What exactly does an engineer do? How is he or she different from a scientist? What is their role in our world?
Did I mention that I am dating an engineer who works for a big local utility company, and I don't understand what he does either.
So I did what most people would do and Googled it - Asking what an engineer does of the world's most incredible search engine. Here's some of what came up on the first page or two.
From Georgia Tech - Engineering is the practical application of science and math to solve
problems, and it is everywhere in the world around you. From the start to the end of each day, engineering technologies improve the ways that we communicate, work, travel, stay healthy, and entertain ourselves.
From IEEE - They came up second and there was no definition so I typed my question onto their web site search tool. A bunch of listings with the word engineer in it came up. Maybe there is something else up there, but I didn't see it quickly so on to the next site.
From Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering - The field of engineering has become so diverse in recent years that a definition is not easy to come by. Yes, engineers still
build skyscrapers, design machinery, and oversee public works. But that's
only the beginning. They also address society's needs and problems on a number
of other scales with a unique blend of technology and science. At the atomic level,
materials engineers are developing data storage techniques focusing on
the spin of electrons in atoms. At the molecular level, chemical and bioengineers
are working on drug delivery systems that work inside cells. At the macro level,
environmental engineers are quantifying the particle flow of
pollutants through soil to better understand how to clean up abandoned industrial sites, oil
spills, and other biohazards. And at the galactic level, astronautical
engineers are designing spacecraft for other-world exploration.
From Wikipedia - Engineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring
and applying technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design
and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or invention.
From the University of Pittsburgh - The origins of engineering go back to the very beginning of human civilization where tools were first created and developed. Today, the
field of engineering offers more career options than any other
discipline. Engineering students can have their pick of many fields.
From mechanical to civil to bioengineering to industrial, each
discipline will lead to an exciting and rewarding life and career. To
put it simply, engineering is the application of science to the needs of
humanity.
From Dartmouth - The Dartmouth/Thayer approach to engineering problem solving is a
framework for bringing problems of the "real world" into the classroom. Students
solve these problems by proceeding through a problem-solving cycle, step by
carefully documented step. If they discover that the solution they are working on is, in fact,
unviable, they examine their paper trail and move back only so far as they need, perhaps
only a single step.
When students have gone the full round of the problem-solving
cycle, they look at the original problem and decide whether their solution is specific
enough or whether they need to iterate the cycle.
Fundamentally, engineering is about creating things for the benefit
of society. Airplanes, buildings, bridges, telephones …
where would the world be without these things?
for people to live longer, healthier lives. Clean drinking water, safe
food storage, and the protection of our environment are all in
the domain of the engineer.
So what's an engineering career information seeker or just a curious person supposed to do?
Well no one has the same definition and some of the ones I found just don't make much sense.
Clearly the last explanation from the University of Colorado is the most accessible to the general public.
But my point is this - If the engineers don't have a standard definition that everyone can understand - how are we supposed to know what they do? How is the next generation supposed to get interested in becoming an engineer?
So I ask all of you out there on ScientificBlogging what does an engineer do? Can you help me explain it to a fifth grader?
While trying to finish, finalise, my book manuscript and being in something of a hiatus for other reasons, as well as wondering about the application of the engineering approach in other areas, I have researched and read a great deal about the philosophy of engineering.
Although there was some thinking, particularly in the philosophical sense, about engineering prior to recent decades, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, most seems to have taken place in the last fifty years or so, via people like Professors Billy Vaughn Koen and Carl Mitcham, as well as even more recently, the last decade, or so, by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Engineering, as you seem to have discovered, is not easy to define, though that goes for many other things to some degree; if you are determined enough it is not often too difficult to find a definition of whatever, somewhere or other, that, more or less, fits with ones first thoughts. The perception of engineering seems to vary somewhat from country to country, partly for historical reasons; hence, from what I have read, engineering is perceived to be closer to being applied science, than it is in Europe, even though, in a Carl Mitcham authored paper there was a comment about the American Board of Engineering and Technology requirements for science in engineering courses being less than 18%.
As well as the physical sciences, engineering includes, mathematics, economics, sociology, psychology, deign, creativity, etc.
Engineering uses heuristics, which is anything that acts as a plausible aid, or direction, in the solution of a problem but is in the final analysis unjustified, incapable of justification and potentially fallible. (Billy Vaughn Koen, “Discussion of the Method”.) In Koen’s view, science is as much a heuristic as all the others used by engineers. Whatever methods, aids, an engineer uses, the final call is always based on engineering judgment, usually based on the experience of the engineer, his colleagues and the documented experience of other engineers.
Also due to Koen, the engineering method is the strategy of causing the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources, so, an engineer is a person who does just that. It is the application of the engineering method, or at least a more universalized method, along the lines proposed by Koen, to poorly understoodsituations, subject areas, that has become of particular interest to me.
Engineering is heavily dependent on knowledge and experience, including that outside science. Structural models are one thing; applying them to the real world quite another. The science of materials only goes so far; engineers went further than science would strictly allow by their knowledge of real materials, as opposed to models based on the science of the material structure. There is a science of fatigue and crack propagation but it runs into limitations when applied to real machines and structures, hence it is often described as a black art, at lest in engineering application. That is entirely appropriate as engineering really is an art; an art that uses whatever it finds useful, based on experience, directed science, etc., to achieves its ends.
As with many subject areas on Wikipedia, the descriptions of an engineering and engineering are inadequate to poor. However, as a U.K. Chartered Engineer, I have found the “Chartered Engineer, U.K.” Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartered_Engineer_%28UK%29) unusually, for Wikipedia, accurate. I gained my chartered Engineer status, in the mid-1970s, via a four year First Degree plus relevant experience, though added a Master’s a few years later.
As far as I am aware, someone with a Science Degree can call themselves a scientist, maybe even a professional one; I have not delved into the requirements and regulations of the Science Institutions. Unfortunately, in the U.K. anyone can call themselves an engineer, even without a Degree; the title Chartered Engineer is a quite different matter as it is protected by Law.
I am not sure how much that helps in your quest for understanding the profession. I hope to become more involved in the philosophy of engineering and other applications of it in due course. In the meantime I recommend the writings of Billy Vaughn Koen (particularly “Discussion of the Method – Conducting the Engineer’s Approach to Problem Solving”, Oxford university Press; http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/he/subject/Engineering/GeneralEngineering/IntroductiontoEngineeringProfess/?view=usa&ci=9780195155990), Carl Mitcham (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Carl+Mitcham%2C+philosophy+of+engineering&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) and the proceedings of the Royal Academy of Engineering Conferences on the Philosophy of Engineering (e.g. http://www.raeng.org.uk/societygov/philosophyofeng/default.htm).