Engineering Inc. - July/August 2005 - (Page 4)

N E WS & N OT E S Bill Gates to Lawmakers: Engineering at the Let More Foreign Engineers In Forefront of Smart M Infrastructure Revolution icrosoft Chairman Bill Gates is into the country, Gates says. The thing LABORATORY FOR INTELLIGENT STRUCTURAL TECHNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN urging congressional leaders to basically doesn't make sense. T he nation's engineering infrastructure is becom- scale back barriers that limit the Gates's sentiments were echoed by a ing smarter, such as concrete that bends, bridges number of foreign engineers who can new report from the National Academies that automatically alert authorities when mainte- take jobs in the U.S. calling for a comprehensive effort to nance is needed and buildings that notify occupants During a recent swing through Wash- recruit, educate and train top students in whether it is safe to re-enter after an emergency. ington, D.C., the world's richest execu- engineering and science both here and tive took aim at so-called H1-B visas, a abroad. non-immigrant classification used by for- In the wake of the 2001 terrorist eigners who are sponsored and employed attacks, changes in U.S. visa and immigra- in specialty fields such as engineering. tion policies have affected every stage of The current H1-B ceiling is 65,000 the visa application process for foreign workers per year. The cap has signifi- engineering and science students, the cantly dwindled since the early 1990s, report says. But the study goes on to say The Alamosa Canyon Bridge was when levels were as high as 195,000 that attracting the best minds in these designed with MEMS accelerom- employees per year. fields is essential to American interests. eters and wireless sensors. H1-B visas are a sensitive topic for U.S. policy-makers, leaders in higher Because of growing advances in the marriage of Congress. On one side, corporate execu- education, and industry executives must engineering and smart technology, future infra- tives want the level restored or even abol- work together to strengthen research and structure will require fewer man-hours of mainte- ished so they can more successfully com- education in science and engineering nance and ultimately become much safer, a pete in global markets. On the other, striking an appropriate balance between national engineering expert predicts. U.S. unions concerned about so many scientific openness and economic and Today, new information technologies are acceler- jobs being moved overseas, believe that national security, says Phillip A. Grif- ating a quiet revolution in how society can better skilled Americans should be tapped for fiths, a professor at the Institute of protect and manage expensive infrastructure assets, jobs here. Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and says Jerome P. Lynch, a professor in the University of The whole idea of the H1-B visa thing the chairman of the committee that wrote Michigan's civil and environmental engineering is, don't let too many smart people come the report. department. Lynch is one of a group of scientists at the uni- versity who has developed a wireless sensor that can monitor the health of structures. The system already has been installed in several bridges throughout the world, including the Alamosa Canyon Bridge in New Mexico and the Guemdang Bridge in South Korea. ACEC-member firm Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco, received an Honor Award in ACEC's 2005 Engineering Excellence Awards competition for designing a similar system, the Earthquake Building ROBERT SORBO/MICROSOFT/REUTERS/CORBIS Instrumentation System, which allows inspectors to monitor a building's seismic health before and after an earthquake. Lynch predicts that in the next decade, the prac- tice of inspectors manually checking bridges for Microsof t Chairman Bill Gates damage, which is both labor-intensive and expen- wants more foreign engineers sive, would be redundant as such smart technology in the U.S. becomes more commonplace. 4 ENGINEERING INC. J u l y l August 2005

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - July/August 2005

Contents
From ACEC To You
News & Notes
Market Watch
Legislative Action
Cover Story: Interview with Senator Jim Talent
Well-Prepared Leadership
Remembering the Codes
Premium Increase Slowing
ACEC's 2005-2006 Executive Committee
Business Insights
Members in the News
ACEC Fall Conference
One on One
EEA Call for Entries
Institute for Business Management

Engineering Inc. - July/August 2005