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Engineering

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Engineering

   Engineering is the design, analysis, and/or construction of works for
   practical purposes. The Engineers' Council for Professional
   Development, also known as ECPD, defines Engineering as: "The creative
   application of scientific principles to design or develop structures,
   machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing
   them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with
   full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behaviour under
   specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function,
   economics of operation and safety to life and property." One who
   practices engineering is called an engineer, 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

   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, 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. 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 choices on their merits and choose the solution that
   best meets their requirements. Genrich Altshuller, after gathering
   statistics on a large number of patents, suggested that compromises 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: prototypes, scale models, simulations,
   destructive tests, nondestructive tests, and stress tests. 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.

   One of the most widely used tools in the profession is computer-aided
   design (CAD) software which enables engineers to create 3D models, 2D
   drawings, and schematics of their designs. CAD together with Digital
   mockup (DMU) and CAE software such as finite element method analysis
   allows engineers to create models of designs that can be analyzed
   without having to make expensive and time-consuming physical
   prototypes. These allow products and components to be checked for
   flaws; assess fit and assembly; study ergonomics; and to analyze static
   and dynamic characteristics of systems such as stresses, temperatures,
   electromagnetic emissions, electrical currents and voltages, digital
   logic levels, fluid flows, and kinematics. Access and distribution of
   all this information is generally organized with the use of Product
   Data Management software.

   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 schematics
   for electronic engineers; MRO applications for maintenance management ;
   and AEC software for civil engineering.

   In recent years the use of computer software to aid the development of
   goods has collectively come to be known as Product Lifecycle Management
   (PLM).

History

   An F-15 Eagle Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan engine designed by
   aerospace engineers.
   An F-15 Eagle Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan engine designed by
   aerospace engineers.

   The history of the concept of "engineering" stems from the earliest
   times when man 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 engines. The word "engine", derives from the
   Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning "innate quality, especially mental
   power, hence a clever invention." 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". 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".

   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.

   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
   behaviour. 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 weapons, 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. Sub-Saharan Africa in
   particular has a very small engineering capacity and as a result many
   African nations are unable to implement solutions to problems they face
   without outside intervention, even if the political and financial
   obstacles are overcome. The attainment of many of the Millennium
   Development Goals is primarily an engineering challenge and the
   achievement of sufficient engineering capacity is a prerequisite to
   achieving the MDGs. 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:
     * Engineers Without Borders
     * Engineers Against Poverty
     * Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief
     * Engineers for a Sustainable World

Cultural presence

   Engineering is a well respected profession. For example, in Canada it
   ranks as one of the public's most trusted professions.

   Sometimes engineering has been seen as a somewhat dry, uninteresting
   field in popular culture, and has also been thought to be the domain of
   nerds. 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 and Geordi La Forge are famous
   examples.

   Engineers are often respected and ridiculed for their intense beliefs
   and interests. Perhaps because of their deep understanding of the
   interconnectedness of many things, engineers such as Governor John H.
   Sununu, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nuclear Physicist
   Edward Teller, are often driven into politics to "fix things" for the
   public good.

   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 was originally developed in Canada in the
   Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer as a symbol of pride and
   obligation for the engineering profession. Some years later this
   practice was adopted 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 often has 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.

Relationships with other disciplines

Science

     Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that
     has never been.

     — Theodore von Kármán

   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, 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.

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. Medicine aims to sustain, enhance and
   even replace functions of the human body, if necessary, through the use
   of technology. Modern medicine can replace several of the body's
   functions through the use of artificial organs and can significantly
   alter the function of the human body through artificial devices such
   as, for example, brain implants and pacemakers. The fields of Bionics
   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 robotics. There are also substantial
   interdisciplinary interactions between engineering and medicine.

   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
   empirical knowledge is an integral part of both. Medicine, in part,
   studies the function of the human body. The human body, as a biological
   machine, has many functions that can be modeled using Engineering
   methods. The heart for example functions much like a pump, the skeleton
   is like a linked structure with levers, the brain produces electrical
   signals etc. These similarities as well as the increasing importance
   and application of Engineering principles in Medicine, led to the
   development of the field of biomedical engineering 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; they are direct in
   some fields, for example, architecture, landscape architecture and
   industrial design (even to the extent that these disciplines may
   sometimes be included in a University's Faculty of Engineering); and
   indirect in others. The Art Institute of Chicago, for instance, held an
   exhibition about the art of NASA's aerospace design. Robert Maillart's
   bridge design is perceived by some to have been deliberately artistic.
   At the University of South Florida, an engineering professor, through a
   grant with the National Science Foundation, has developed a course that
   connects art and engineering. Among famous historical figures Leonardo
   Da Vinci is a well known Renaissance artist and engineer, and a prime
   example of the nexus between art and engineering.

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 structures using
   engineering methodology coupled with political science principles.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
