Engineering traditions in Canada
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[edit] Calling of an Engineer
Haultain wrote to Rudyard Kipling, who had made reference to the work of engineers in some of his poems and writings. He asked Kipling for his assistance in developing a suitably dignified obligation and ceremony for its undertaking. Kipling was very enthusiastic in his response and shortly produced both an obligation and a ceremony formally entitled "The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer."
Kiping had long been the literary hero of engineers, having published the poem "The Sons of Martha" in 1907. In the poem, Kipling identifies engineers with Martha and her children, who continue to do the chores necessary to keep the household running rather than sit at the Lord's feet.
Although some later engineers would read Kipling's poem as condemning engineers to being second-class citizens compared to managers, those of Haultain's generation were pleased to take "The Sons of Martha" as their defining text.
[edit] The Ring
- Main article: Iron Ring
The first Iron Ring ceremony was held at the University of Toronto in 1925, with the first rings made of "hammered iron" that Kipling called "cold". Although some say the writer used the adjective because the structural material did not forgive the mistakes of engineers working in it, another poem of his puts it in a different and more positive context:
- Gold is for the mistress - silver for the maid!
- Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
- "Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
- "But Iron - Cold Iron - is master of them all!"
The iron ring's circular shape has been said to symbolize the continuity of the profession and its methods and the circle is also an appropriate symbol of the iterative engineering design process.
[edit] Québec Bridge
The original rings might have been fabricated from the wreckage of the Québec Bridge, which collapsed during construction in 1907. Although this is generally thought to be false, the Québec Bridge is still significant. That bridge, whose 1,800 foot main span was to be the largest cantilever structure in the world, collapsed under its own weight because of an error in the design engineer's calculations. The bridge was redesigned, but suffered a second accident in 1916, when its centre span fell while being hoisted into place. Finally, in 1917 the bridge was completed and stood across the St. Lawrence River as a symbolic gateway into Canada. The engineers sometimes regard the bridge as a reminder to Canadian engineers to take care with their designs and to persevere in the face of adversity.
[edit] Certification
Most Engineering undergraduates become Professional Engineers after graduation. Professional status entails both responsibilities as well as privileges, and is not, as some may think, the automatic result of graduation. In every province of Canada and every state in the USA, it is by law mandatory for an Engineer to be registered with the appropriate association before he or she may practice as a Professional Engineer. In Canada, registration as a Professional Engineer is granted only to those whose personal qualifications and technical experience, as well as academic training can be proven to the satisfaction of the Council of the Association of Professional Engineers in their province. This is a matter of law and not choice in order to protect the public. Upon graduation, Engineers are permitted to apply for the status as an Engineer-in-Training as the next step in becoming a fully qualified Professional Engineer.
In a related field, accreditation of baccalaureate programs in Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Management Information Systems are performed by the Canadian Information Processing Society. In Canada some professionals in the software development field are as certified as Information Systems Professional (ISP) while others prefer to be accredited as a Professional Engineer under the discipline known as Software Engineering.
