Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Executive Summary INTRODUCTION The Committee on the Education and Utilization of the Engineer formed the Panel on Engineering Interactions With Society to examine broad questions regarding the functioning of the engineering profession in the context of, and in relation to, American society. Although harder to grasp and quantify than other aspects of engineering education and practice, these topics were considered important because of the enormous extent to which the interests of society and the engineering profession are intertwined. Our economic and social health depends directly on the health of the engineering endeavor, and the health of engineering depends, in turn, on the support of society. The purpose of the panel's inquiry was thus twofold. First, it examined the impact that engineering and technology development has had on the development of the nation and, correspondingly, the impact of societal demands, values, and perceptions on engineering. The object here was to determine how the engineering community has responded to those societal interests and demands. Second, the panel attempted to assess the structure and development of the engineering profession, past and present, to ascertain whether or not the profession is likely to be adaptable enough to meet current and future national needs. BACKGROUND Traditionally, the engineer has been held in considerable esteem in the United States. The concepts of the ''heroic engineer'' and the "wiz
