Engineers use information and knowledge to invent devicesĤ. Outstanding engineers have always been among those peopleģ. Civilization and engineering belong to different periods of time-.Ģ. Whether an engineer lived at the time of construction of pyramids or has only recently graduated in nuclear engineering, these characteristics have been an important part of his intellectual make up. The engineer must have a fertile imagination, must be creative, and must be ready to accept new ideas. Their queries about Why?, How?, With what?, At What Cost? have all served to stimulate an effort to find desirable answers to many types of technological problems.Īnother characteristic associated with engineers is the ability to see ahead. Outstanding characteristics of engineers through the centuries have been a willingness to work and an intellectual curiosity about the behavior of things. He converts scientific theory into useful application, and in so doing, he provides for man's material needs and well-being. His job is to take knowledge and make practical use of it. His material accomplishments have had as much impact on world history as any political, economic or social developments.īasically, the role of engineer has not changed through the centuries. Down through the ages, the engineer has been in the forefront as a maker of history. In fact the beginning of civilization and the beginning of engineering are coincident.
In 1908the American Institute of Chemical Engineers appeared and since then a number of other branch societies have been founded to deal with the aims characteristic of specialized fields of engineering. In 1880the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was created and in 1884 the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) was organized. Mining and metallurgy was the first group to be recognized as a separate branch and the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers was founded in 1871. Until late the nineteenth century, engineering as an applied science was divided into two principal groups,civil and military. ForĮxample, your home or car of the future will be controlled by computers.
Research is being conducted on each of these areas today.