In the United States, engineers and surveyors are licensed at the state and territory level. U.S. licensure began in 1891 when California passed legislation to regulate surveying. Engineering followed in 1907 when Wyoming began requiring licensure for both engineers and surveyors. As more states enacted similar legislation over the next decade, U.S. licensing boards began to see a need for a national council to help improve uniformity of laws and to promote mobility of licensure throughout the country. The organization now known as the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) was created in 1920 for these reasons. The members of NCEES are the engineering and surveying licensing boards from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They are organized by zones: Central, Northeast, Southern, and Western. Each zone meets in the spring as well as at the Council's annual business meeting in August.
Engineers and surveyors must typically pass two exams to become professionally licensed. NCEES develops and scores the FE and PE exams for engineering licensure as well as the FS and PS exams for surveying licensure.
