While we look to create the future, one SAI engineer remembers his engineering past and the changes along the way. Keith Michael, PE reflects as he celebrates 40 years in engineering.
How many of us (at least those of us over 50) can hear David Bowie in our heads singing “CH-CH-CH-CHANGES – Time may change me, but you can’t trace time.” Having just reached my 40-year anniversary of my career at SAI, I could not help but think about some the changes that have occurred during those forty years in civil engineering.
In 1982, design was still done by hand with paper, pencil, and handheld calculator. There were a few computer programs available that required a main frame computer or dialing in on a phone modem to access. SAI had a HUGE main frame computer that required its own temperature-controlled room and used very large hard drives for storage. We also had one HP desktop programmable calculator/computer that had a thermal paper printer much like a cash register receipt. The office also had a WANG word processer used by the administrative staff. It was a beast of a machine with a very large monochrome display screen.
Drafting, of course, was still done on a drafting board on linen paper with a pencil. CADD was just beginning to be developed. Soon the first CADD station was purchased along with the first digital pen plotter. This device would move the plot medium back and forth as the pen went up and down as it drew the lines on the page. It took forever to plot one drawing. Talk about changes, today we can print hundreds of drawings in minutes with the click of a button, that is if we even need prints of drawings. Or we just email or post the drawings.
Technology may have experienced dramatic changes in the last 40 years, but one constant in my life, and many others’ lives has been working at SAI.
What CH-CH-CH-CHANGES will the future bring to civil engineering?
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