What is Engineering and Where Can it Take You

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What is Engineering and Where Can it Take You?
Adapted from - http//www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualsc
hool/
ETP 2005 Dan Houston This material is based
upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. 0402616. Any
opinions, findings and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the view of the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
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What is Engineering?

• What is technology?
• What is science?
• Arent they the same?
• Differences in science and technology.

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Science vs. Technology

• Science is the discovery of new concepts and
  relationships in the natural world.
• Technology is the application of scientific
  concepts to better the quality of life for humans.

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Engineering
Business, government, academic, or individual
efforts in which knowledge of mathematics and/or
natural science is employed in research,
development, design, manufacturing, systems
engineering, or technical operations with the
objective of creating and/or delivering systems,
products, processes, and/or services of a
technical nature and content intended for use
National Research Council A scientist discovers
that which exists. An engineer creates that
which never was -- Theodore von Kármán
(1881-1963) Design in a major sense is the
essence of engineering it begins with the
identification of a need and ends with a product
or system in the hands of a user. It is
primarily concerned with synthesis rather than
the analysis which is central to engineering
science. Design, above all else, distinguishes
engineering from science (Hancock, 1986, National
Science Foundation Workshop)
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Engineering Method The engineering method is the
use of heuristics to cause the best change in a
poorly understood situation within the available
resources Billy Koen The engineering method is
design under constraints Wm. Wulf
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The Engineering Method and Statistical Thinking

• Engineers solve problems of interest to society
  by the efficient application of scientific
  principles
• The engineering or scientific method is the
  approach to formulating and solving these
  problems.

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An essential aspect of engineering is the use of
heuristics. Although difficult to define,
heuristics are relatively easy to identify using
the characteristics listed by Koen(1984) (1)
Heuristics do not guarantee a solution (2) Two
heuristics may contradict or give different
answers to the same question and still be
useful (3) Heuristics permit the solving of
unsolvable problems or reduce the search time to
a satisfactory solution (4) The heuristic
depends on the immediate context instead of
absolute truth as a standard of validity. A
heuristic is anything that provides a plausible
aid or direction in the solution of a problem but
is in the final analysis unjustified, incapable
of justification, and fallible. It is used to
guide, to discover, and to reveal. Koen, Billy
V. 1984. Definition of the engineering method.
Washington, DC ASEE
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• The engineering method is the use of heuristics
  to cause the best change in a poorly understood
  situation within the available resources (Koen,
  1984, p. 70). Typical engineering heuristics
  include
• Rules of thumb and orders of magnitude
• Factors of safety
• Heuristics that determine the engineer's attitude
  toward his or her work
• Heuristics that engineers use to keep risk within
  acceptable bounds and
• Rules of thumb that are important in resource
  allocation.

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What does it take to be an Engineer?

• Good at math science? Maybe.
• Strong problem solving skills.
• Natural inclination for how things work.
• Lots of curiosity creativity.
• Willingness to work VERY hard.

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Education

• 4 yrs. at an accredited engineering school
• The only 4-year professional degree.
• Could take the FE exam PE exam for professional
  licensure (big )
• Highly desirable to go on for Masters (more
  higher starting rank)

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Jobs

• Design
• Manufacturing
• Sales
• Banking
• Systems development
• Management ()
• Teaching
• Government (FBI, CIA, national labs)
• Forensics (professional problem solving)
• Medical School or Law School

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Starting Salaries(the play harder part)

• Approx. 34,000 - 70,000
• Average 52,000
• EE, CompE, ChemE highest /most numerous
• BME high/not as numerous
• ME med-high/very numerous
• CivilE/EnvE low-med/very numerous (going to
  require Masters degree soon - )

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Disciplines

• Great, youve showed us the money.
• Now, what are the choices???

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Biomedical Engineering

• VERY popular with recent biotechnology explosion.
  Quantifies biological signals and measurements.
  Applies engineering principles to understanding
  biological events.
• Prosthetics, optics, medical imaging, gene
  therapy, surgical devices, health care procedures
  instruments, and laser guided surgery.

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Chemical Engineering

• Applies concepts of chemistry and physics to
  solve process control problems. ChemEs deal
  with mass production (a.k.a. process engineers)
  as well as development of new products using
  highly engineered materials.
• development and production of pharmaceuticals and
  bio-engineered materials, specialty polymers and
  high strength composites, semiconductors and
  microelectronic devices, a wide range of
  ultra-pure fine chemicals.

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Civil Engineering

• Deals with repairing our nations decaying
  infrastructure, using engineered materials for
  stronger, lighter, more reliable buildings and
  bridges. Addresses problems with land-use,
  increasing population, environmental quality,
  construction management.
• Reliability and risk management, infrastructure
  networks, intelligent transportation systems,
  soil, air and water contamination, environmental
  restoration, management of radioactive materials
  and wastes, industrial eco-compatibility, and
  life-cycle analysis

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Electrical Engineering/Computer
Engineering/Computer Science

• Solely responsible for the information age (the
  discovery of the semi-conductor). Electricity
  and computers are requirements for our quality of
  life and the management of these technologies is
  essential to the health of our economy.
• Artificial Intelligence, neural networks,
  computer vision, robotics, medical imaging,
  semi-conductor development/manufacturing,
  electronics in space, power electronics,
  communications.

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Mechanical Engineering

• Design, build, and operate engines, machines and
  devices. Whereas Civil Engineers work with
  things that dont move, or move very little.
  MEs manage all aspects of how things move.
• Applied mechanics and materials research,
  intelligent mechatronics, ceramics and glass,
  combustion and propulsion, dynamic systems,
  encapsulation of living cells, fluid physics,
  laser diagnostics of combustion, space
  experimentation, and vibro-acoustics.

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Websites of Interest

• www.nspe.org
• www.asce.org
• www.asme.org
• www.ieee.org
• www.bmes.org
• www.asee.org

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• The End!