Engineering | A Glimpse into the World of Modern Engineering

A Glimpse into the World of Modern Engineering

Written by Marlyn Gregorio           ୦            Posted last August 23, 2024

Engineering is a cornerstone of STEAM education (formerly known as STEM education).

Engineering is the application of science and math to solve problems.

What is Engineering?

It is the application of science and mathematics to the solution of problems. Engineers figure out how things work and find practical uses for scientific discoveries. It is engineers who are instrumental in making many innovations available to the world, though scientists and inventors get much credit for the very advancements that truly improve the human condition.

In his book, "Disturbing the Universe" (Sloan Foundation, 1981), physicist Freeman Dyson wrote, "A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering."

The history of engineering is part and parcel of the history of human civilization. The Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, the Parthenon and the Eiffel Tower stand today as monuments to our heritage of engineering. Today's engineers not only build huge structures, such as the International Space Station (ISS), but they are also building maps to the human genome and better, smaller computer chips.

Engineering is one of the cornerstones of STEAM education (formerly known as STEM education), an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to motivate students to learn about science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics.

Types of Engineering

• Mechanical Engineering: Involves the design, manufacturing, inspection, and maintenance of this equipment, both individually or integrated into systems, to keep the performance and control of its state. Mechanical engineering finds its application in the vehicle, construction, and farm machinery; industrial installations; and a huge range of tools and devices.
• Electrical Engineering: Concerns the design, testing, manufacture, construction, control, monitoring, and inspection of electrical and electronic devices, machinery, and systems. These systems can be as small as microscopic circuits or as large as whole national power generation and transmission systems.

Electrical engineering systems vary in scale from microscopic circuits to national power generation and transmission systems.

• Civil Engineering: A practice that features designing, construction, maintenance, and inspection of large infrastructure projects usually related to highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, dams, and airports.
• Aerospace Engineering: Basically, it involves the design, manufacture, and testing of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and parts thereto, for instance, airframes, power plants, control and guidance systems, electrical and electronic systems, communication and navigation systems.
• Nuclear Engineering: It is simply the design, manufacturing, construction, operation, and testing of equipment, systems, and processes relating to production, control, and detection of nuclear radiation. Systems under this field include nuclear reactors for electric power plants and ships, radioisotope production, and research, including particle accelerators. Nuclear engineering also includes the monitoring and protection of humans from the deleterious effects that radiation can have on them.
• Biomedical Engineering: Engaged in the design of systems, equipment, and devices for use in the practice of medicine. It will involve close collaboration with medical practitioners—doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists, researchers—to determine, understand, and meet their requirements for systems, equipment, and devices.

Biomedical engineers work closely with medical practitioners to design systems, equipment and devices for medical use.

• Chemical Engineering: It is the profession of equipment, system, and process design for the refining of raw materials and mixing, compounding, and processing chemicals to make useful products.
• Computer Engineering: Deal with the design of components of computer hardware, systems, and networks, as well as software.
• Industrial Engineering: The practice of designing and optimizing facilities, equipment, systems and processes for manufacturing, material processing, and any number of other work environments.
• Environmental Engineering: The alleviation of pollution sources or any pollution from air, water, and land. It is also known to involve the detection and measurement of pollution, pinpointing sources of pollution as well as cleaning and rehabilitating polluted sites to compliance with local, state, and federal regulations.

Environmental engineers also design municipal water supply and industrial wastewater treatment systems like the Sha Tin Sewage Treatment Works in Hong Kong.

Engineers require in-depth knowledge of mathematics, physics and computer applications such as simulations and computer-aided design. This is why most college programs include basic engineering courses in a wide range of topics before students choose to specialize in a particular area.