Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008 - (Page 42)

smoke management systems including design methods, fluid mechanics, performance, and testing; and explosion protection and prevention such as design methods, system types, personnel safety, controls, and test methods. 5. Passive building systems: This includes building construction such as combustibility of materials, compartmentalization techniques and protection methods; and egress design including components, loading, and emergency features. It would be difficult for one person to mentor another in all of the various areas of knowledge required to successfully pass the fire protection engineer licensure exam. While someone may not be able to provide the mentoring in a specific technical area, an experienced mentor should guide the mentee to obtain the resources or support in the needed area. In this role, the mentor is using their relationships to facilitate the process. One of the more challenging things for young engineers to get their arms around is the concept of engineering judgment. Engineering judgment is developed by experience. The mentoring process plays a Professionalism Fire protection engineering, like any engineering field, requires extensive education and specialized training. While engineering education provides the foundation, expe- Without engineering judgement, a young engineer can pass on flawed results without realizing. The mentor can teach how to consider, evaluate, and question results. rience, and continuing education develop and reinforce our professionalism. Participation in professional activities provides an avenue to expand and accelerate professional growth. There are significant opportunities within SFPE at the local chapter level and at the international level to take an active role. These activities provide exposure to a broad range of professionals in specific fire engineering fields that provide mentees invaluable insight and perspective. While a job might have finite limits, the task of building your profession and career is ongoing, and is not accomplished without additional effort. The role of a mentor in the development of one’s professionalism is to provide the positive example of behavior and of personal professional growth and continuing education. It is important for the young engineer to remember that it is not solely the employer’s role to allow its young engineers to grow. It is a mutual responsibility, where the effort put in by each is important to the end result. Professional ethics A cornerstone of professional ethics for engineers is keeping the safety, health, and welfare of the public paramount. Quoted from the preamble of the “Canon of Ethics of the Fire Protection Engineer,” which is published by the SFPE, “In the practice of their profession, fire protection engineers must maintain and constantly improve their competence and perform under a standard of professional behavior, which requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct with balanced regard for the interests of the public, clients, employers, role in moving young engineers toward the experience they need to develop engineering judgment. Engineering judgment is increasingly becoming more important given the more extensive use of computer modeling. The outcomes produced by computer models are illustrative. However, it is important to have a good understanding of the input and other factors involved in order to evaluate the data produced by a comThe Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) puter model. If the results has raised awareness of the need for mentoring. of an engineering model are In 2007, SFPE established an honor to recogcounter-intuitive, an experinize commitment to mentoring that enhances the enced engineer will look back practice of fire protection engineering. This honor into the model to discover what has been named the Professor John L. Bryan happened. Without that intuMentoring Award. Bryan founded the University of ition—engineering judgment— Maryland Fire Protection Engineering Dept. and the young engineer could pass chaired the department from its inception in 1956 on flawed results without realuntil his retirement in 1993. Bryan’s actions and izing. The mentor can help in the impact he has had on his students over the this process by teaching how years exemplifies the concept of mentoring and to consider, evaluate, and quessets a very high bar for future awardees. tion the results put in front of Bryan was given the inaugural award at SFPE’s the mentee. Annual Technology Symposium in October in Las Fire protection engineers Vegas. Any SFPE member can submit a recomalso are regularly involved with mendation for another member to be nominated for application and interpretation of the award. The SFPE Honors Committee reviews building and fire code provisions all of the nominations, makes a recommendation, related to fire safety and egress. and sends the recommendation to the SFPE Board Over the past 30 years, building of Directors. and fire code provisions have The deadline to submit nominations for the 2008 increased significantly. Gaining a award has passed, but nominations for the 2009 solid grasp of the intent of the award are due in February 2009. Nominations code provisions and understandcan be sent to sfpehqtrs@sfpe.org; include the ing how a particular requirement person’s name and a write-up that explains why can impact overall fire or life safethat person should be considered for the award. ty is important to proper application of codes and standards. SFPE honors mentors 42 Consulting-Specifying Engineer • MARCH 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008 Contents Viewpoint Letters News M/E Roundtable Grade A HVAC When UPS and Gensets Have Issues Ignite Opportunities To Mentor Fire Protection Engineers Cooling People, Not Buildings Codes & Standards Case Study New Products Equipment Lifecycles Advertiser Index Green Space Pure Power Supplement Edison Institute Honors Recovery Efforts Canada Launches Clean Energy Software Climate Change Drives Increased Investment Critical Power for R&D Heating Calculations for Electrical Duct Bank Submetering for Energy Profiling New Products

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008

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