Product Code Database
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems. The traditional disciplines of engineering are civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical. The academic discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized subfields, and each can have a more specific emphasis for applications of mathematics and applied science. In turn, modern engineering practice spans multiple fields of engineering, which include and improving infrastructure, machinery, vehicles, electronics, materials, and .definition of "engineering" from: For related terms, see glossary of engineering.
As a human endeavor, engineering has existed since ancient times, starting with the six classic . Examples of large-scale engineering projects from antiquity include impressive structures like the , elegant temples such as the Parthenon, and water conveyances like hulled watercraft, , and the Roman aqueduct. Early machines were powered by humans and animals, then later by wind. Machines of war were invented for siegecraft. In Europe, the scientific and industrial revolutions advanced engineering into a scientific profession and resulted in continuing technological improvements. The steam engine provided much greater power than animals, leading to mechanical propulsion for ships and railways. Further scientific advances resulted in the application of engineering to electrical, chemical, and aerospace requirements, plus the use of new materials for greater efficiencies.
The word engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium]]. Engineers typically follow a code of ethics that favors honesty and integrity, while being dedicated to public safety and Well-being. Engineering tasks involve finding optimal solutions based on constraints, with testing and simulations being used prior to production. When a deployed product fails, forensic engineering is used to determine what went wrong in order to find a fix. Much of this product lifecycle management is now assisted with computer software, from design to Product testing and manufacturing. At larger scales, this process normally funded by a company, multiple investors, or the government, so a knowledge of economics and business practices is needed.
The term engineering is derived from the word engineer, which itself dates back to the 14th century when an engine'er (literally, one who builds or operates a siege engine) referred to "a constructor of military engines". In this context, now obsolete, an "engine" referred to a military machine, i.e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult). Notable examples of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The word "engine" itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium (), 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.
Later, as the design of civilian structures, such as bridges and buildings, matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the discipline of military engineering.
The six classic simple machines were known in the ancient Near East. The wedge and the inclined plane (ramp) were known since prehistoric times. The wheel, along with the wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC. The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where it was used in a simple balance scale, (2025). 9789048190911, Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789048190911 and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian technology. (1990). 9780486264851, Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486264851 The lever was also used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia , and then in ancient Egyptian technology . The earliest evidence of date back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC, and ancient Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991–1802 BC). (1991). 9780195113747, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195113747 The screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented, first appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911–609) BC. The Egyptian pyramids were built using three of the six simple machines, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the lever, to create structures like the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep. As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djoser, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630–2611 BC. The earliest practical machines, the water wheel and watermill, first appeared in the Persian Empire, in what are now Iraq and Iran, by the early 4th century BC. (2025). 9789401714167, Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789401714167
Kush developed the Sakia during the 4th century BC, which relied on animal power instead of human energy.G. Mokhtar (1981). 9780435948054, Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa. . ISBN 9780435948054 Hafirs were developed as a type of reservoir in Kush to store and contain water as well as boost irrigation. Kushite ancestors built speos during the Bronze Age between 3700 and 3250 BC. Bloomeries and were also created during the 7th centuries BC in Kush. Wooden plank-built seafaring ships were being engineered and built during the bronze age, as evidenced by the Uluburun shipwreck, dated from around 1300 BCE.
Ancient Greece developed machines in both civilian and military domains, as evidenced by the writings of Philo of Byzantium and others. The Antikythera mechanism, an early known mechanical analog computer, and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes, are examples of Greek mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions, as well as the Antikythera mechanism, required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the of the Industrial Revolution, and are widely used in fields such as robotics and automotive engineering.
Ancient Chinese, Greek, Roman and Huns armies employed military machines and inventions such as artillery which was developed by the Greeks around the 4th century BC, Quote: "The 7th century, by contrast, had witnessed rapid innovations, such as the introduction of the hoplite and the trireme, which still were the basic instruments of war in the 5th.' and "But it was the development of artillery that opened an epoch, and this invention did not predate the 4th century. It was first heard of in the context of Sicilian warfare against Carthage in the time of Dionysius I of Syracuse." the trireme, the ballista and the catapult, the trebuchet by Chinese circa 6th-5th century BCE.
The cotton gin was invented in India by the 6th century AD, and the spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by the early 11th century, both of which were fundamental to the growth of the cotton industry. The spinning wheel was also a precursor to the spinning jenny, which was a key development during the early Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
The earliest programmable machines were developed in the Muslim world. A music sequencer, a programmable musical instrument, was the earliest type of programmable machine. The first music sequencer was an automated flute player invented by the Banu Musa brothers, described in their Book of Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century. In 1206, Al-Jazari invented programmable automata/. He described four automaton musicians, including drummers operated by a programmable drum machine, where they could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns.Professor Noel Sharkey, A 13th Century Programmable Robot (Archive), University of Sheffield.
Before the development of modern engineering, mathematics was used by artisans and craftsmen, such as , , instrument makers and surveyors. Aside from these professions, universities were not believed to have had much practical significance to technology.
A standard reference for the state of mechanical arts during the Renaissance is given in the mining engineering treatise De re metallica (1556), which also contains sections on geology, mining, and chemistry. De re metallica was the standard chemistry reference for the next 180 years.
Canal building was an important engineering work during the early phases of the Industrial Revolution.
John Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer and is often regarded as the "father" of civil engineering. He was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of , canals, , and . He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Using a model water wheel, Smeaton conducted experiments for seven years, determining ways to increase efficiency. (2025). 9780226726342, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226726342 Smeaton introduced iron axles and gears to water wheels. Smeaton also made mechanical improvements to the Newcomen steam engine. Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse (1755–59) where he pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form of mortar which will set under water) and developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse. He is important in the history, rediscovery of, and development of modern cement, because he identified the compositional requirements needed to obtain "hydraulicity" in lime; work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement.
Applied science led to the development of the steam engine. The sequence of events began with the invention of the barometer and the measurement of atmospheric pressure by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643, demonstration of the force of atmospheric pressure by Otto von Guericke using the Magdeburg hemispheres in 1656, laboratory experiments by Denis Papin, who built experimental model steam engines and demonstrated the use of a piston, which he published in 1707. Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester published a book of 100 inventions containing a method for raising waters similar to a coffee percolator. Samuel Morland, a mathematician and inventor who worked on , left notes at the Vauxhall Ordinance Office on a steam pump design that Thomas Savery read. In 1698 Savery built a steam pump called "The Miner's Friend". It employed both vacuum and pressure.Rhys Jenkins (2025). ((9780836921670)), Ayer Publishing. ((9780836921670)) Iron merchant Thomas Newcomen, who built the first commercial piston steam engine in 1712, was not known to have any scientific training.
The application of steam-powered cast iron blowing cylinders for providing pressurized air for lead to a large increase in iron production in the late 18th century. The higher furnace temperatures made possible with steam-powered blast allowed for the use of more lime in , which enabled the transition from charcoal to coke.R.F. Tylecote (1992). 9780901462886, Maney Publishing, for the Institute of Materials. ISBN 9780901462886 These innovations lowered the cost of iron, making Wagonway and iron bridges practical. The puddling process, patented by Henry Cort in 1784 produced large scale quantities of wrought iron. Hot blast, patented by James Beaumont Neilson in 1828, greatly lowered the amount of fuel needed to smelt iron. With the development of the high pressure steam engine, the power to weight ratio of steam engines made practical steamboats and locomotives possible. New steel making processes, such as the Bessemer process and the open hearth furnace, ushered in an area of heavy engineering in the late 19th century.
One of the most famous engineers of the mid-19th century was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who built railroads, dockyards and steamships. Other engineering luminaries of this period include Nikola Tesla, prolific inventor of electrical applications; Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the first practical telephone; George Stephenson, pioneer of railway transportation; and Nicolaus Otto, the designer of the first modern internal combustion engine.
The Industrial Revolution created a demand for machinery with metal parts, which led to the development of several machine tools. Boring cast iron cylinders with precision was not possible until John Wilkinson invented his boring machine, which is considered the first machine tool. Other machine tools included the screw cutting lathe, milling machine, turret lathe and the metal planer. Precision machining techniques were developed in the first half of the 19th century. These included the use of gigs to guide the machining tool over the work and fixtures to hold the work in the proper position. Machine tools and machining techniques capable of producing interchangeable parts lead to Mass production by the late 19th century.
In 1870 there were a dozen U.S. mechanical engineering graduates, with that number increasing to 43 per year in 1875. In 1890, there were 6,000 engineers in civil, [[mining]], mechanical and electrical. There was no chair of applied mechanism and applied mechanics at Cambridge until 1875, and no chair of engineering at Oxford until 1907. Germany established technical universities earlier.Lynde Phelps Wheeler (2025). ((9781881987116)), Ox Bow Press. ((9781881987116))
The foundations of electrical engineering in the 1800s included the experiments of Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday, Georg Ohm and others and the invention of the electric telegraph in 1816 and the electric motor in 1872. The theoretical work of James Maxwell (see: Maxwell's equations) and Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century gave rise to the field of electronics. The later inventions of the vacuum tube and the transistor further accelerated the development of electronics to such an extent that electrical and electronics engineers currently outnumber their colleagues of any other engineering specialty.
Chemical engineering developed in the late nineteenth century. Industrial scale manufacturing demanded new materials and new processes and by 1880 the need for large scale production of chemicals was such that a new industry was created, dedicated to the development and large scale manufacturing of chemicals in new industrial plants. The role of the chemical engineer was the design of these chemical plants and processes.
Originally deriving from the manufacture of and its putative derivative metallurgy, materials science is one of the oldest forms of engineering. Modern materials science evolved directly from metallurgy, which itself evolved from the use of fire. Important elements of modern materials science were products of the Space Race; the understanding and engineering of the metallic , and silica and carbon materials, used in building space vehicles enabling the exploration of space. Materials science has driven, and been driven by, the development of revolutionary technologies such as , , , and .
Aeronautical engineering deals with aircraft design process design while aerospace engineering is a more modern term that expands the reach of the discipline by including spacecraft design. Its origins can be traced back to the aviation pioneers around the start of the 20th century although the work of Sir George Cayley has recently been dated as being from the last decade of the 18th century. Early knowledge of aeronautical engineering was largely empirical with some concepts and skills imported from other branches of engineering. Only a decade after the successful flights by the Wright brothers, there was extensive development of aeronautical engineering through development of military aircraft that were used in World War I. Meanwhile, research to provide fundamental background science continued by combining theoretical physics with experiments.
Below is a list of recognized branches of engineering. Note that there are additional sub-disciplines.
| + !Type of engineering !Information | |
| Aerospace engineering | Aerospace engineering covers the design, development, manufacture and operational behaviour of aircraft, satellites and rockets. |
| Agricultural engineering | Agricultural engineering utilizes farm power and machinery, biological material processes, bioenergy, farm structures, and agricultural natural resources. |
| Biological engineering | Biological engineering studies the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. |
| Biomedical engineering | Biomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). |
| Chemical engineering | Chemical engineering is the application of chemical, physical, and biological sciences to developing technological solutions from raw materials or chemicals. |
| Civil engineering | Civil engineering is the design and construction of public and private works, such as infrastructure (airports, roads, railways, water supply, and treatment etc.), bridges, tunnels, dams, and buildings. |
| Computer engineering | Computer engineering integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. |
| Electrical engineering | Electrical engineering focuses on the design, development, and application of systems and equipment that utilize electricity and electromagnetism. |
| Environmental engineering | Environmental engineering is a specialized field that uses scientific and engineering principles to protect and improve the environment for human health and well-being. |
| Geological engineering | Geological engineering is associated with anything constructed on or within the Earth by applying geological sciences and engineering principles to direct or support the work of other disciplines. |
| Industrial engineering | Industrial engineering focuses on optimizing complex processes, systems, and organizations by improving efficiency, productivity, and quality. |
| Marine engineering | Marine engineering covers the design, development, manufacture and operational behaviour of watercraft and stationary structures like oil platforms and ports. |
| Materials engineering | Materials engineering is the application of material science and engineering principles to understand the properties of materials. |
| Mechanical engineering | Mechanical engineering comprises the design and analysis of heat and mechanical power for the operation of machines and mechanical systems. |
| Nuclear engineering | Nuclear engineering is a multidisciplinary field that deals with the design, construction, operation, and safety of systems that utilize nuclear energy and radiation. |
| Software engineering | Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It is distinct from computer engineering. |
New specialties sometimes combine with the traditional fields and form new branches – for example, Earth systems engineering and management involves a wide range of subject areas including engineering studies, environmental science, engineering ethics and philosophy of engineering.
If multiple solutions exist, engineers weigh each design choice based on their merit and choose the solution that best matches the requirements. The task of the engineer is to identify, understand, and interpret the constraints on a design in order to yield a successful result. It is generally insufficient to build a technically successful product, rather, 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, productivity, and serviceability. By understanding the constraints, engineers derive specifications for the limits within which a viable object or system may be produced and operated.
More than one solution to a design problem usually exists so the different have to be evaluated on their merits before the one judged most suitable is chosen. Genrich Altshuller, after gathering statistics on a large number of , suggested that 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: , , , destructive tests, nondestructive tests, and stress testing. Testing ensures that products will perform as expected but only in so far as the testing has been representative of use in service. For products, such as aircraft, that are used differently by different users failures and unexpected shortcomings (and necessary design changes) can be expected throughout the operational life of the product.
Engineers take on the responsibility of producing designs that will perform as well as expected and, except those employed in specific areas of the arms industry, will not harm people. Engineers typically include a factor of safety in their designs to reduce the risk of unexpected failure. This philosophy is embodied by Cicero's Creed, now considered the original engineer's code of ethics. His slogan, salus populi suprema lex esto, translates as "the health (or safety, or welfare) of the people shall be the supreme law."
The study of failed products is known as forensic engineering. It attempts to identify the cause of failure to allow a redesign of the product and so prevent a re-occurrence. Careful analysis is needed to establish the cause of failure of a product. The consequences of a failure may vary in severity from the minor cost of a machine breakdown to large loss of life in the case of accidents involving aircraft and large stationary structures like buildings and dams. These larger scale engineering disasters can arise from shortcuts or errors in the design process, such as miscalculations and miscommunication. They can also happen as a result of fatigue failure due to stress, temperature, or corrosion. Faulty computer software can also play a role.
One of the most widely used in the profession is computer-aided design (CAD) software. It 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 or analytic element method 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 manufacturing (CAM) software to generate CNC machining instructions; manufacturing process management software for production engineering; EDA for printed circuit board (PCB) and circuit for electronic engineers; MRO applications for maintenance management; and architecture, engineering and construction (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).
Engineering has interconnections with society, culture, and human behavior. Most products and constructions used by modern society, are influenced by engineering. Engineering activities have an impact on the environment, society, economies, and public safety.
Engineering projects can be controversial. Examples from different engineering disciplines include: the development of , the Three Gorges Dam, the design and use of sport utility vehicles, and the extraction of Fuel oil. In response, some engineering companies have enacted serious corporate and social responsibility policies.
The attainment of many of the Millennium Development Goals requires the achievement of sufficient engineering capacity to develop infrastructure and sustainable technological development.
Overseas development and relief NGOs make considerable use of engineers, to apply solutions in disaster and development scenarios. Some charitable organizations use engineering directly for development:
Engineering companies in more developed economies face challenges with regard to the number of engineers being trained, compared with those retiring. This problem is prominent in the UK where engineering has a poor image and low status. There are negative economic and political issues that this can cause, as well as ethical issues. It is agreed the engineering profession faces an "image crisis". The UK holds the most engineering companies compared to other European countries, together with the United States.
In Canada, engineers wear the Iron Ring as a symbol and reminder of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession.
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 or more precisely "engineering 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 or chemistry are well understood, but the problems themselves are too complex to solve in an exact manner.
There is a "real and important" difference between engineering and physics as similar to any science field has to do with technology.Walter G Whitman; August Paul Peck. Whitman-Peck Physics. American Book Company, 1946, p. 06 . Ateneo de Manila University Press. Philippine Studies, vol. 11, no. 4, 1963. p. 600 Physics is an exploratory science that seeks knowledge of principles while engineering uses knowledge for practical applications of principles. The former equates an understanding into a mathematical principle while the latter measures variables involved and creates technology.Puttaswamaiah. Future Of Economic Science . Oxford and IBH Publishing, 2008, p. 208.Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Cynthia L. Breazeal. Biologically Inspired Intelligent Robots. SPIE Press, 2003. . p. 190 For technology, physics is an auxiliary and in a way technology is considered as applied physics.C. Morón, E. Tremps, A. García, J.A. Somolinos (2011) The Physics and its Relation with the Engineering, INTED2011 Proceedings pp. 5929–34 . Though physics and engineering are interrelated, it does not mean that a physicist is trained to do an engineer's job. A physicist would typically require additional and relevant training.R Gazzinelli, R L Moreira, W N Rodrigues. Physics and Industrial Development: Bridging the Gap . World Scientific, 1997, p. 110. Physicists and engineers engage in different lines of work.Steve Fuller. Knowledge Management Foundations. Routledge, 2012. . p. 92 But PhD physicists who specialize in sectors of engineering physics and applied physics are titled as Technology officer, R&D Engineers and System Engineers.
An example of this is the use of numerical approximations to the Navier–Stokes equations to describe aerodynamic flow over an aircraft, or the use of the finite element method to calculate the stresses in complex components. 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:
Although engineering solutions make use of scientific principles, engineers must also take into account safety, efficiency, economy, reliability, and constructability or ease of fabrication as well as the environment, ethical and legal considerations such as patent infringement or liability in the case of failure of the solution.
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, 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 . 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.
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. Royal Academy of Engineering and Academy of Medical Sciences: Systems Biology: a vision for engineering and medicine in pdf: quote1: Systems Biology is an emerging methodology that has yet to be defined quote2: It applies the concepts of systems engineering to the study of complex biological systems through iteration between computational or mathematical modelling and experimentation.
The heart for example functions much like a pump, the skeleton is like a linked structure with levers, Minnesota State University emuseum: Bones act as 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 uses 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.
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. quote:..the tools of artists and the perspective of engineers..
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.Bjerklie, David. "The Art of Renaissance Engineering." MIT's Technology Review Jan./Feb.1998: 54–59. 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
The demand for management-focused engineers (or from the opposite perspective, managers with an understanding of engineering), has resulted in the development of specialized engineering management degrees that develop the knowledge and skills needed for these roles. During an engineering management course, students will develop industrial engineering skills, knowledge, and expertise, alongside knowledge of business administration, management techniques, and strategic thinking. Engineers specializing in change management must have in-depth knowledge of the application of industrial and organizational psychology principles and methods.
Professional engineers often train as certified management consultants in the very specialized field of management consulting applied to engineering practice or the engineering sector. This work often deals with large scale complex business transformation or business process management initiatives in aerospace and defence, automotive, oil and gas, machinery, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, electrical and electronics, power distribution and generation, utilities and transportation systems. This combination of technical engineering practice, management consulting practice, industry sector knowledge, and change management expertise enables professional engineers who are also qualified as management consultants to lead major business transformation initiatives. These initiatives are typically sponsored by C-level executives.
(2025). 9789400738782, Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789400738782
Problem solving
Engineers use their knowledge of science, mathematics, logic, economics, and appropriate experience or tacit knowledge to find suitable solutions to a particular problem. Creating an appropriate mathematical model of a problem often allows them to analyze it (sometimes definitively), and to test potential solutions.
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 (computer-aided technologies) specifically for engineering. Computers can be used to generate models of fundamental physical processes, which can be solved using .
(2025). 9780323950626 ISBN 9780323950626
(2020). 9780784482865, American Society of Civil Engineers. ISBN 9780784482865
Social context
The engineering profession engages in a range of activities, from collaboration at the societal level, and smaller individual projects. Almost all engineering projects are obligated to a funding source: a company, a set of investors, or a government. The types of engineering that are less constrained by such a funding source, are pro bono, and open-design engineering.
Code of ethics
Many engineering societies have established codes of practice and codes of ethics to guide members and inform the public at large. The National Society of Professional Engineers code of ethics states:
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.
Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress innovation and 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 complex system, device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what already exists. Since a design has to be realistic and functional, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and characteristics data defined. In the past engineers working on new designs found that they did not have all the required information to make design decisions. Most often, they were limited by insufficient scientific knowledge. Thus they studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics. Often they had to add to the sciences relevant to their profession. Thus engineering sciences were 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. Medicine aims to sustain, repair, enhance and even replace functions of the human body, if necessary, through the use of technology.
Art
There are connections between engineering and art, 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). MIT World:The Art of Engineering: Inventor James Dyson on the Art of Engineering: quote: A member of the British Design Council, James Dyson has been designing products since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1970.
Business
Business engineering deals with the relationship between professional engineering, IT systems, business administration and change management. Engineering management or "Management engineering" is a specialized field of management concerned with engineering practice or the engineering industry sector.
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 using engineering methodology coupled with political science principles. Marketing engineering and financial engineering have similarly borrowed the term.
See also
Further reading
(2025). 9780849315862, CRC. ISBN 9780849315862
External links
|
|
