[jim_dot]

Our friends with the iron ring (if Canadian) are very sensitive and misusing the term engineer will elicit tears.

[Hacktivist]

To expand on this. It is illegal in Canada for anyone without a proper engineering degree to call themselves an engineer. For example a computer scientist cannot call themselves an engineer while a computer or software engineer could.

[a-priori]

And yet, one place I worked on a Co-op term in Ontario gave me the title "Software Engineer".

[mikepurvis]

I'm a ringed engineer; I think it's appropriate for non-ringed engineers to still self-identify by that title. An engineer is a person who engineers things.

There's a legal restriction on Professional Engineer and the P.Eng designation, but that's for very good reasons which have to do with liability and the protection of the public. That's a different beast, though, and in the general case "engineering" a solution to a problem is still engineering, whether or not you have a piece of paper telling you it is.