, and the ever more complicated nature of politics. The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer seems to have been a foretelling by its creators of the duties that we, as engineers (and engineers-to-be), are desperately required to fulfill in a world whose dichotomy between the engineer and the not-engineer is rapidly becoming obsolete.

The Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer is a call to global citizenship, a distancing of the self from one’s purpose, and a step towards the fulfilment of the vocation which we find ourselves drawn toward.