Tag Archives: engineering

Canadian Engineering Iron Ring – Initiation Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: College Student/Engineering Intern
Residence: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Language: English

Text:

When engineers graduate from university in Canada, they go through a ritual where they recite a specific text/speech and then are given an iron (or stainless steel) ring. The speech is about responsibility and ethics as an engineer and the importance of professional commitment. This ritual is private and the only people who can witness it are ones who have already gone through it and have an iron ring.

Context:

The informant is from the United States but goes to the University of Toronto for engineering. Before telling me about this ritual, the informant laughed about how they were warned before going to Canada that engineering there is “kind of cult-y.” The informant told me that the iron rings are given to graduates because in the past, there was a bridge made of iron that collapsed and that the original rings were made of iron from the bridge. The rings and ceremony are meant to symbolize acceptance of responsibility and acts as a reminder of what happens when engineers are not mindful of safety and ethics. The informant told me that among the people they work with, the person who wears the ring the most often is the most recent graduate. They also told me that in general, some people where it all the time and some people only wear the ring as they sign important documents. The informant told me they were apprehensive about the iron ring ceremony at first because it felt a little weird and secretive. They are now excited to get the ring but they don’t tend to wear jewelry so they think they will only wear it for specific moments. They also told me that engineers now can choose between an iron or stainless steel ring (as iron degrades over time) and they will get the iron one because it the “right” one with historical significance. The informant also told me that their partner, who is from a family of Canadian engineers, is really excited to get their iron ring but they aren’t sure if he will wear it all the time or not.

Analysis:

This ritual acts as an initiation out of university and into the workplace. By speaking the ritualized words, it marks a transition in identity and the person is given an object to show their progress. Anyone else who sees this ring knows that this person has achieved a degree in engineering. The process is very secretive and no one else knows exactly what happens. This keeps the ritual sacred within the community as something that a person has to achieve and gain access to.

The story around the ring relating to the bridge is contested online. Some people believe that the original rings were from the bridge while other people say that is a myth and the original rings were made in a factory. The creation of the story fits into the narrative that surrounds the rings. They are objects that are meant to represent responsibility and creating them from the broken pieces of something that was made irresponsibly acts as an even stronger reminder. Even if the story is untrue, it deepens the connection between the ring and the meaning for the people in the community.

This ritual also creates a second ritual within it. Some people wear the ring only as the sign important documents in order to remind themselves of their responsibility as engineers. My informant said that they want the iron one specifically because it has more meaning than the stainless steel one. The material itself creates a deeper connection to history and the responsibility that it represents. It feels almost wrong to have a stainless steel one because it wouldn’t be accurate.

The informant was worried about the ceremony at first as someone from another country and outside the culture but as they lived in the culture for longer, they have gotten more excited for the ritual at the end. The ceremony might seem weird to outsiders, but to insiders, it is normalized and is something to look forward to. Even people, like the informant, who normally don’t wear jewelry would consider wearing this ring simply because of the tradition and meaning around it.

Canadian Engineering Frosh Week Purpling – Initiation Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: University Student/Engineering Intern
Residence: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Language: English

Text:

Freshman orientation (also called Frosh week) is a week at the beginning of the semester where new students at the University of Toronto are toured around campus/city, doing various team building activities and getting to know other new students. As an engineering student, the informant had some engineering specific activities but the main one is called “purpling.” During this ritual, freshman engineering students get sprayed with purple dye in whatever amount they feel comfortable (some limbs or the full body). After, the new students go wash the dye off in a specific fountain nearby campus.

Context:

The informant is from the United States but goes to college at U of T for engineering. They learned about this tradition as they did it when they came to the school as a freshman. As an American engaging in this, they were a little apprehensive about it because they didn’t grow up in the culture where this was normal. The informant told me that their partner is from a family of Canadian engineers and they was really excited about the ritual. The informant only got purple dye on their arms but their partner did their full body. Even though the informant was a little worried at the start, they see it as a good introduction to the community where everyone bonds over sharing in the history as well as the ritual. It also works to introduce people to Canadian engineering which the informant says has a very strong and tight community bond. The informant told me that the ritual harkens back to history as the reason it is done is to honor engineers of the past. They told me that engineers in the military would wear purple armbands and as they sweat, the purple dye would dye their skin. If engineers died during the war, the purple dye was the way they were identified.

Analysis:

The apprehension that the informant felt about the ritual likely comes from the fact that they are a newcomer to this culture. As an American, they did not grow up with the culture of Canadian engineering, unlike their partner. After getting to Canada and getting this very sudden introduction into the culture, they were slow to embrace it but did still engage by getting the dye on their arms. In contrast, their partner, who grew up with the culture and most likely already knew about the tradition, fully embraced it and got the purple dye on their whole body. It is possible that their partner also felt a deeper connection to the historical aspect as their family has a lot of engineers so they might feel a responsibility to honor them by getting more purple dye. Additionally, they could have felt already part of the culture of engineers and therefore wanted to show their dedication to the community by getting fully covered in dye.

The ritual as an initiation is very effective as it immediately brings everyone together with a very unique experience that no other group has. It also ties new people to the history of the group as there is historical basis. It teaches newcomers to celebrate and honor the engineers before them. As the informant said, Canadian engineers have a very tight bond and this experience helps to bring them together by engaging in an activity together that commemorates the bond of engineers before them. It also acts as an introduction to anyone who is unaware of the community, like the informant. As this happens before classes even start, it tells anyone new that this is the type of thing to expect out of engineering culture in Canada so they are prepared for this level of connection and team building. For the informant, it worked well to introduce them to what to expect and they enjoyed their experience.

It is important that the dye is purple because of the armbands that the military engineers wore. By connecting new engineers to their past, the ritual tells the new generation what their past was. It connects people across generations as every engineer is marked by the fact that they got purple dye on their skin. Engineers in the past were given a purple armband as they began their careers in the military, engineers now are covered in purple as they begin their education. In both cases, the purple marks the beginning of an important step in an engineer’s path.

Engineer’s Rounding Joke

Performance Date: 03/20/2020

Piece
“pi=10, it also equals 3 and e=3 so pi=e!”
Context
When talking about safety factors, the informant, an engineering student, shared the joke. Because engineers are always concerned about the safety of the users of their products (because getting sued is no fun) and like to account for the things more difficult to account for, one way to introduce a safety factor is to make pi equal to 10 in all calculations. This massive rounding then prompted the follow up of simply rounding e (~2.718) and pi (~3.14) could simply be rounded to 3 for simpler calculations and that error would be accounted for with the safety factor.
My Thoughts
This joke has some practicality to it by reminding engineers to have large safety factors to ensure the safety of their designs, it is also a joke on the rather flippant view of numbers that engineers have as it doesn’t always need to be precise but simply overkill enough for the application. I also relate this to the idea that engineers are lazy and so create processes and machines to ensure they can be lazy at the desired times. Multiplying or dividing by 10 is about as lazy as it gets in math.

Engineering vs. Arts Degree Joke

Performance Date: 03/19/2020

The graduate with a Science degree asks, “Why does it work?” The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, “How does it work?” The graduate with an Accounting degree asks, “How much will it cost?” The graduate with an Arts degree asks, “Do you want fries with that?”
Context
In a group discussion including college freshmen and high school seniors over what major the students were studying or thinking about studying, one high school senior said they were trying to decide between being an engineering major versus an art major. One of the college freshmen then shared the joke. The group was comprised of students and alumni of the robotics program, so all were at least thinking about pursuing STEM majors.
My Thoughts
This is a commentary on the massive pay difference between the average engineering (most STEM) majors and arts majors. It is a way for the rivalry in high school between those who are more STEM minded versus the arts-minded to poke fun at one another. The joke can mean a couple of different things. One, it can be a reminder to students who have interests in both fields that a job in the arts is less stable and guaranteed paycheck wise than a career in engineering. The second is to feed the ego and feelings of superiority that many want-to-be-engineers have in the pre and early college years (and beyond for some).

The Engineer’s Constant – A Stereotype about Engineers

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: University Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 3, 2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Item:

The engineer’s constant is 3.  We don’t need to be accurate so we round e to 3 and pi to 3, and also g is 10.

 

Context:

I collected this piece from a physics lab partner who is also an astronautical engineering major at the University of Southern California.  Some of our calculations were off, so he joked about rounding the final answer to three.  When I asked why, he explained that three is the engineer’s constant.  As such, three would be a good alternate answer if we could not find the error in our calculations.  The informant said that he found the engineer’s constant for the first time on an engineering meme page.

 

Analysis:

This short piece actually reveals a bit about the culture of engineers, including their work habits and particularly stereotypes about them.  I have heard of the stereotype that engineers are not always the most accurate, and that they are quite liberal when rounding or making approximations.  There are also jokes about how engineering students should not be trusted with any technical applications of their studies because of this.  I think the stereotype comes from the fact that engineers often do quick, back of the envelope approximations of things in order to get a sense of what they are working with before they dive into the more detailed computations.  Furthermore, sometimes the exact answer is not as significant as getting the correct order of approximation.  My astronautical engineering professor has actually done this during class multiple times because the exact values of the computations were insignificant.  In most cases, he rounds the gravity constant from 9.8 to 10.  By extension, we round commonly used constants such as Euler’s number and pi to 3 for ease of computation as well.  As such, those outside of engineering may mistake this as what we primarily rely on when we work.  The stereotype is not insulting to engineers though, in fact, engineers themselves have also made jokes about it as seen on engineering meme pages.  The potentially insulting stereotype is countered by fully embracing it and taking pride in it as part of the group identity of engineers.  What this short piece reveals is how stereotypes may emerge about a group from those who are not in it, as well as how taking pride in these opinions can counter them and become a part of your identity as a member of that group.  In this case, the stereotype is about how engineers appear to be very generous in approximation, but engineers embrace this by claiming the engineer’s constant.