Eugene M. DeLoatch, the first dean of Morgan State University’s engineering school, made significant contributions to building the college into one of the leading producers of African American engineers in the United States. He retired from the position in 2016. As part of his recognition as Black Engineer of the Year, US Black Engineer (USBE) magazine created a collage of articles highlighting his trailblazing career spanning over 32 years.

Below are excerpts from the interview Dr. DeLoatch gave USBE in 2016.

“Looking back, I can’t think of a better thing I could have done from the time I started as an instructor in engineering at Howard University. It was about wanting to expose as many young people to a field little known in the African-American community –a very critical area for the progress of this nation.

“I have no regrets about taking the route of higher education and engineering as a public matter and doing it in an environment where I could impact the thought processes and the decisions to become an engineer in our country’s historically Black colleges and universities.

“There are lots of other things I could have done or ended up doing. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t know what it would turn out to be, but I don’t think I would have got this kind of impact.

“When I left school, less than one-half of one percent of all the engineers in the country were African American. It was an area where we had little knowledge of and participation when I graduated with my first engineering degree. It had nothing to do with capability but the way engineering grew. So, I had an opportunity to expose others to something of value.

Engineering over the last 50 years

“Engineering, over the last 50 years, and the previous 30 years, and my time as a dean, has had a tremendous impact on the lives of people worldwide.

“Look at the feats of engineering. Look at transport–the ability to quickly get from one place to another. The movement to personalizing devices and communication, from the time we had personal access to computers, was only in the 1980s.

“Move back to the advent of computers to today’s personal, carry-around smartphones that have more power than some of the things we had access to in the late 1970s. That’s a relatively short period; thirty years and twenty-five years. So, when you look at from the Morse code and the telegraph to now, that movement is telling me that the next twenty-five to 50 years will be wow!

Use of people

“We’re already talking about the use of people in things we had people doing before. The factory worker is almost a thing of the past. What will we do with this whole business of artificial intelligence (AI) and drone-type, robotic things as we move toward driverless vehicles?I tell you, the next twenty-five to 50 years will be incredible!

Tips for the road ahead

• People will have to be more globally in tune. We’ll have to understand and appreciate not just our similarities but also our differences. If we don’t do that and can’t accommodate each other, it will be very challenging.
• We’ll have to morph. Be more like engineers in our thinking. Have more abilities, more languages, and more knowledge of other cultures. I see engineering as a merging together and more balancing of cultures.
• We’ll go extraterrestrial. We’ll have to expand to other habitats. This planet will not be able to hold us as we’ve come to know this planet. I see space travel very strongly in 50 years.
• We’re going to have to coexist. Man coexists with the environment, and societies must be network-focused. Instead of growing apart, come together.

Worldview

“Between technology and all this knowledge of things we were talking about, nations rising and people, how do we cope with all that as a world? It’s trying to look back and go forward, find ways to grow, expand and communicate in the universe because we cannot have a lack of appreciation for the rights of others.

“I think the United States and engineers will take a more significant role, and more people will trend in the direction of the knowledge base and artificial intelligence we have created to minimize attacks but maximize the best of how we project forward if we are to survive. Education will be more personalized, and people can access the knowledge base much more, not just in university.”