Professional Integrity

I often found it hard to convince people that I was not cheating or doing something

inappropriate. To this day, I wear my iron ring from the professional engineers and hold to the

code that we will not do anything that's detrimental—or improper or crooked.

The tradition of giving an iron ring to all graduating engineers in Canada came about after a

Canadian railway bridge collapsed in the early twentieth century, killing many people. An

inquiry found that the cause was poor engineering. The iron ring represents the need for accuracy

and precision in engineering: no nonsense, no errors, no mistakes. The first rings were made

from pieces of steel from that bridge.

In engineering when you design something, you are allowed to increase the strength by two and

a half times. This standard policy is called the factor of safety and is there to cover any mistakes.

I like to point out to people that I have a ring made from steel from the collapsed bridge. I'm old

enough. When I received professional registration, I was number 2,300, or something, in BC.

Now there are close to a hundred thousand professional engineers in the province!