ENGINEER - proud creator
The key word describing engineer's role is RESPONSIBILITY
There are various ways to define the profession of engineering. I would like to refer here to the 1828 definition from England describing engineering as an art in steering the forces of nature for the benefit of a human. In other words, an engineer is someone who designs something with the idea that what he designed and implemented works and even brings benefit.
The word "engineer" comes from the Latin ingeniatus. It describes a person who can invent something, is smart and has an open mind. Once, people who were responsible for construction of war machines and fortifications were called engineers. It was a military engineering. With the time engineering skills had been used for other than military purposes like construction of dams, roads and bridges, it became known as civil engineering. At first the job of engineers had been limited to transforming of what was on and in the earth: roads, forts, mines. With the emergence of the industrial revolution and steam engines mechanical and electrical engineers appeared. The number of engineering specialties has since greatly increased.
Engineering, in our contemporary meaning, emerged when the geometry and math replaced intuition in the process of designing. Mathematics forms the base of both science and engineering. Scientists, researchers use it to generalize their findings while engineer use mathematics to rationalize the designing process. The task of an engineer differs from the task of a researcher. A researcher has to operate within strict laws of science, an engineer aware of the limitations defined by science but using his intelligence, imagination and experience has to predict what cannot be fully calculated or counted.
Because not everything can be counted, therefore we speak of the "art of engineering" which is something different from the scientific knowledge. A scientist describes what already exists, while an engineer creates something that does not yet exists.
The Industrial Revolution had not been the work of scientists but the work of artisans and engineers, the result not of their knowledge but intuition. First, the steam engine had been built and only after that the principles of thermodynamics that stood behind were understood. Even today it often happens that the achievements of technology precede scientific theories explaining them.
The important aspect of being an engineer is the ability to predict social consequences of his activity. Also important, both in science and engineering, is the ethical aspect. The significant difference here is that while a scientist who comes up with a wrong theory may be criticized or ridiculed, an engineer who builds a faulty bridge that can collapse, brings about a disaster that may kill people.
Engineers also think a different way; more than others, they pay attention not just to the very idea of the proposed solution but to its practical side and effectiveness. The way an engineer thinks is to design something, to build it and then test if it works. Inventing something abstract, that does not bring about some benefit is contrary to the art of engineering.
Engineering Education
The characteristics of the engineering profession, briefly outlined above, cause the teaching in the universities of technology to differ in many aspects from the teaching done in many other disciplines. Like in the case of the medical studies, a strongly profiled group of candidates choose studies in technology.
A good engineering education pays attention to the development of student's personality. It creates a person who will understand the consequences of the actions he is taking, will be aware that he acts within a social framework, and understands that there is neither technology for the sake of technology nor production for the sake of production. Let us bear in mind that the great engineers, the founders of modern technology were also humanists who understood the consequences of their activity. They were able to link pragmatism with imagination and phantasy. After all, in order to create, one must first imagine. Creation is not a heartless process that can be performed by computers. It that was so, we would long be eliminated!
The contemporary engineering studies evaluate fast in the direction of broad specialization, following general understanding that a young person must be prepared to change profession several times in his or hers life span.
The aim of studies in engineering is not solely the transfer of knowledge in certain subjects, mostly sciences, but also (or equally) to provide students with the feeling and understanding of what constitutes the "raison d'être" of their professional group. The society expects engineers to be able to provide safe functioning of the technological infrastructure essential for life and growth.
The key word describing engineer's role is "responsibility"; responsibility understood as an ability to predict the effects of actions taken and to prevent the possible negative consequences. For that, in spite of similarities, there are important differences between education in science and engineering.
WALDEMAR SIWIŃSKI