As we celebrate National Engineering Month 2025, we also mark a milestone year for the engineering profession: the 100th anniversary of the Calling of an Engineer. In this important ceremony, engineering students receive their Iron Rings. A valued symbol for many engineering graduates, the iron ring is an ever-present reminder of the commitment engineers make to serving the public with integrity and ethics.
A newly modernized ceremony launches during the centennial
The Calling of an Engineers was established in 1925 when six engineering graduates were the first to take the obligation at an inaugural ceremony held in Montreal, and each received the iron ring that has become a symbol of engineering Canada.
Unique to Canada, the Obligation Ceremony is an important step on the journey to becoming an engineer. The ceremony is overseen by the Corporation of the Seven Wardens, successors to the originally committee that formed in 1925, and today, 28 camps across Canada hold ceremonies for graduating engineering students.
Nearly a century after that first ceremony in 1925, members of the engineering community called for changes to the Calling of an Engineer to make the ceremony more inclusive, and a better reflection of the modern world in which engineering operates. The Corporation of the Seven Wardens struck a review committee and received input from all 28 camps, engineering students, obligated engineers, licensing organizations, and deans from the engineering faculties.
The newly modernized ceremony will be formally launched in Montreal on April 25, 2025, exactly 100 years after the first one.
Learn more about the history of the iron ring and the Calling of an Engineer on the Corporation of the Seven Wardens website.