LEWISTON — Maine has a shortage of engineers — jobs that pay $57,000 a year to start, and $80,000 with experience, according to Dana Humphrey, dean of engineering at the University of Maine.

Despite the pay, the current engineering shortage will grow, he said.

At Thursday’s Maine Engineering Workforce Summit, Humphrey and others kicked off an effort to spread the word of a need for more engineering professors and students, and for a new engineering teaching facility in Orono.

The shortage presents great opportunities for Maine students, Humphrey said. Most people don’t realize how important engineering jobs have become as the world becomes more high-tech.

Tambrands in Auburn, a Procter & Gamble company, employs 400 workers. Of those 400, 55 are engineers — a number that surprises many, he said.

“Manufacturing today is a highly sophisticated operation,” he said. “It’s engineers that allow that to happen.”

Work done by the Tambrands engineers is vital, Humphrey said.

“Engineers are in charge of the processes that make things we all use every day,” he said. Engineers develop, monitor and improve how products are made.

Over the next 10 years, Maine will have about 1,300 new engineering graduates available to enter the work force, Humphrey said, but 2,600 will be needed. Many engineers who are baby boomers are retiring. Of the 6,340 engineers now working, 27 percent are 55 and older.

Projections show that by the year 2026, Maine will need 1,750 replacement engineers, he said, and if Maine doesn’t have enough engineers, the state’s economy will suffer.

Another example of where more engineers are needed is in the field of construction, Humphrey said.

Years ago, a construction contractor could do fine if the company had a great crew and superintendent. Today, that company needs an engineer, he said.

An engineer on a road construction project figures out how much the work will cost and how long it will take, which helps the company submit a good bid. As the road is built, the engineer monitors cost and quality to keep the company profitable.

Three institutions in Maine grant four-year engineering degrees: the University of Maine, the University of Southern Maine and Maine Maritime Academy.

To add more students, “we need to have the faculty and the facilities to make that happen,” Humphrey said. At his engineering program in Orono, a new building is needed to add students and give them state-of-the-art tools.

UMaine has 11 engineering programs with 2,000 students. The hope is to add 1,000 students.

“I’d like to cut the ribbon in 2020 or 2021,” Humphrey said.

Owens McCullough, vice president of Sebago Technics of South Portland, a consulting engineering firm, said his company has seen an increased demand for work while older engineers are retiring.

A big challenge nationally is finding mid-level engineers, McCullough said. 

University of Maine System Chancellor James Page plans to work with state legislators in the upcoming session in hopes of a bond going to voters, possibly in November 2018.

Asked how much the bond would be, Page said he didn’t yet know. “It will be large,” he said.

The list of needed maintenance on university buildings throughout the system is more than $400 million, he said, and more than a new engineering building is needed. It can’t all be done in one bond, Page said.

But a state-of-the-art Engineering Education and Design Center would be a top priority, he said.

Meanwhile, students in Maine will be asked to think about becoming engineers.

“We want to get kids interested early,” Page said. Getting middle school students interested is vital, he said. 

Page is also seeking help from the engineering community to spread the word that more programs and facilities are needed.

If the 55 engineers at the Auburn Tambrands went away, “those other 345 jobs would go with it,” Page said. “We need to make clear to the public what a foundation engineers are for the whole state economy.”