"THE ENGINEER IS A MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE WORKING MECHANIC AND, LIKE AN INTERPRETER BETWEEN TWO FOREIGNERS, MUST UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE OF BOTH. HENCE THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF POSSESSING BOTH PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE.”
ENGINEERS:
Engineers are inventors. Engineers use science ad math to solve real world problems. Look around you, virtually every manmade contraption we see was conceived of and created by an Engineer..!!! Engineers contribute considerably to the quality of life in society and it is important that they articulate their role clearly and firmly. Traditionally, Engineers are trained to deliver products, projects or services to fit some specified requirement. They work to a required performance and quality, within a given time and budget. But the creative and analytical skills of engineers are frequently
used only to develop or make practical the decisions of others. The importance of engaging engineers in the early decision making processes of a project is frequently not appreciated and major decisions are left in the hands of the non-engineering professions – the politicians, lawyers, accountants or marketing experts.
ENGINEERS DESIGN PROCESS LOOP:
Society holds high expectations of people in professions entrusted with the well-being of people and society as a whole.
A GOOD ENGINEER SHOULD BE:
- Profound Thinker
- Solution Driven perfectly
- Professionally Responsive
- Client Dedicated
- Process Proficient
- Empowering Others
- Contextually Astute
- Future Orienter
ROLES AND HOLISITIC BEHAVIOURS OF AN GOOD ENGINEER:
Technical Roles Holistic Technical Behaviors:
Analyst : When conducting engineering analysis, the engineer adeptly applies principles and tools of mathematics and science to develop understanding, explore
possibilities and produce credible conclusions.
Problem Solver : When facing an engineering problem, the engineer produces solutions
that properly address critical issues and assumptions and that are conceptually and contextually valid.
Designer : When facing an engineering design challenge, the engineer develops designs that satisfy stakeholder needs while complying with important implementation, societal, and other constraints.
Researcher: When conducting applied research, the engineer designs and conducts studies that yield defensible results and answer important applicable research questions.
Interpersonal Roles Holistic Interpersonal Behaviors:
Communicator: When exchanging information with others, the engineer prepares,
delivers and receives messages that achieve desired outcomes.
Collaborator: When working with others in joint efforts, the engineer supports a diverse,capable team and contributes toward achievement of its collective and individual goals.
Leader: When providing needed leadership, the engineer promotes shared vision to individuals, teams, and organizations and empowers them to achieve their
individual and collective goals.
Professional Roles Holistic Professional Behaviors:
Self-Grower: Motivated for lifelong success, the engineer plans, self-assesses, and achieves necessary personal growth in knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Achiever: When given an assignment, the engineer demonstrates initiative, focus, and flexibility to deliver quality results in a timely manner.
Practitioner: Driven by personal and professional values, the engineer demonstrates integrity and responsibility in engineering practice and contributes
engineering perspectives in addressing societal issues.
ENGINEERING RESEARCH:
There is increasing recognition that leadership in
technological innovation is key to the nation’s prosperity and security in a hypercompetitive, global, knowledge- driven economy. The requirements of 21st-century engineering are considerable:
- Engineers must be technically competent
- globally sophisticated
- culturally aware innovative
- entrepreneurial
- nimble
- flexible
- mobile.
- The issue is not so much reformingengineering education within old paradigms but instead transformingit into new paradigms necessary to meet the new challenge such as globalization, demographic change, and disruptive new technologies.It has long been apparent that current engineering science-dominated curriculumneeds to be broadened considerably if students are to have the opportunity to learn the innovation and entrepreneurial skills so essential for our nation’s economic welfare and security .
Engineering is one of the professions most responsible for and responsive to the profound changes in our society driven by evolving technology, its characteristics in practice, research and education have been remarkably constant.
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Joseph Bordogna, former Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation,
prefers Fumio Kodama’s definition:
“Engineering is the integration of all knowledge to some purpose.” In a more general sense, Engineers are problem solvers, creators of ideas and concepts, builders of devices, structures and systems. They apply their knowledge of science and technology to meet the needs of society to solve its problems, and to pave the way for its future progress. The intellectual activities of engineering are heavily based on synthesis, design, and innovation through the integration of knowledge. It requires certain skills, which can only be acquired through formal education and experience.. All suggest that tomorrow’s engineers will spend most of their careers coping with challenges and opportunities vastly different from those most currently practicing engineers–or currently teaching faculty–have experienced.
A SPECIAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION:
CIVIL-Basis for other Engineering branches:
“It is a great profession.
There is the fascination of watching a figment
of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to
a plan on paper.
Then it brings jobs and homes…it elevates the standards
of living and adds to the comforts of life.
That is the Engineer’s high privilege.”
Civil Engineers will serve as
master builders, Environmental stewards, innovators and integrators, managers of risk and uncertainty, and leaders in shaping public policy.
“Engineers must control their own destiny rather than letting events control them.”
Civil engineering has helped define the nanoscience, nanotechnology and biotechnology research agenda. Engineers recognized that nanoscience and nanotech products are the vehicles for major technological innovation across a spectrum of products affecting virtually every industry sector. Civil engineers from across industry, academia and government worked on the development of instrumentation, metrology, and standards to realize a robust nanomanufacturing capability. This permitted the physical dimensions, properties and functionality of the materials, processes, tools, systems and products that constituted nanomanufacturing to be measured and characterized. This, in turn, enabled production to be controlled, predicted and scaled to meet market needs.
In 2025, the civil engineering enterprise.
REAL ENGINEERS OF TODAY’S WORLD:
SEPARATING OIL FROM WATER:
Di Gao, a
CHEMICAL ENGINEER at the University of Pittsburg, invented a plastic-coated cotton material that could clean up the Gulf. Gao envisions large, trough-shaped filters that could be dragged through the water to capture surface oil.
DESIGNING BETTER CARS:
Marcus Ashford, a
MECHANICAL ENGINEER at the University of Alabama, has invented a car engine with 80% less exhaust emissions.While in school, he designed a car engine that reduced harmful emissions by 82%. For this he won several awards and a patent. He now teaches mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama and is trying to design a car engine that runs on hydrogen,
not gasoline.
CLEANING UP THE OCEAN:
Alexandria Boehm is an
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER who works on ways to clean up oceans near where people live. So many types of pollution get into the ocean near where people live around the world. Polluted ocean water affects both air quality and drinking water quality.
DESIGNING SPACE COLONIES:
Kimberly Jones is a
CIVIL ENGINEER working on purifying water so that we can one day go to Mars!!! Her research is also on improving water quality here on earth and elsewhere. She is interested in finding out ways to purify water so that one day, if we can establish a living station on Mars, we will have a way to have clean water there.
CONTROLLING COMPUTERS WITH THOUGHTS:
Daniel Moran, a
BIO-MEDICAL ENGINEER at Washington University, has invented a way to play video games using only the human mind! Just by thinking, a kid can play space invaders, an old computer game from when it was a kid. The kid wears a cap that senses brain waves. There are no needles, nothing hurts- you just wear a cap and think and the computer does what you want it to do. Imagine how useful this will be when it gets perfected, when people can do other things by thinking, when people with disabilities can operate computers without speaking or moving a muscle.
CONCLUSION:
Thus, we shoud understand that Engineering profession is a profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, natural and man-made materials and the forces of nature for the benefit of humankind and society.
(ENGINEERING STUDENTS OF YESTERDAY)
(ENGINEERING STUDENTS OF TODAY)
(ENGINEERING STUDENTS OF TOMORROW)
So, let us proud to be an Engineer and express our innovative ideas to develop and enrich our society and
this is why I think Engineering is important and relevant today. Happy Engineers Day!