The engineer at risk. A proposal to use hazard and risk assessment as a general management tool

The role of the engineer has undergone considerable development throughout history and, in line with the accelerating pace of technology, it is likely to be subject to significant change in the foreseeable future. To maintain their place in society, engineers will have to demonstrate a much broader skill base, particularly including modern management techniques. This extensive further development of the role the engineer of the future will also change the requirements to be met by the technical institutions such as the IEE. Risk assessment techniques and the concepts of systems engineering form an essential ingredient in the extended management toolkit that future successful engineers must be capable of utilising. Therefore, after having taken a brief look at the history of 'the engineer', this paper introduces the essentials of these disciplines by using them to address the possible future evolution of the profession. The intention is to highlight some of the potential problems to be faced by the profession and to propose a risk management strategy for the future successful professional engineer.