My thoughts on the quote by Marybeth Miceli, President of Miceli Infrastructure Consulting

 I feel strongly with Marybeth, as many engineers’ works are often undervalued when interacting with the public. Such examples include mining and construction, as they are often stigmatised and simplified to just building or mining for ore without understanding the full extent of the industry. Some might also be noticed by the public once a disaster happens, such as the breakdowns of the East-West Line, resulting in the criticism of the transport engineers. On the flipside, bioengineering is often praised due to the publications of breakthroughs and mentions in the media. This shows that with proper communication lines and honing engineer’s communication skills, their work will be appreciated. 

However, it is also a challenge, as developing the proper communication skills for engineers is proven to be difficult. As engineers, we can't get our design, ideas, or concepts to the general public without getting into the complexities and details of what we do. Forget about an elevator pitch or presentation; we would be lucky to accomplish in half an hour's time if we even planned on getting into the details of what it is that we are presenting. It is doubly hard to achieve this for engineers who are in more specialized fields such as chemical engineering and civil engineering, as even if we were to dumb it down to the audience, that would be equally tricky as there may have been information or details that we left out.