A Fresh Perspective

If you deal in a technical realm, you know why engineers need a greater voice. World population continues to mushroom, environmental problems become ever more complex, water shortages occur, energy becomes scarcer, parts of our infrastructure such as bridges and sewer systems are decaying, and demands for digital electronic devices increase. The upshot of all this: society needs more engineers than ever before, and we face shortages of them. But engineers aren’t ones to toot their own horn, and because of a lack of public relations and journalism work done on their behalf, much of the general public and many youngsters still don't understand what engineers do, and people aren't encouraged to enter the profession. Enter Progressive Engineer.

We differ from other engineering magazines because we take a unique editorial approach. Actually, our editorial slant isn’t new, it just hasn’t been applied to engineers before. Taking a personal angle, we write about engineers as human beings and describe their accomplishments in an easy-to-read fashion devoid of graphs and equations and light on jargon and long words. This way, we can educate a teenager considering an engineering career and at the same time inspire a working engineer immersed in technical details every day. Progressive Engineer does this largely by writing about engineers in the form of profiles that delve into their backgrounds, motivations, and feelings on the one hand, but also describe their technical work on the other. Call us the People magazine of the technical world.

The genesis of Progressive Engineer traces back to my experience as a mechanical engineer, when I noticed things I wanted to change about how engineers view their work and how others view them. Because of their focused technical mindset (the cause of more than a few jokes about us), engineers often don’t see a big picture of where they fit in the workings of society. Through their schooling and experience, though, engineers attain a rare ability to think broadly and rationally and respond to varying conditions, and this should be brought to bear more heavily in solving world problems. Few people would argue that technology holds a major key to our future and that engineers are crucial to developing it. But it’s also obvious -- pardon my bias -- that engineers should play a greater role in determining how it is applied instead of leaving important decisions in this area to lawyers, accountants, and politicians.

This issue manifests itself by virtue of the fact that many engineers don’t question how their work is applied, that is, the end product produced by their employer. Would you (or do you) feel right designing machinery for a tobacco company, defense industry, coal mine, or meat processor or a new strip mall that displaces farm land? We don’t say you should or shouldn't, just that you ought to think about the consequences and make ethical judgments for yourself rather than trust them to society's norms. The overarching message permeating these pages: savor your accomplishments, even boast of them, but also understand their implications and context. With that pride and knowledge, engineers can step up and take their rightful place in determining policy and governing their country.

Another aspect that goes hand in hand with being a progressive engineer is environmentalism and sustainability. You’ll notice that many of our stories deal with energy conservation, renewable resources such as solar and wind power, green building, and pollution abatement. With events like the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and the war in Iraq, you might think environmentalism would take a back seat until we can solve these conflicts and get our economy turned around. But actually, all these events and issues are intermingled, and environmental concerns take on even greater importance. For starters, most people agree the western world would do well to find alternate sources of energy to lessen our dependence on Middle East oil. As democracies such as the U.S. inject themselves into the affairs of other countries, we tout the merits of freedom and the rights we enjoy. But we can’t say we have the best way of doing things until we can make our system sustainable, so future generations can partake of it as well. We’re far from it. This is where engineers come in.

History of Progressive Engineer

After growing up in upstate New York and receiving a BSME in 1977 from the University of Dayton, I moved to North Carolina and worked as a mechanical engineer for several companies in North Carolina and Virginia. Specialties evolved in machine design, hydraulics, pneumatics, piping, and pumping. I developed an interest in writing in college by serving as an editor of UD's engineering magazine and by taking a class in freelance writing. After leaving the corporate world in 1992 and working for awhile as a consulting engineer, I became a fulltime freelance writer specializing in technology. My mission: carve a niche making technical material understandable and interesting to engineers and lay people alike. Stories with my byline appeared in publications ranging from Popular Science to Invention & Technology to regional business magazines.

In 1997, I started Progressive Engineer as a merger of my engineering and writing interests. In the beginning, we published it in a tabloid print format with a circulation of 20,000 engineers (some of you may remember getting copies if you were on our mailing list of licensed engineers). Originally, we were based in Roanoke, Virginia and covered only the mid-Atlantic region extending from North Carolina to West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.

Then, in the name of being progressive, my wife Jamie Hendry convinced me to take the magazine strictly online in January 1999. This accomplished several things. Most importantly, by eliminating printing and mailing, we reduced our costs by orders of magnitude. For a small outfit, this meant everything, as publishing a printed magazine while developing a new editorial concept -- one especially new to advertisers -- results in tremendous upfront costs before revenue starts coming in. In truth, if we hadn't gone online, we wouldn't be here today. We also consider our online format an environmental plus because we're saving trees and other resources. And we can now continually reach a broader audience.

In 2000, after completing her doctoral work at Virginia Tech, Jamie landed a teaching job at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Moving operations there allowed us to conveniently expand our territory to include Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and New England states. Then, as our next phase of growth, and in our continuing quest to take full advantage of the Internet, we expanded to cover the continental U.S. in 2003.

Far More Than a Magazine

As Progressive Engineer evolved, we realized it was becoming more than a magazine, in part because of the flexibility afforded by an online medium. We serve as a comprehensive information resource for today's engineer as well as non-engineers looking for information on engineering. Our Engineer's Job Market helps employers find engineers and engineers find jobs. Our Engineering Firm Directory assists those looking for consulting engineering services and helps firms market their services. The Sustainability Firm Directory lists companies involved in areas such as renewable energy, green building, and recycling. High school students can access our engineering school directory to help them choose a college to attend. Engineers can use our listings of organizations and licensing boards to help with their careers. We like to think of it as a one-stop shop for engineering needs.

Based on this concept, Progressive Engineer should only grow as we go along. In the future, we plan to add directories of technical recruiters, contract job shops, and distance and continuing education providers. A net effect should be to bring the various groups serving and involving engineers closer together. For example, engineering firms will become more in tune with sustainability and renewable energy, while firms in those areas likewise will take a place among mainstream engineering firms.

New Market for Freelance Writers

While I write many of the articles in Progressive Engineer myself, we rely extensively on freelance writers. We have assembled a pool of terrific freelancers, but we're always looking for more, especially now that we cover a national territory. Hearkening on my experiences as a freelance writer, part of our mission is to create a lucrative market for them and treat them with respect, even welcoming them into the Progressive Engineer family. Anyone interested in writing for Progressive Engineer should call or E-mail for our writer's guidelines.

What People Are Saying About Progressive Engineer

Progressive Engineer
Editor: Tom Gibson
2049 Crossroads Drive, Lewisburg, PA 17837
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©2006 Progressive Engineer