This week we proceed to the third element of competency of the Professional and Personal Attributes part of the Summary Statement document for Professional Engineers. This element is entitled as “Creative, innovative and pro-active demeanor.” This indicates that applicants have to fill this part of the SS with examples that showcase their ability to follow, develop, and apply creative approaches into their engineering work, choose innovative methods and/or solutions against more traditional and widely-applied options, and generally prove that they are aware of the latest developments in their field, and how to utilize spearhead knowledge to develop pioneering work.
a.) Applies creative approaches to identify and develop alternative concepts, solutions and procedures, appropriately challenges engineering practices from technical and non-technical viewpoints; identifies new technological opportunities.
Example: Attending a Festo seminar helped me realize that we could reduce the running costs of the production line by installing the new type of pneumatic elements that featured an automatic lubrication system, relieving from the need to employ large numbers of maintenance technicians.
Example: I solved the complete failure of a 20 years old processing and power unit of the remote control panel by innovatively incorporating an Arduino board with a Raspberry Pi computer, and a 15000 mAh power bank that powered the panel via USB.
b.) Seeks out new developments in the engineering discipline and specializations and applies fundamental knowledge and systematic processes to evaluate and report potential.
Example: I developed and presented a technical report that analyzed the long-term benefits that the workshop would have if the owner invested on the purchase of a new metal bar feeder that would be compatible with the existing CNC milling machines.
Example: Based on what I read on the “Modern Chemical Engineer” magazine, the distillation plant could incorporate a new type of crude oil pre-processing unit right on the existing infrastructure, potentially increasing the hourly yield production by up to 35%.
c.) Is aware of broader fields of science, engineering, technology and commerce for which new ideas and interfaces may be drawn and readily engages with professionals from these fields to exchange ideas.
Example: I contacted the foreman of a car manufacturing plant who used the same robotic arms as the ones available in my company, to discuss the ways I could adjust their configurable elements and render them suitable for the manufacturing of products of different size and specifications.
Example: I realized that the graphene sheets that a Taiwanese team of scientists suggested in the context of a new battery product development could also be used by my company for the manufacturing of strong yet lightweight composite materials. Thus, I contacted the head of their team to learn more about the application possibilities of this new material and reported my findings to my company’s R&D department.
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