Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT1.1What engineering is, what engineers doTony Marjoram and Yixin ZhongEngineeringWhile meanings change, the concept of engineering derivesfrom the dawn of human history as our ancestors developedand designed tools that were essential for their survival. Indeed,human beings are defined by their tool-making, designing andengineering skills, and the socialization and communicationthat facilitated the invention, innovation and transfer of technologysuch as the axe, hammer, lever, wedge, pulley, wheeland so on. Although based on trial and error, this activity issimilar to the modern idea of engineering where trial and erroris still an important part of innovation.Engineering is the field or discipline, practice, profession andart that relates to the development, acquisition and applicationof technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge aboutthe understanding, design, development, invention, innovationand use of materials, machines, structures, systems and processesfor specific purposes. There are of course many definitions.The term ‘engineering’ derives from the word ‘engineer’used in the 1300s for a person who operated a military engineor machine – such as a catapult or, later, a cannon. The word‘engine’ in turn derives from the Latin ingenium for ingenuityor cleverness and invention. The terms ‘art’ and ‘technical’ areimportant because engineering also arranges elements in a waythat may, or may not, appeal to human senses or emotions,and relates also to the Greek technikos relating to art, craft, skilland practical knowledge and language regarding a mechanicalor scientific subject. Prior to the development of the differentfields of engineering, engineering and ‘technical’ were originallyclosely connected,. The military connotation declined givingway to civil engineering, mechanical, chemical, electrical andelectronic and later, fields that continue to develop with thedevelopment of knowledge (apart from some curious exceptionssuch as the Army Corps of Engineers in the USA).While meanings change, the fact that engineering in the modernsense also relates to art, even though engineering may notcommonly be regarded as artistic, can be appreciated in thecreativity and elegance of many engineered objects and structures(witness the increasing appearance of such objects andstructures as art exhibitions in galleries). As noted elsewherein this Report, humans live in engineered economies, societiesand technocultures. Almost every area of human interest,activity and endeavour has a branch of engineering associatedwith it.Engineering also connects to the natural sciences, and to thesocial and human sciences. Science, from the Latin scientia forknowledge, relates broadly to a systematic approach to theobservation of phenomena and the development of hypothesis,experimentation and theory regarding these phenomena,and the production of knowledge upon which predictions orpredictable outcome may be based, i.e. the scientific method,dating from the early 1600s and largely accredited to FrancisBacon (who died of pneumonia after testing the hypothesisthat it may be possible to preserve a chicken by stuffing it withsnow). In this broad sense, science includes engineering as ahighly skilled technique or practice, and also includes much ofwhat many scientists also do today. In a narrower, contemporarysense, science is differentiated into the basic and appliedsciences, following the linear model of innovation – thatresearch in the basic sciences leads through applied researchand development in engineering to technological application,innovation and diffusion. As discussed elsewhere, while thismodel endures with scientists and policy-makers on groundsof simplicity and funding success, many observers regard the‘linear model’ as descriptively inaccurate and normativelyundesirable partly because many innovations were neitherbased on nor the result of basic science research. The socialand human sciences emulate the natural sciences in the useof empirical scientific methods. Technological change andinnovation is one of the major drivers of economic, social andhuman change, so engineering and technology and the socialsciences are more closely connected.EngineersPeople who are qualified in or practice engineering aredescribed as engineers, and may be licensed and formally designatedas professional, chartered or incorporated engineers.As noted above, the broad discipline of engineering includesa range of specialized disciplines or fields of application andparticular areas of technology. Engineering itself is also differentiatedinto engineering science and different areas ofprofessional practice and levels of activity. The engineeringprofession, as with other professions, is a vocation or occupationbased upon specialized education and training, as providersof professional advice and services. Other features thatdefine occupations as professions are the establishment oftraining and university schools and departments, national andinternational organizations, accreditation and licensing, ethicsand codes of professional practice. Surveying is closely professionallyconnected to engineering, especially civil engineering,and it is interesting to note that George Washington, ThomasJefferson and Abraham Lincoln were all surveyors before goinginto politics.Apart from a degree or related qualification in one of the engineeringdisciplines and associated skill sets, which includesdesign and drawing skills – now usually in computer-aideddesign (CAD) and continued professional development ( CPD)24