We are proceeding with the CDR Summary Statement tutorial sessions and in this part we will finalize the investigation of the first part of the Professional Engineer Summary Statement, and will start with the second part of the Summary Statement (SS) as well. In this article, you will find explanations on all the elements to be included in the SS and some good examples, so you can proceed with more certainty in a successful outcome while writing your CDR.
Element 1.6 of Professional Engineer Summary Statement
“Understanding the scope principles, norms, accountabilities and bounds of contemporary engineering practice in the engineering discipline.”
In order to draw initial conclusions we will firstly examine the title of the section as this will help us find the proper focus for this part. This element is asking the applying engineers to showcase their understanding of standards, code sets, any norms to be used, as well as the worldwide established engineering modes of practice. Just as a reminder, the possible engineering disciplines include Mechanical, Civil, Electrical engineering and other.
Looking more closely into the topic here we can say that the applicants will need to present their knowledge of any important engineering standards that can be applied for their role. This includes various features of a working project, such as: environmental protection, legislative limitations and requirements or work safety as the most commonly used one. The knowledge also reflects on engineering design methodologies and common practices in general. It is also important for the applicants to reflect on their capacity to manage the basic project activities, and their capability to manage all the resources used in an effective manner.
This sixth element of a Professional Engineer Summary Statement includes the following six indicators. Below we will provide few examples for each.
a.) Applies systematic principles of engineering design relevant to the engineering discipline.
Example: I used different design layers for the HVAC and the electric circuitry network in AutoCAD. This helped the printing of independent schematics for their distribution to different teams of technicians.
Example: I performed the embodiment design before proceeding to detailed drawings to determine if the draft concept was efficient enough.
b.) Appreciates the basis and relevance of standards and codes of practice, as well as legislative and statutory requirements applicable to the engineering discipline.
Example: I designed and commissioned the new turning machine production line in full accordance with the ISO (International Standards Organization) 23125:2015 standards.
Example: For the design of the new communications antenna, I considered the suggested specifications provided by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 145-2013 standards.
c.) Appreciates the principles of safety engineering, risk management and the health and safety responsibilities of the professional engineer, including legislative requirements applicable to the engineering discipline.
Example: As the hauling trucks were old and didn’t feature any protective equipment, I designed, manufactured and installed steel rollover bars to protect the drivers in case of a road accident.
Example: During the project works, I ensured that all procedures respected the limitations set by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) international regulations.
d.) Appreciates the social, environmental and economic principles of sustainable engineering practice.
Example: I modified the piping system in such a way that the previously discharged hot water from the production line would be re-circulated once more through the offices, thus lowering the heating costs for the company.
Example: I designed a filtering system that purified the toxic air that was generated during the plastic molding stage, so it could be deposited into the environment without the company having to pay the environmental encumbrance fees.
e.) Understands the fundamental principles of engineering project management as a basis for planning, organizing and managing resources.
Example: I used Microsoft Primavera to plan the project activities and develop the most efficient schedule based on the available resources.
Example: During our meetings, I distributed work tasks equally to all participants. This helped finish the project in time.
f.) Appreciates the formal structures and methodologies of systems engineering as a holistic basis for managing complexity and sustainability in engineering practice.
Example: I followed engineering design change methodology in all of my projects, to manage work efficiently and keep track for future reference.
This finalizes the first part of the Professional Engineer Summary Statement and we are immediately proceeding with the second part below. It is important to remember that the first part of the Summary Statement should be demonstrating your general engineering knowledge and indicators in this part should not be too technical.
Part 2 of the Summary Statement – Engineering Application Ability
The second part of the Summary Statement should demonstrate your Engineering Application Ability. This part is the core and the most important part of the Summary Statement and should include specific technical examples .
This is our recommendation that in this part of the SS you write at least 3 indicators for each of the elements. Of course you will have to have enough relevant information to refer to in your Career Epiosdes.
We are now to evaluate the requirements of the first element of competency (PE2.1) for the second part of the Professional Engineer Summary Statement. This second part of the Summary Statement is about the engineer’s capability to use the acquired knowledge and skills in practical work. An important notice here is to present your effective and efficient manner in doing so. Thus, the applying engineers here need to also demonstrate their problem-solving skills and how they managed to evaluate and select what to use from the available tools and resources. Furthermore, this part needs to show how the systems were developed via engineering design, and how the engineers contributed with their management benefits in the respective projects.
Thus, please consider now the first element PE2.1 for Professional Engineer Summary Statement:
PE2.1: Application of established engineering methods to complex engineering problem solving.
As this second part of the SS is concerned with the “Engineering Application Ability”, the engineers here need to match the parts in their respective Career Episodes which relate to describing their practical engineering work. Career Episodes need to showcase the usage of the established engineering methods to resolve complex technical and engineering problems; make sure that this information is included in your Career Episodes when you write them.
This competency is thus very significant as the problem solving skills require the usage of many principles and a rather wide array of specialized knowledge in engineering. Fortunately, there is a rather big number of different indicators that can correspond and be used for this element of the Professional Engineer Summary Statement. We will now investigate and provide examples for the first three indicators of attainment.
a.) Identifies, discerns and characterizes salient issues, determines and analyzes causes and effects, justifies and applies appropriate simplifying assumptions, predicts performance and behavior, synthesizes solution strategies and develops substantiated conclusions.
Example: I instructed four technicians to take position in different points of the line and measure the output voltage. This way, I was able to find out if the drop was because of the Ferranti effect, or due to a technical problem.
Example: I predicted that the installation of three additional milling machines would require 24% more electric power from the grid. Thus, I proposed the installation of a 200 KiloWatt generator.
Example: I investigated the tank overflow problem by conducting chemical analysis of the contained liquid. This revealed water contamination which led my investigation to the water pump that was the source of the problem.
b.) Ensures that all aspects of an engineering activity are soundly based on fundamental principles – by diagnosing, and taking appropriate action with data, calculations, results, proposals, processes, practices and documented information that may be ill-founded, illogical, erroneous, unreliable or unrealistic.
Example: The supplier didn’t have available replacement gears for the product conveyor belts, so I designed an alternative gear arrangement by calculating the required module, teeth number and height, pitch diameter, and pressure angles.
Example: I ensured that the power system was working according to the specifications by comparing the critical operation data with the values indicated by “load to power” tables found in the manufacturer’s manual.
c.) Competently addresses engineering problems involving uncertainty, ambiguity, imprecise information and wide-ranging and sometimes conflicting technical and non-technical factors.
Example: Submerging the temperature sensors in the oil tank resulted in greatly deviating values. As I didn’t have a third sensor to test and determine which one was defective, I put both inside a jar containing hydrogen, and used a spectrometer to find out the correct temperature.
Example: While the specifications of the proposed electric generator indicated that it would cover the plant’s power needs, wherever the same model was implemented there were frequent power outages. I run a power system simulation on ETAP and located reliability issues caused by unequal load flow.
We are continuing our guide for the Professional Engineer Summary Statement next week, with the consideration of the remaining indicators and to finalize the second part of the SS and proceed further. For more information on this SS Tutorial please visit us on www.cdrsample.com, or contact us directly with the details of your CDR case via email: cdr@cdrsample.com.
