The Iron Ring

I’ve been writing this blog for about a month now, and so I’ve decided to pause today to explain why it’s called ‘The Iron Ring’.

‘The iron ring’ refers to an old Canadian engineering tradition, the details of which are available on the following website (http://www.ironring.ca/), including how Rudyard Kipling is involved, and the details surrounding something known as ‘The Corporation of the Seven Wardens’. I’ll spare those details here.

In Canada, when an engineering student graduates from University (they only call it ‘University’ there, never ‘College’) they receive an iron pinky ring in a very secret ceremony. As I am not Canadian, and therefore not privy to this ceremony, I can only recount what I have been told. In essence, a person who has worked as an engineer for at least ten years, or a professor, bestows the iron ring upon the graduating student along with the ‘obligation’ to their profession. To quote said website:

“The ring symbolizes the pride which engineers have in their profession, while simultaneously reminding them of their humility. The ring serves as a reminder to the engineer and others of the engineer's obligation to live by a high standard of professional conduct.”

Or as my brother says, it lets everyone know exactly who to beat the crap out of.

In any case, the ring is made of iron to remind engineers that when they design structures like bridges, they must do it correctly or else people could die. It’s an interesting perspective, as most people would not consider engineering a ‘life or death’ profession and most engineers are not the ‘live on the edge’ types.

In any case, I was discussing famous engineering mistakes with my only Canadian-engineer friend a few weeks ago and I mentioned that the tradition of the iron ring seems a bit outdated for the more modern definition of engineer, as I am a ‘bioengineer’ and I don’t build bridges or design cars. And he made the interesting point that bioengineers have responsibilities to society too; some of us design prosthetic devices, or study medical imaging, or develop devices that aid researchers in modeling disease. We have our own obligation to the iron ring.

And so, in honor of that obligation I have started this blog. I intend to explore issues of scientific and engineering responsibility, and give myself an outlet to examine my role in the scientific endeavor. Let me know what you think!