What is engineering??

Introduction

What is engineering? What is an engineer?? Although it is a very old activity or trade, engineering is arelatively young academic discipline or profession. Only in recent years has it reached a stage of maturity where some of its definingdetails and differentiating characteristics can be articulated. Engineering is the endeavor that creates, maintains, develops, andapplies technology for societies' needs and desires. Its origins go back to the very beginning of human civilization where tools werefirst created and developed. Indeed, a good case can be made for the defining of humans as those animals that create, develop, andunderstand the significance of technology.

Over time, the part of technology that acts as an extension of human capabilities became the purview ofengineering. One can view bicycles, cars, and trains as extensions of walking and running. Airplanes are an extension and applicationof a bird's ability to fly transferred to humans. The telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and the internet are extensions oftalking, hearing, and seeing. The microscope, telescope, and medical x-ray are also extensions of human sight and vision.Writing, books, libraries and computer data-bases are extensions of human memory and the computer itself is an extension of the human'sbrain in doing arithmetic and carrying out logical arguments and procedures. Indeed, looking around your environment in almost anysetting, will illustrate just how pervasive technology is. In almost any home or office, there is very little that is truly"natural"; i.e., little that is not created or manipulated by technology. The food that you eat, the utensils that you eat with,the table that you eat off of, the house that you are in, the clothes that you wear, the book that you read, the television thatyou watch, the telephone that you communicate with, the car that you travel in -- these are all technologies created by humancleverness to satisfy human needs. This process of creation is engineering and those who do the creating are practicingengineering, whether they call themselves engineers or not.

Not only is much of the inanimate world created by engineering, part of the living world is also. Almostall crops and agriculturally produced food stuff are "engineered" through selective breeding. The same is true of domestic animalssuch as pets and animals raised for food or sport. Certainly the dogs, cats, and cattle have not "naturally" evolved to theircurrent state. They have been “created” or “designed” to satisfy human desires or needs. The slow and less exact methods ofcontrolled breeding are being replaced by genetic engineering, tissue engineering, and applications of nanotechnology. We humanshave the cleverness to do that. It is the development of the tools, theories, and methods and the understanding of the appropriatesciences and mathematics for that process that is engineering. It is a central part of the history of humanity.