Next-Gen Engineering: A Snapshot of the Job in 20 Years

Where and how are tomorrow's engineers going to work? 

The short answer, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' recent survey, is globally, and with a lot of new technology. The pressing issues are global. The solutions, the survey suggests, can be found in global teams. 

Here's a roundup of the ideas and areas with which mechanical engineers are most likely to engage over the next 20 years. 

Cutting Edge Fields: The Top 3 of Tomorrow

Based on the more than 1,500 engineers who participated in the ASME survey, the cutting edge of engineering is in energy, followed by bioengineering and biomedical, and new tools for technology. 

• 28% of engineers working today say that an aggregate of all types of new and sustainable energy are going to dominate the field.
• 23% say biotech represents a wave of future jobs.
• 13% predict that nanotechnology will be the next important focus for engineers.

Training Tomorrow's Workforce

What should engineers train for, if they're getting ready to enter the field? Here's what the professionals that were polled had to say.

• 39% of the engineers said that skills in communications systems, new software, and programming will be key. 
• 81% said that being multilingual and capable of managing global teams will be critical. 

What are the takeways? 

ASME says its engineers need to train up, and to push the envelope when it comes to using emerging tools and technologies. The ways engineers share information, and the scale at which they share it, are set to dramatically expand.