The recent news of a "soft landing" for our economy looms over us like the plummeting Mir Space Station. The air has left the balloon in the public equities markets, and it appears that the gold rush is over.

The high-tech landscape has been diluted with many "me too" projects at large corporations and startups. Venture capitalists with abundant gold-rush-furnished funds are as much to blame as anyone. Differentiation through noise has been the order of the day. At some point you have to ask yourself, how many voice-over-Internet Protocol companies does the world need?

What does this have to do with the future of engineering? Engineers are employed by businesses and the markets they serve. Companies provide the playing field on which these intellectual athletes perform. But lately, more hoopla has surrounded the half-time show than the game. Some brilliant engineers' tremendous achievements have been overshadowed by the goings on in the stock market and in the venture capital community. Promises of sustainable 1,000 percent growth were gleefully accepted, and new industries anointed, often before the first chip taped out and sometimes before the Web site was up.

Even if engineers were not to be the star attraction, they wanted to understand more about the business and, more specifically, how much money they were going to make. Today, when interviewed for a job, engineers ask more astute questions regarding capital structure, market sizes and viable exit strategies. That's the good part.

The bad part is their mercenary attitude. It is rare today that I interview an engineer and have the conversation turn to breakthrough innovation, redefining the state of the art or reaching up for the next level of understanding. If every engineer looks for money first, the long-term effect will be fewer discoveries and a resultant slowdown in innovation.

The lingering euphoria from the gold rush is pushing many good engineers out of engineering. The slowdown in high-tech startup initial public offerings, acquisitions and ballooning stock values has engineers looking for new sources of money.

When the euphoria wears off and the hangover hits, the sure medicine will be solid, challenging problems, with visibility and rewards for innovation and achievement. Electronic design automation is one of the most technically challenging and dynamic problem-solving opportunities. Largely left out of the gold rush, EDA now looks as if it can provide a rich environment for creativity and rewards.

Statistics show there are not enough engineering students in universities to fill current or anticipated hiring needs. A return to innovation-driven engineers seems to be in the offing, and that bodes well for a bright and lucrative future.

Steve Carlson is the Chief Executive Officer of Tharas Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).