Monday, April 23, 2007

UGS Users Need a Face Lift, but Only the Software Gets One

I have written elsewhere about the demographic issues facing engineering, but it really hit home to me today while attending the opening session of the UGS Connections Americas conference. The average age of attendees here must be 40. I rarely ran into anybody that looked as if they were in their 20's.

The software, NX 5 in particular -- is looking great. (More on that later.) I just hope the Long Beach Convention Center has portable defibulators on hand, since the attendees definitely fit the user demographic. Can they handle all the changes UGS is throwing at them?

It is no wonder UGS has opened an outreach office (my term, not theirs) in Second Life. Both the vendors and the users in CAD/PLM/BIM/EDA, etc. really need young people to take an interest. If I ran a company that relied on engineering, I'd be in SL pitching my wares, too.

Posted by Randall at 20:15:29 | Permanent Link | Comments (6) |
Comments
1 - Interesting observation. (Comment this)

Written by: csven at 2007/04/24 - 09:20:03
2 - Engineers typically start working in their early/mid 20s. Designers/Drafters maybe a little earlier. They probably retire between mid 50s and mid 60s. This then would make the average age (simplistically) somewhere around 40.

When you take into account the fact that many attendees at this type of thing are decision makers (ie managers) or CAD/PLM administrators, both of which require some experience, it's not a surprise that the average age might be 40.

I went last year and at 28 was probably one of the youngest there but I certainly wasn't surprised by this. (Comment this)

Written by: Ken at 2007/04/24 - 11:15:37
3 - Randall, is it your opinion that one has to be in one's 20s to be relevant? That only those with limited experience do good work? That as soon as you reach thirty you are no longer a valuable asset? Think about what you are saying. Isn't that a bit of a conceit? Look at history and you will see that the overwhelming majority of great accomplishments were made by those over 40. To get good takes time. Defibulators indeed! BTW, how old are you? (Comment this)

Written by: Mike at 2007/04/25 - 05:54:18
4 - Mike, for the record, I'm 51. I am not arguing that one must be young to be relevant. In fact, youth is often wasted on the young. My larger point is that any manufacturing (or engineering, design, etc.) company that wants to be around five to ten years from now needs to be worrying where they will get their next employees from. Experienced engineers and designers are retiring faster than new ones can be trained up. The graying of engineering is a serious problem. {But as an aside, in some fields, the best work is traditionally done by the young. Most breakthroughs in math and physics, for example, come from people in their 20's.) (Comment this)

Written by: Randall at 2007/04/25 - 10:54:00 in reply to: 3
5 - Ken, I agree you shouldn't have been surprised to be one of the younger attendees. I am arguing that you should be concerned by it. The graying of engineering is a serious problem. (Comment this)

Written by: Randall at 2007/04/25 - 10:58:19 in reply to: 2
6 - Randall,

I still stand by the rest of my message, I'd expect the average age to be around 40 based on the simple average of (20+60)/2. If it starts to creep above that then there's an issue. Perhaps surprised was the wrong term to use.

Also I really don't feel that most of the attendees were "typical" users, they were (at least those I spoke to) either some kind of advanced user/CAD-PLM administrator or decision makers. This would also tend to increase the average age.

As to the industry as a whole, I dont' have the figures to hand but I've been in situations where the average age was probably well over 40 but at my current employer I'd guess it as less than that.
 (Comment this)

Written by: Ken at 2007/04/25 - 16:38:07 in reply to: 5
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