This category covers establishments engaged primarily in providing professional engineering services. Civil, mechanical, electrical and electronic, chemical, sanitary, industrial, petroleum, mining, aeronautical, and marine engineering are among the disciplines included. Establishments primarily providing and supervising their own engineering staff on temporary contract to other firms are included in this industry. Establishments providing engineering personnel, but not general supervision, are classified in SIC 7363: Help Supply Services. Establishments primarily providing architectural services are classified in SIC 8712: Architectural Services, and those providing photogrammetric engineering are classified in SIC 8713: Surveying Services.
541330 (Engineering Services)
Engineering covers a vast array of specialties touching virtually all aspects of life. The profession is categorized into disciplines representing designated areas of interest, though not all commentators define the disciplines in the same way. Some choose many narrow descriptions while others rely on fewer, more broadly drawn classifications. By far, the most significant modern trend in the industry is computerization. Computers equipped with CAD/CAM and 3-D software largely replaced calculators and drafting boards by the end of the twentieth century.
In 2000 the top 500 engineering services design firms secured a total of $43 billion in revenues, according to Engineering News Record . That year, 168 firms reported an average profit of 7.1 percent, while 10 reported a loss.
Diversification was a major trend impacting the engineering services industry at the turn of the twenty-first century. Design-build firms, those that provided both engineering and construction services, grew in number during the late 1990s and early 2000s as clients grew increasingly comfortable with the design-build concept. In fact, U.S. design-build project billings jumped more than 20 percent in 2000 to garner a 35 percent share of the nonresidential construction market, compared to 25 percent in the mid-1990s.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), approximately 329,070 electrical and electronic engineers comprise this field, which is the largest engineering discipline. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., with 224,658 members in the United States in the late 1990s, described itself as "the world's largest technical professional society."
The most populous classification of engineers after electrical and electronic engineers are computer engineers, which number 252,230, followed by mechanical engineers (209,490), civil engineers (173,690), and industrial engineers (112,400). The smallest groups of engineers are the 3,300 marine engineers and 3,440 mining engineers.
Engineering establishments serve two major classes of clients: government (representing 41.6 percent of fees charged) and industrial, commercial, and other firms (representing 35.4 percent). The remainder of engineering firm clients included architectural firms, construction companies, individuals, other engineering firms, and private institutions.
Projects undertaken by engineering establishments include industrial and processing plants and systems (19 percent); power generating and transmission facilities (18.9 percent); navel and aeronautical equipment (13.5 percent); water supply and sanitation facilities (8.1 percent); highways, roads, bridges, and streets (6.9 percent); commercial buildings (5.3 percent); and public and institutional facilities such as hospitals and educational facilities (3.3 percent).
The American Society for Engineering Education defined engineering as "the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize the materials and forces of nature economically for the benefit of mankind." This interest in manipulating matter and power for society's welfare has its roots in antiquity. In many ways the progress of civilization provides a record of mankind's engineering achievements.
Throughout history, scientists have studied the world, its composition, its properties, its inhabitants, and its universe. As they discovered principles and truths, engineers applied these discoveries to construct a changed world. For example, chemists provided the information used by chemical engineers to create new building materials and pharmaceuticals. Biologists made discoveries that were put to use by engineers to increase crop production and offer improved medical services. Physical scientists contributed the knowledge needed to build pyramids and skyscrapers. Scientists identified electricity but engineers enabled the phenomenon.
Transitions from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and then to the Iron Age were made possible by changes in mining and metallurgical engineering. When public works projects became too large for a single craftsman to accomplish, even with the help of family and apprentices, civil engineers coordinated and focused the efforts of thousands of workers. Their projects included roads, bridges, irrigation systems, government buildings, and religious structures.
Windmills and waterwheels were the work of archetypal mechanical engineers. Their progeny ushered in the Industrial Revolution during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. James Watt's invention of the steam engine in 1802 led to the development of steam locomotives, steam propelled boats, and the mechanization of agriculture.
The roots of electrical engineering extend back to the 1600s when William Gilbert, an English scientist, first described magnetism and static electricity. In 1800, Alexander Volta discovered that electric current could be made to flow. Throughout the nineteenth century, many scientists and inventors contributed to a growing body of knowledge about electricity. Some of its early applications included the telegraph (invented by Samuel Morse in 1838), the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell, 1876), the light bulb (Thomas Edison, 1878), and the electric motor (Nicholas Tesla, 1888).
As technology spread, demand for engineers increased. In time engineers specialized and founded engineering societies to facilitate the exchange of engineering knowledge. In the United States, the first officially established engineering society was the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), organized in 1852. The Society of Mining Engineers was founded in 1871. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) was established in 1880 with Thomas Edison as one of its founding members. In 1884, a group of inventors and entrepreneurs formed the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
The era also provided rapid advances in all disciplines of engineering. Civil engineers, for example, transformed bridge building technology. John Roebling, a pioneer in suspension bridge construction, designed and built an aqueduct over the Allegheny River to facilitate cargo transportation and a railway bridge over Niagara Falls Gorge. Roebling's most famous project, the Brooklyn Bridge, was completed in 1883—Roebling himself did not live to see the project finished. In addition to great landmark bridges, civil engineers erected hundreds of mass-produced metal truss bridges in many parts of the country.
Mechanical engineering, at the forefront of mass production, emerged from the domain of forges, iron smelters, and textile mills. Participants at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' (ASME) first meeting discussed standardized sizes for screw threads, laying a necessary foundation for assembly-line technologies.
Material and metallurgical engineers also made rapid advances during the late 1800s. Innovations enabled the commercial production of aluminum, copper, zinc, and lead. Improved glass and stronger rubber products also became available. In addition, chemical engineers used scientific discoveries in the field of chemistry to produce an assortment of new materials. Some of the earliest commercial chemical products were manufactured for the nineteenth century textile dyeing industry.
In 1908, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was founded. Throughout most of human history, people made items only with naturally occurring raw materials. Chemical engineers created new materials. They produced industrial chemicals, fertilizers, drugs, and paints. They improved stone, clay, glass, and ceramic building materials. They discovered processes to refine petroleum, preserve food, and make paper. Interest in U.S. chemical production intensified during the years preceding World War I because many industrial chemicals were imported from Germany.
During the war, an embargo of German materials led to a rapid expansion of the nation's domestic chemical industry. After the war, Arthur D. Little devised the concept of unit operations. Unit operations focused on the materials and energy undergoing changes inside a specific piece of equipment. By focusing on improving the efficiency of chemical reactions and preventing unwanted reactions, the concept enabled the development of techniques to produce chemicals in large continuous processes.
The World War I era also saw the birth of the electronic engineering field. As electrical knowledge developed, electricity was put to work in two distinct arenas. "Heavy current" was used for power and was manipulated by electrical engineers. "Light current," in contrast, was used for communication.
Electronics was born in 1907 when Lee De Forest invented the vacuum tube. Electronics engineers established the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1912 and the nation's first commercial radio stations began broadcasting during the 1920s. (The Institute of Radio Engineers and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers joined together to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. in 1963.)
As the machine age progressed, the need for codes and standards became apparent. To address the problem of boiler explosions, the ASME completed and published its first boiler code in 1915 and inaugurated a system for accrediting manufacturers of boiler equipment. The accrediting process involved reviewing manufacturing techniques, quality assurances, and materials. Manufacturers judged to be in compliance with the code were granted authorization to apply an ASME stamp to their products.
Three years later, in 1918, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was founded. ANSI, the U.S. member of the International Standards Organization, served to coordinate development of voluntary standards by the various engineering disciplines.
Engineering disciplines became increasingly interrelated. Developments by electrical engineers impacted mechanical engineers. Demands for electricity by industrial engineers necessitated the development of improved means to generate and convey electric power. The growing automotive and aeronautical industries placed heavy demands on civil engineers to build the nation's infrastructure. They also relied on petroleum and chemical engineers to produce gasoline and aviation fuel.
During World War II, chemical engineers developed materials to help replace items, such as natural rubber, which were in short supply. DuPont researchers developed Nylon, a forerunner to the development of polymer plastics. Electronics engineers, spurred by military interests, developed advanced communication technologies including radar and sonar.
Following the war, electronics engineers created the transistor. Developed during the late 1940s and introduced commercially by Bell Labs in 1951, transistors replaced more fragile vacuum tubes. In the 1960s, engineers developed ways to build transistors on small chips of silicon. These innovations helped push the electronics industry into the computer era.
The 1960s also saw an event that was described by the National Academy of Engineering as the world's greatest engineering accomplishment—landing a man on the moon. NASA's Apollo project, begun in 1961, reached its primary objective in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. His step was made possible by a variety of engineers who built the launch site; designed the spacecraft and lunar lander; generated the propulsion, guidance and life support systems; and fabricated space-durable textiles and other materials.
Another milestone in engineering history occurred in 1969 when the U.S. National Parks Service and the American Society of Civil Engineers established the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) to chronicle America's engineering achievements. HAER's mission was to find structures of historic significance and document them, paying special attention to structures slated for demolition. HAER records were to be kept as part of the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.
David Brittan, writing for Technology Review, listed some of the artifacts included: blacksmith shops, bridges, canals, cider presses, coal mines, culverts, dams, electric power plants, foundries, granaries, ironworks, kilns, lighthouses, privies, sewage treatment plants, schooners, subways, tanneries, tunnels, viaducts, and waterworks.
In September 1971, ASME formed its own committee to begin a program to identify and recognize mechanical engineering artifacts. ASME noted that "machines are more likely than architecture or art to be moved, scrapped, or replaced by progressively efficient counterparts." They began a program of identifying three categories of designation: historic landmarks, heritage sites, and heritage collections. The 149 designations recognized in 34 states by 1992 included the Detroit Edison District Heating System (built in 1903), the Sikorsky VS-300 Helicopter (1939), the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 (1951), the Shippingport Atomic Power Station (1958), the Disney Monorail System (1959), and the JFK Center's Crawler Transporters of Launch Complex 39 (1965).
Despite increased interest in preserving engineering history, engineers continued to forge the future. Advances in space technology led to improved communications. The first commercial satellite provided circuits for 240 telephone calls between the United States and Europe. By 1990, satellites provided communication systems between the United States and 40 other countries. Likewise, engineering advances made on behalf of medical providers led to the development of the computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan, based on X-ray technology that had been first used in Germany in 1895. The first CAT scanners were installed in Great Britain in 1971 and in the United States two years later. Subsequent advances led to ultrasound imaging and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The increasing miniaturization of computer chips during the 1970s brought about a proliferation of electronic devices such as pocket calculators, personal computers, microwave ovens, and electronic toys. These miniature computer chips, no larger than a fingernail, also led to a growing sophistication of computer-controlled equipment including traffic lights, automobiles, and aircraft. More powerful computers resulted in the adoption of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) techniques by many of the nation's major manufacturers.
Despite these accomplishments, the engineering industry faced some serious challenges during the 1980s. Some critics of modern technology blamed engineers for creating tools that wrought havoc on the environment. Others claimed that only engineering offered the potential for providing solutions to pollution. Within the arena of environmental engineering, researchers looked into ways to preserve, protect, and restore the environment. In addition, some industry watchers predicted a coming shortage of engineers. The number of male freshmen entering college with plans to earn an undergraduate degree in engineering fell from 22 percent to 17 percent between 1982 and 1987. Among women, the number dropped from 4 percent to 3 percent.
The Early 1990s. As the engineering industry entered the 1990s, the interdisciplinary nature of engineering increased. Many different types of engineering work were being done in many fields, and frequently the work done by an engineer in one discipline depended on or supplemented the work of an engineer in a different field. For example, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering combined to produce integrated machines with electronic components, and the field of robotics involved the integration of mechanical and electronic engineering.
Laser technology provided another example of an interdisciplinary expression of engineering skills. The creation of laser beams (beams of high-intensity light of one frequency, called "coherent" light) required input from electronics engineers, electrical engineers, chemical engineers, and mechanical engineers. Electronics engineers manipulated laser beams for use in office equipment. Other engineers used lasers to develop fiber optic technology. Mechanical engineers designed laser light shows. Engineers supplying the medical industry used lasers to create new types of surgical instruments.
Biochemical and biomedical chemical engineering during the 1990s also included work in genetic engineering, pharmaceutical research, and the development of agricultural chemicals. Other types of chemical engineering provided products to create advanced materials and polymer-based chemicals. In total, the chemical industry boasted sales of $268 billion in 1990.
The development of plastics and other materials by the chemical industry resulted in decreased demand for traditional mining and metallurgical products. For example, the automotive industry turned increasingly to plastics and new polymer materials to help speed production and improve fuel economy. Plastics, preferred by some manufacturers, could be injection-molded into a wider range of complex shapes with more precision than could be accomplished with metals. Ceramics were also being used with increasing frequency.
Political changes within the United States also impacted the engineering industry. As the nation shifted away from a policy of providing heavy funding for the development of defense technologies, engineers began to focus more on civilian undertakings. Research conducted in the private sector, however, typically carried more stringent economic restraints. As a result, some industry watchers predicted a slowing in the pace of technological development. Others disagreed, stating that the engineering industry would benefit from an emphasis on profitability.
In addition to the economic challenges brought about by a transforming political climate, the engineering industry faced economic difficulties as a result of global changes. The U.S. engineering establishment found itself as one of many competitors on a crowded global stage at a time when worldwide economies were in transition. According to some analysts, economies were shifting from being based on natural resources to being based on knowledge. The realization that industries involved in fast-moving technologies would be necessary to sustain a nation's future economic growth illustrated the need for continued U.S. strength in the field of engineering.
Within the United States, there were 36,086 establishments classified by the U.S. Department of Commerce as offering engineering services. In the 1987 Census of Service Industries, their combined receipts totaled $41.6 billion. Of this amount, $35.3 billion represented receipts for consulting and design engineering services. Other sources of receipts included architectural and surveying services and construction management.
In the mid-1990s, engineering and design firms fore-saw an end to the recession conditions that began in the early 1990s. A combination of factors such as the need for downsizing and limited resources in many industries increased the demand for engineering companies. Engineering companies were not only being sought after as consultants but as partners in day-to-day operations. The top 500 design firms garnered a collective total of $29.4 billion in billings during 1995, up 5.2 percent over the nearly $28 billion seen in 1994. According to Engineering News Record, analysts and industry executives attributed the improvement to the international market, where some $5.2 billion in billings were seen in 1995.
Numerous opportunities arose for U.S. environmental engineering firms, both in the United States and abroad, as the 1990s came to a close. Worldwide demand for design and construction of petrochemical plants and refineries resulted in a boom for engineering and construction firms, although subsequent unexpected decreases in the price of oil resulted in cancellation of some petrochemical expansion projects and subsequent declines in stock prices. A survey conducted by The Oil and Gas Journal revealed that 59 percent of 291 sites were scheduled for the Asia/Pacific region, including 60 sites in China. Local construction firms also brought world-class resources to clients by entering partnerships or by merging with global firms.
Domestically, the deregulation of the utility industry created a competitive pressure among engineering firms; many were forced to take new risks to keep revenues flowing and to survive. An unanticipated slump in construction engineering caused stock prices to plummet in the late 1990s and aggravated already slow growth. Analysts attributed the slump to premature forecasts prompted by the passage in 1998 of the Transportation Equity Act, but when sizable injections of the appropriated $217 billion federal highway funding associated with the 1998 act entered the economy near the end of 1999, the industry regrouped. Waning stock prices recovered and the construction industry stabilized. Two additional factors driving sales were economic recovery within the United States and the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA suspended residency requirements for obtaining Canadian and Mexican licenses—a move intended to create a new market for American engineers in Canada and Mexico.
Although the top 500 U.S. design firms saw their domestic billings grow approximately 8 percent to $35 billion in 2000, international billings dropped 3 percent to $7.6 billion. This was partially due to concerns over the instability of many markets in southeast Asia; China, however, which joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, was viewed as an potentially lucrative market.
Design-build firms gained increasing prominence in the early 2000s in the United States. Design-build revenues for the 100 largest design-build firms jumped more than 22 percent to $39.9 billion in 2000. As a result, this group's share of the of the U.S. nonresidential construction market grew to 35 percent, compared to 25 percent in the mid-1990s. According to Engineering News Record , "The trend is clearly away from project-by-project management and toward management of larger construction programs for clients." The Design-Build Institute of America forecasts that design-build companies will increase their share of the U.S. nonresidential construction market to 45 percent by 2005.
The global economic recession in the early 2000s and the September 11 terrorist attacks resulted in a slowdown in many engineering sectors, as budgets for various projects dwindled. However, many environmental engineering firms saw business increase in 2001, due in part to new products resulting from the Bush Administration's focus on homeland security. The top 200 environmental engineering firms posted revenues of $32.8 billion in 2001.
Fluor Corporation. Fluor Corporation of Irvine, California, with sales revenue of $8.97 billion in 2001, ranked as one of the largest companies in the industry. Design operations accounted for $1.14 billion of sales, while contracting operations accounted for $7.82 billion. The company's employee count totaled 44,800 in 2002. Fluor Corporation operated from offices and locations on six continents and ranked in the top 15 of Fortune magazine's service companies. For more than eight consecutive years, earnings from continuing operations grew an average of 15 percent.
Fluor provides a broad range of engine construction and diversified services to clients in many industries and geographic locations. The firm has also participated in several nuclear cleanup efforts.
Bechtel Group, Incorporated. Bechtel Group, Incorporated is another leading engineering services firm. The company, founded in 1898 by Warren Bechtel, remains a private, family-held firm. With headquarters in San Francisco, California, Bechtel engineers have contributed to approximately 19,000 projects in 140 countries on seven continents. In 2001 Bechtel had total sales of $14.5 billion, $12.3 billion of which came from contracting and $1.9 billion of which came from design activities.
During its early years, Bechtel contracted largely with the railroad industry and later expanded into other arenas. Among Bechtel's overseas projects was its participation in the reconstruction of Kuwait's oil fields following the Persian Gulf War, a job that involved 10,000 workers from 35 nations. In the People's Republic of China, Bechtel was a key participant in the construction of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant. In Europe, Bechtel participated in the construction of the Eurotunnel between England and France. In 1995, Bechtel's R&D's International Technology and Resources teamed with Southern Electric International and Arthur Andersen and Company in a consortium to assist 11 eastern European countries with energy programs under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Regional Energy Efficiency Project. By 2001 roughly 89 percent of Bechtel's revenues were attributable to international contracts.
Specialty Disciplines. Halliburton Company was recognized as the largest oil field services provider worldwide. The firm's revenues of $17.4 billion in 1998 constituted a 96.8 percent growth in the wake of a merger with Dresser Industries Incorporated that was finalized on September 29, 1998. Eventually, however, Halliburton sold off its Dresser unit, a move reflected in its 2002 sales, which totaled $12.4 billion.
Additionally, United States Steel Corporation reported sales of $6.9 billion in 2002 and was the largest steel maker in the United States according to Hoover's, with services ranging from engineering consulting resource management and value-added product production. In November of 1999 U.S. Steel Gary Works, Indiana, received the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers' (AISE) Project Excellence Award. The award was in recognition of a turnkey (prefabricated) energy co-generation plant that was designed, constructed, and managed by Duke/Fluor Daniel through an ongoing alliance with Primary Energy Incorporated. The plant, for converting coke oven and blast furnace emissions into energy, had commenced commercial operation in 1997.
BLS statistics released for 1999 reported an estimated 2.5 million workers in engineering and related occupations including technicians, technologists, estimators, and drafters. Of those employed, 209,100 were civil engineers; 202,901 were mechanical engineers; 155,910 were industrial engineers; 149,201 were electrical engineers; and 51,450 were environmental engineers.
Salaries for engineers varied according to discipline and education. Highest paid among the engineering disciplines were nuclear and petroleum engineers with a mean salary of $72,000 per year in 2000, according to the BLS. Marine engineers ranked lowest in compensation, with a mean salary of $47,770 per year. Civil engineers earned an average of $52,650 in 2000.
Despite national industrial decreases overall, employment fluctuations within the top performing engineering companies reflected a pattern of growth. Industry leader Fluor Corporation increased its employee count by 6.3 percent in the late 1990s, and U.S. Steel gained 5 percent. Although Bechtel reported no growth in that area, neither did the company experience a loss of employees. Halliburton Corporation meanwhile reported employee growth of 52.4 percent in the late 1990s as the result of its merger with Dresser Industries; however this number decreased when Halliburton divested its Dresser unit in the early 2000s.
Electronic News reported late in 1999 that the Department of Labor projected a need for nearly one-half million skilled scientists and technicians, including engineers, by 2006. The American Electronic Association at that same time reported a low 1.6 unemployment rate for engineers coupled with a significant drop in engineering graduates during the course of the 1990s. A report in Crain's Cleveland Business reiterated the need for greater numbers of engineering professionals. The article indicated further that a dearth of skilled technicians and machinists also loomed heavily against the industry, in the absence of programs geared to elementary and secondary students to publicize the advantages of such careers. In an effort to meet future demand for engineers, the Cleveland Engineering Society developed the Internet-based "TOP RATE" program to encourage elementary and secondary students to enter the field of engineering. The Internet site was designed to provide links to database listings of scholarships, educational programs, and other career development resources.
Demand for U.S. engineer services is closely tied to conditions in other countries. Increased competition from foreign nations pressured U.S. companies to expand productivity and reduce the cost of high-tech engineering services during the 1980s and 1990s. By 1999 IEEE reported 67.1 percent of its total membership came from non-U.S. citizens.
Additionally, U.S. construction engineers faced increased competition in the global marketplace. Asian factories suffered severely from a massive layoff of 8,000 employees by Seagate Technology in 1999. The cutbacks, attributed to automation, reflected a need for fewer assembly line workers in deference to greater numbers of skilled laborers at Seagate factories in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and China. Elsewhere in Asia, electronics and electrical production constituted the biggest U.S. industry in Hong Kong, with $1.13 billion invested in that arena, totaling more than 5 percent of U.S. direct investment. Recent relaxation of restrictions prohibiting the employment of women in more dangerous trades, according to the U.S. Department of State, facilitated the escalation of heavier industries on the part of U.S. enterprises. The largest segment of the worldwide construction market—estimated at $3 trillion by the U.S. Department of Commerce in the 1990s—was in Japan. Yet the lucrative market, hindered by cartel-style pricing structures in the construction industry, remained largely closed to non-Japanese firms. Lee Chang-bok, president of Korea's Dong Ah Construction, cited his own company's ranking at the top of a Japanese governmental listing of the best foreign contractors, but noted that exclusionary government standards and restrictive business practices impeded what he termed an "impregnable" construction market. U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation ranked at number two on the listing.
Developing Nations. Overseas markets with the most growth potential for construction engineers were located in the Middle East where developing nations were expected to turn to foreign firms for help in developing their infrastructure and industrial base. Chang-bok focused on the Arabian markets as his company restructured in a rebound from the Asian monetary crisis of 1997. Among Dong Ah's largest projects, the firm held a 25 percent interest on the $1.2 billion Phase III of Libya's "Great Man-Made River Authority." In order to compete, Dong Ah initiated a joint venture with local contractor, Al Hahr Company. Chang-bok noted that restrictive conditions in the Middle East precluded contractors from working in the absence of a joint venture agreement with another contractor local to the area. The government of Bahrain additionally required private contractors to register with the Ministry of Works and Agriculture. According to the Herald, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddifi announced an intent to assemble the nations of Northern Africa into a union modeled after the European Union, to be headquartered at Sirt, in the vicinity of Tripoli. Such a project would open major new markets in that part of the world.
In the late 1990s construction accounted for 10 percent of the $47.6 billion gross domestic product of Algeria; U.S. aid accounted for $209 million of that country's income. Thus, an untapped potential market for contractors existed in that country, where a housing shortage persisted according to the U.S. Department of State Report on Economic Policy and Trade Practices. According to consulting engineer Rodney Nohr, business opportunities abounded in developing nations. Nohr, cited by Jackie Elowsky in Resource: Engineering & Technology for a Sustainable World, faulted American engineering firms who "… often fail to see profit in projects with non-U.S. companies. This leaves the global market open to smaller agencies …" Nohr noted that improved communications technology had improved working conditions for American contractors working in developing nations. The ability to collaborate on a joint venture with local firms, often critical to such ventures, eliminated the restriction on foreign service industries. Such restrictions, common to Asian nations and others where significant barriers to trade were continually relaxed, were further augmented in Indonesia. There, according to law, foreign contractors must purchase local products as much as is feasible, except for goods purchased through financial aid resources.
South America. Substantial barriers preclude significant export of engineering services to Brazil. Among these, government contracting restraints prohibited contracting in technical service arenas unless domestic Brazilian contractors were unable to provide adequate facilities and services. Conspicuously complex registration procedures for foreign contractors applied in particular to the architectural and engineering industries.
Projects under development during the late 1990s and early 2000s by U.S. engineering teams involved superconductors, robotics, fuel cells, particle beams, magnetic levitation trains, radioactive waste storage, and advanced computer-integrated manufacturing. Chemical engineers continued investigating new materials for advanced information and communications, studying environmental issues, and contributing to public health technologies.
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