Design News celebrates 50th year by looking ahead to year 2046

1 November 1996

        
   Newton, Mass.--Oct. 31, 1996--

   Design News magazine celebrates its 50th anniversary year 
   by polling its design engineer readers on what they think our 
   world will look like in the year 2046 (Nov. 4 issue)
        
   Design engineers are the men and women who design and build our 
products -- everything from household appliances to autos, airplanes 
and spacecraft.  Because they understand what is technically 
possible, they have a realistic view of what technical strides we're 
likely to make in the next half-century.  
        
   Fifty percent of them predict that the U.S.A. will be more safe 
from attack, because space-based antimissile platforms will be in 
place by the mid-21st century.  In the area of transportation, 54 
percent say that civilian airliners will be flying in excess of Mach 
3 (more than 2,200 m.p.h.) by that time.  Sixty-seven percent see 
affordable electric cars with the same driving range of gasoline 
powered autos in use by the year 2046.  
        
   Superconductivity, say 68%, will open up a vast world of 
possibilities, e.g. much smaller and far more efficient electric 
motors, magnetically levitated trains, zero-loss electrical 
transmission and power storage lines, and much faster digital 
computers.  
        
   By the mid-21st century, 70 percent of design engineers surveyed 
predict that intelligent vehicle highway systems will be in place, 
keeping cars evenly spaced in traffic.  In the home, affordable 
high-definition TV will be the norm, say 91 percent of the magazine's
respondents.  
        
   On the other hand, less than half those surveyed by Design News 
think that the following will exist by the mid 21st century: 100% 
recyclable autos, jetliners that carry 1,000 or more passengers, and 
low-cost space launch vehicles.  

Engineering Jobs in the 21st Century
        
   Nearly a third said that computer hardware and software and 
telecommunications will be the industries employing the most 
engineers by the mid-21st century.  The engineering disciplines most 
in demand?  Software development and electrical engineering will be 
the two hottest job categories in the middle of the next century, 
followed by mechanical, chemical and industrial engineers, say Design
News readers.  
        
   And of the 865,000 new positions for engineers and engineering 
managers expected by the year 2005, the American Association of 
Engineering Societies' (AAES) employment experts predict the most 
rapid job expansion will come in computer engineering.  
        
   All this backs up a mid-year report by U.S. News & World Report 
that said, "It shouldn't come as a revelation that software is hot --
or that engineers who feed the hunger have become a precious 
commodity."  Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., reports 
that recruitment of its software engineering students is up by more 
than 20 percent this year.  
        
   A total of 1,686 Design News readers completed the survey 
questionnaire.  
        
   Design News is read twice monthly by 170,000 engineers who design
products ranging from autos to spacecraft.  It is published by 
Cahners Publishing Co., Newton, Mass., the nation's leading publisher
of specialized business magazines.  
        
   In 1996, Design News won its fourth straight Folio magazine 
"Editorial Excellence" award as the top design engineering magazine 
in the United States.
        
   --30--kk/bos*
        
   CONTACT: Salyers Carman & Associates
            David Salyers, 312/346-3131