Hacker News Reader

Comment by whoisthemachine | Hacker News Reader

Civil, mechanical, electrical, and most other engineering disciplines have an accreditation board. I don't think they are pushing a "flawed" ideology in those disciplines. At least I don't see civil engineers constantly questioning why they would do load modeling for a bridge, like SWE's constantly question the value of unit testing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET

View on HN

Yeah and what are the numbers on how many employed engineers hold that accreditation? Just because it exists doesn't mean it's used.

I know for a fact that aerospace, electrical, and mechanical engineers working on designing rockets, nuclear reactors, space capsules, and electric charging infrastructure do not need this credential. And so most of them do not have it.

If they have an undergrad degree in any of those disciplines then their college has ABET accreditation.

IDK why, but I totally mixed up ABET with the professional engineering credentials where individuals get accredited as opposed to curriculums.

I'm not sure ABET is the most relevant here? What would making CS programs accredited change?

Consistent educational standards leads to a common shared understanding of what knowledge and training your engineering colleagues have. This also makes it easier right off the bat for an employer to know what a "junior" engineer is - and leads to more consistent experience levels afterwards.

And you didn't quite mix it up, a degree from an ABET accredited school is required to get your professional engineering certification, which is often required in cases where engineering designs carry legal liability.

I think there's still a lot of inconsistency and judgement that happens for gauging whether someone is junior and for what skills they might have. Many software engineers don't have CS degrees at all and even more have ones from different countries.

I am unable to find concrete numbers on this, but I would bet that the majority of employed engineers in the US do not carry a professional engineering certification.

I don't argue with your point regarding how many engineers have their PE. I don't have mine.

My point is that accreditation boards and trade unions can help set standard minimums of what an engineer (or trades person) will know going into a job. Of course employers can ignore them, but in general those standards help bring consistent expectations to a given trade.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com