So many people ask me “what is a Forensic Engineer?” or “what does a Forensic Engineer do?” and I do completely understand and see why so many people within the engineering and construction industry do not know what a Forensic Engineer is.
There is next to no courses or degrees in forensic engineering and it is typically not something that you are introduced to or exposed to in your engineering/construction career. Forensic Engineering is like being a doctor but for the built environment i.e. houses, buildings, bridges, infrastructure and transport. Forensic Engineering is the investigation of failures – it could be a bridge that has cracked, a building that has fallen. Forensics Engineers work backwards in a catastrophe or failure to figure out what has gone wrong. These findings can actually be used in the court of law as testimony. With all of the construction and design errors happening across the world in a rush to build things as quickly as possible, the Forensic Engineering market is booming and growing.