Yellow-Light Crusader Fined for Doing Math Without a License

[mjr]

The headline's a little misleading in the article, but this seems like some sort of massive overreach...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/yel...6uC?li=BBnb7Kz

[s_stabeler]

it's a little complicated- and they probably are overreaching, but it's nowhere near as simple as "doing maths without a license"- or rather, the issue is what maths he was doing.

Basically, they were claiming that it requires being an engineer to be able to recalculate the formula that determines how long the red, yellow and green lights are. Being an engineer requires a license (this is because an engineer could easily be hired for projects that have significant safety implications.) and they claimed he was acting like he was an engineer when he wasn't.

They probably were overreaching, albeit they actually have more of a point than they appear to at first blush. It's not actually that simple once you are talking about more than one light- so it's not hard to see their justification. However, since I doubt he has done the sums on more than one light, the appropriate response would be to explain it, not this.

[mjr]

Well, I think the other problem is that he wasn't acting as an engineer in a professional capacity.

It would be like if you or I engineered something as a hobby. The math might be sound, but we're not getting paid for it. Or would we, in this case, need a license to engineer something as a hobby?

[TheHuckster]

Well, I think the other problem is that he wasn't acting as an engineer in a professional capacity.

This.

If he was posing as a civil engineer or providing professional services posing as a registered engineer, then that'd warrant the fine (possibly more, since now you're going into fraud territory).

Simply saying, "I'm an engineer" is not grounds for such a fine. There are many types of engineers, and one can be an engineer without being officially registered as one. It's not like an attorney or a doctor where one absolutely needs to be blessed as such. While you need to be certified for many engineering vocations including civil engineering, it doesn't mean not having such a certification means you can't say you're an engineer.

[mjr]

IIRC, though, he did have an engineering degree. If one has an engineering degree, can one consider themselves an engineer?

[s_stabeler]

There's also the fact that he said "I am an excellent engineer" to the board, claiming to have "invented and publicly released a new extended solution to the problem of yellow lights in traffic flow". That, and it WASN'T just some back-of-the-envelope calculations- he spent 2 years researching traffic light timing intervals, including consulting with one of the people who came up with the current formula. Quite simply, to me, it seems he was acting as a professional engineer in every way except actually charging for the final product (as far as we know) which means he probably should have got a license first.