[Gene F]

First let me say I am an Engineer, my degree is in computer science and I am now working as a project leader in a product development group. In that role it is my responsibility to coordinate the efforts if mechanical, electrical, firmware (software that is embedded in a device) and software (PC based). The biggest changes that I have seen in the 20 some odd years since graduation has been in the computer based tools used by all of these disciplines. These tools could not be developed without a group of people getting involved in software and another engineering discipline. As time moves forward I believe the software industry will continue to develop specialties along the lines of other engineering disciplines to the point that the boundaries will begin to disappear. Just like reading and writing allow us to communicate across time, software is a means of taking difficult engineering concepts and making them easy for the average person to use. An example from FIRST is the use of Autodesk Inventor. Most teams use this tool extensively to develop their robot. Being able to completely design and build (through constraints) the robot in the virtual world greatly speeds the process. This moving of engineering knowledge into software application also frees the mechanical engineers to advance their discipline by focusing on the unknown. The development of simulation tools allows us to take complex engineering tasks and simplify them to the point that they are accessible to the masses. In conclusion I believe all engineering disciplines to be very important! Software is an enabling technology that is allowing all engineering to advance. My vote is for software.