2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The need for technical standards that accurately represent today's growing infrastructure, electrification efforts, and enhanced digitalization touches all sectors of the engineering workforce and beyond. However, engineers, students, and educators lack training in the development and implementation of technical standards. These challenges are expressed in technical committee meetings, in office rooms after hiring a new engineering intern, and by educators across engineering disciplines seeking ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.). We hypothesize that the technical standards challenges faced by the collective engineering profession are similar. A survey about the importance of and challenges presented by technical standards was completed by participants (N = 201) from multiple disciples, educational levels, and backgrounds across the United States. This paper analyzes the written responses provided in response to the survey (N = 149). Participant responses highlight seven technical standards challenges: education, awareness, appreciation, accessibility, interpretation, application, and logistics. Participant responses highlight five reasons technical standards education is important: safety/best practice, practical application, expectations of the profession, employment and business, and foundation/career development.