design

So it turns out that I'm gonna have to do some design work now, since somebody at the office is leaving. I haven't done design in years, and I totally know nuts about BS 8110 or CP 65 so I'm so screwed!

I used to be quite good at design but thats a very long long time ago and it was the ACI/AISC code which is not only not applicable here but in the wrong units. If I had taken a different path I'd have been a PE now and earning lots of money. Unfortunately I have no PE and probably will never get one and I so am not earning lots of money.....

I find it funny sometimes how every country seems to have their own building code. At least commonwealth countries in general try to follow something universal like the British Standard. Unfortunately, most countries (we know who) still try to tweak it and come up with their own version (code of practice) to confuse the world and to ensure that they will have superiority doing design in their own code in their own country. If you have a PE based on design experience in a code of practice particular to one tiny little country I don't think your skills are very marketable globally. So much for the state of engineering.....

The next big thing (if it hasn't already come) in engineering is not operations research, as a lot of people think, but computational mechanics. Already in Western Europe and the United States engineers are doing the impossible with computational mechanics, replacing physical testing and all. Operations research is perhaps best left to business types rather than engineers, like what was done at Dell. Unfortunately some people are still using paper charts for design that are more than 20 years old. By the time the technological revolution hits these people they are more likely to be replaced than to step up to the challenge!