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Engineering is the , and those licensed to do so have formal designations such as Professional Engineer , Chartered Engineer or Incorporated Engineer . The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of specialized Subdisciplines that focus on the issues associated with developing a specific kind of product, or using a specific type of technology. METHODOLOGY Engineers borrow from physics and mathematics to find suitable solutions to the problem at hand. They apply the scientific method in deriving their solutions. If multiple options exist, engineers weigh different design choices on their merits and choose the solution that best matches the requirements. The crucial and unique task of the engineer is to identify, understand, and interpret the constraints on a design in order to produce a successful result. It is usually not enough to build a technically successful product; it must also meet further requirements. Constraints may include available resources, physical, imaginative or technical limitations, flexibility for future modifications and additions, and other factors, such as requirements for cost, safety, marketability, producibility, and Serviceability . By understanding the constraints, engineers derive Specifications for the limits within which a viable object or system may be produced and operated. Problem solving Engineers use their knowledge of Science , Mathematics , and Appropriate Experience to find suitable solutions to a problem. Engineering is considered a branch of applied mathematics and science. Creating an appropriate Mathematical Model of a problem allows them to analyze it (sometimes definitively), and to test potential solutions. Usually multiple reasonable solutions exist, so engineers must evaluate the different Design Choice s on their merits and choose the solution that best meets their requirements. Genrich Altshuller , after gathering statistics on a large number of Patent s, suggested that Compromise s are at the heart of " Low-level " engineering designs, while at a higher level the best design is one which eliminates the core contradiction causing the problem. Engineers typically attempt to predict how well their designs will perform to their specifications prior to full-scale production. They use, among other things: Prototype s, Scale Model s, Simulation s, Destructive Test s, Nondestructive Tests , and Stress Test s. Testing ensures that products will perform as expected. Engineers as professionals take seriously their responsibility to produce designs that will perform as expected and will not cause unintended harm to the public at large. Engineers typically include a Factor Of Safety in their designs to reduce the risk of unexpected failure. However, the greater the safety factor, the less efficient the design may be. Computer use As with all modern scientific and technological endeavors, computers and software play an increasingly important role. As well as the typical business Application Software there are a number of computer aided applications ( CAx ) specifically for engineering. There are also many tools to support specific engineering tasks such as Computer-aided Manufacture (CAM) software to generate CNC machining instructions; Manufacturing Process Management software for production engineering; EDA for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and circuit Schematic s for electronic engineers; MRO applications for maintenance management ; and AEC software for civil engineering. HISTORY Pratt & Whitney F100 Turbofan engine designed by Aerospace Engineer s.]] The history of the concept of "engineering" stems from the earliest times when humans began to make clever inventions, such as the Pulley , Lever , or Wheel , etc. The exact etymology of the word engineer, however, is a person occupationally connected with the study, design, and implementation of Engine s. The word "engine", derives from the Latin ''ingenium'' (c. 1250), meaning "innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention."Origin: 1250–1300; ME engin < AF, OF < L ingenium nature, innate quality, esp. mental power, hence a clever invention, equiv. to in- + -genium, equiv. to gen- begetting; Source: Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. Hence, an engineer, essentially, is someone who makes useful or practical inventions. From another perspective, a now obsolete meaning of engineer, dating from 1325, is "a constructor of military engines". Oxford English Dictionary Engineering was originally divided into Military Engineering , which included construction of fortifications as well as military engines, and Civil Engineering , non-military construction of such as bridges. The first Electrical Engineer is considered to be William Gilbert , with his 1600 publication of De Magnete , who was the originator of the term "electricity". Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 2000, CD-ROM, version 2.5. The first Steam Engine was built in 1698 by Mechanical Engineer Thomas Savery . With the rise of engineering as a Profession in the nineteenth century the term became more narrowly applied to fields in which mathematics and science were applied to these ends. Similarly, in addition to military and civil engineering the fields then known as the Mechanic Arts became incorporated into engineering. The first PhD in engineering (technically, ''applied science and engineering'') awarded in the United States went to Willard Gibbs at Yale University in 1863; it was also the second PhD awarded in science in the U.S.3 In 1990, with the rise of Computer technology, the first Search Engine was built by Computer Engineer Alan Emtage . ENGINEERING IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT Engineering is a subject that ranges from large collaborations to small individual projects. Almost all engineering projects are beholden to some sort of financing agency: a company, a set of investors, or a government. The few types of engineering that are minimally constrained by such issues are Pro Bono engineering and Open Design engineering. By its very nature engineering is bound up with society and human behavior. Every product or construction used by modern society will have been influenced by engineering design. Engineering design is a very powerful tool to make changes to environment, society and economies, and its application brings with it a great responsibility, as represented by many of the Engineering Institutions codes of practice and Ethics . Whereas medical ethics is a well-established field with considerable consensus, engineering ethics is far less developed, and engineering projects can be subject to considerable controversy. Just a few examples of this from different engineering disciplines are the development of Nuclear Weapon s, the Three Gorges Dam , the design and use of Sports Utility Vehicles and the extraction of Oil . There is a growing trend amongst western engineering companies to enact serious Corporate And Social Responsibility policies, but many companies do not have these. Engineering is a key driver of human development. PDF on Human Development Sub-Saharan Africa in particular has a very small engineering capacity which results in many African nations being unable to develop crucial infrastructure without outside aid. The attainment of many of the Millennium Development Goals requires the achievement of sufficient engineering capacity to develop infrastructure and sustainable technological development. MDG info pdf All overseas development and relief NGOs make considerable use of engineers to apply solutions in disaster and development scenarios. A number of charitable organizations aim to use engineering directly for the good of mankind:
CULTURAL PRESENCE Engineering is a well respected profession. For example, in Canada it ranks as one of the public's most trusted professions.4, pg. 2, ''The occupations most-trusted by Canadians, according to a poll by Leger Marketing... Engineering 88 per cent of respondents...'' Sometimes engineering has been seen as a somewhat dry, uninteresting field in Popular Culture , and has also been thought to be the domain of Nerd s. For example, the cartoon character Dilbert is an engineer. One difficulty in increasing public awareness of the profession is that average people, in the typical run of ordinary life, do not ever have any personal dealings with engineers, even though they benefit from their work every day. By contrast, it is common to visit a doctor at least once a year, the chartered accountant at tax time, and, occasionally, even a lawyer. This has not always been so - most British school children in the 1950s were brought up with stirring tales of 'the Victorian Engineers', chief amongst whom were the Brunels, the Stephensons, Telford and their contemporaries. In Science Fiction engineers are often portrayed as highly knowledgeable and respectable individuals who understand the overwhelming future technologies often portrayed in the genre. The '' Star Trek '' characters Montgomery Scott , Geordi La Forge , Miles O'Brien , B'Elanna Torres , and Charles Tucker are famous examples. Occasionally, engineers may be recognized by the " Iron Ring "--a stainless steel or iron ring worn on the little (fourth) finger of the dominant hand. This tradition began in 1925 in Canada for The Ritual Of The Calling Of An Engineer as a symbol of pride and obligation for the engineering profession. Some years later in 1972 this practice was adopted by several colleges in the United States. Members of the US Order Of The Engineer accept this ring as a pledge to uphold the proud history of engineering. A Professional Engineer 's name may be followed by the Post-nominal Letters PE or P.Eng in North America. In much of Europe a professional engineer is denoted by the letters IR, while in the UK and much of the Commonwealth the term Chartered Engineer applies and is denoted by the letters CEng. LEGISLATION In most Western countries, certain engineering tasks, such as the design of bridges, electric power plants, and chemical plants, must be approved by a Professional Engineer or a Chartered Engineer or an Incorporated Engineer . Laws protecting public health and safety mandate that a Professional must provide guidance gained through Education and experience. In the United States, each state tests and licenses Professional Engineer s. In much of Europe and the Commonwealth professional accreditation is provided by Engineering Institutions , such as the Institution Of Civil Engineers from the UK. The engineering institutions of the UK are some of the oldest in the world, and provide accreditation to many engineers around the world. In Canada the profession in each province is governed by its own engineering association. For instance, in the Province of British Columbia an engineering graduate with 4 or more years of experience in an engineering-related field will need to be registered by the Association for Professional Engineers and Geoscientists {Link without Title} {Link without Title} in order to become a Professional Engineer and be granted the professional designation of P.Eng. The federal US government, however, supervises aviation through the Federal Aviation Regulations administrated by the Dept. of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration. Designated Engineering Representatives approve data for aircraft design and repairs on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration. Even with strict testing and licensure, engineering disasters still occur. Therefore, the Professional Engineer or Chartered Engineer or Incorporated Engineer adheres to a strict code of Ethics . Each engineering discipline and professional society maintains a code of ethics, which the members pledge to uphold. Refer also to the Washington Accord for international accreditation details of professional engineering degrees. RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES Science There exists an overlap between the sciences and engineering practice; in engineering, one applies science. Both areas of endeavor rely on accurate observation of Materials and phenomena. Both use mathematics and classification criteria to analyze and communicate observations. Scientists are expected to interpret their observations and to make expert recommendations for practical action based on those interpretations. Scientists may also have to complete engineering tasks, such as designing experimental apparatus or building prototypes. Conversely, in the process of developing technology engineers sometimes find themselves exploring new phenomena, thus becoming, for the moment, scientists. In the book ''What Engineers Know and How They Know It'',5 Walter Vincenti asserts that engineering research has a character different from that of scientific research. First, it often deals with areas in which the basic Physics and/or Chemistry are well understood, but the problems themselves are too complex to solve in an exact manner. Examples are the use of numerical approximations to the Navier-Stokes Equations to describe aerodynamic flow over an aircraft, or the use of Miner's Rule to calculate fatigue damage. Second, engineering research employs many semi-empirical methods that are foreign to pure scientific research, one example being the Method Of Parameter Variation . As stated by Fung et. al. in the revision to the classic engineering text, Foundations of Solid Mechanics, 6 "Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention. To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. That something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what is existing. Since a design has to be concrete, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and characteristic numbers. Almost all engineers working on new designs find that they do not have all the needed information. Most often, they are limited by insufficient scientific knowledge. Thus they study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics. Often they have to add to the sciences relevant to their profession. Thus engineering sciences are born." Medicine and biology The study of the human body, albeit from different directions and for different purposes, is an important common link between medicine and some engineering disciplines. and medical Bionics are dedicated to the study of synthetic implants pertaining to natural systems. Conversely, some engineering disciplines view the human body as a biological machine worth studying, and are dedicated to emulating many of its functions by replacing Biology with technology. This has led to fields such as Artificial Intelligence , Neural Networks , Fuzzy Logic , and Robot ics. There are also substantial interdisciplinary interactions between engineering and medicine. Institute of Medicine and Engineering: Mission statement The mission of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering (IME) is to stimulate fundamental research at the interface between biomedicine and engineering/physical/computational sciences leading to innovative applications in biomedical research and clinical practice. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology: Both general and technical articles on current technologies and methods used in biomedical and clinical engineering... Both fields provide solutions to real world problems. This often requires moving forward before phenomena are completely understood in a more rigorous scientific sense and therefore experimentation and that utilizes concepts developed in both disciplines. Newly emerging branches of science, such as Systems Biology , are adapting analytical tools traditionally used for engineering, such as systems modeling and computational analysis, to the description of biological systems. Art There are connections between engineering and art; Lehigh University project: We wanted to use this project to demonstrate the relationship between art and architecture and engineering they are direct in some fields, for example, is a well known Renaissance artist and engineer, and a prime example of the Nexus between Art and engineering.Bjerklie, David. “The Art of Renaissance Engineering.” MIT’s Technology Review Jan./Feb.1998: 54-9. Article explores the concept of the “artist-engineer”, an individual who used his artistic talent in engineering. Quote from article: Da Vinci reached the pinnacle of “artist-engineer”-dom, Quote2: “It was Leonardo da Vinci who initiated the most ambitious expansion in the role of artist-engineer, progressing from astute observer to inventor to theoretician.” (Bjerklie 58) Drew U: user website: cites Bjerklie paper Other fields In Political Science the term ''engineering'' has been borrowed for the study of the subjects of Social Engineering and Political Engineering , which deal with forming Political and Social Structure s using engineering methodology coupled with Political Science principles. REFERENCES FURTHER READING
SEE ALSO : ''Main lists: '' List Of Basic Engineering Topics and List Of Engineering Topics ''
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