Engineering

Golden Gate Bridge
Exit off U.S. Highway 101, on the southeast side of the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza


Named one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World" by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, connecting San Francisco with the surrounding northern counties. With a length of 8,981 feet and main span length of 4,200 feet, it is one of the longest single-span suspension bridges ever built. Its two massive towers are the highest bridge towers in the U.S., at 746 feet above the water. A clearance of 220 feet allows passage of the largest oceangoing vessels. Additional construction statistics are presented on a cross-section of one of the bridge's main cables, displayed near the Joseph B. Strauss Statue.

Fun Fact:
A crew of painters constantly maintains the bridge's distinctive coat of international orange. It is said that the U.S. Navy wanted the bridge painted black with yellow stripes, to make it easily visible to passing ships.

Sky Line Drive
Entrance points are near Front Royal,and at Thornton Gap, Swift Run Gap, and Rockfish Gap.
Shenandoah National Park, VA


Approximately 105 miles long, Skyline Drive is an engineering achievement that provides access to some of Virginia's best scenery. Local farmers, who were paid from drought relief funds, were put to work for construction. The Civilian Conservation Corps pitched in to build rock walls, picnic areas, and scenic overlooks. The highway was completed on August 29, 1939. An unusual feature of the drive is the 610-foot tunnel through the solid granodiorite of Marys Rock, not far from Thornton Gap. The highest point on the road is at the north entrance to Skyland, where the elevation is 3,680 feet.

Fun Fact:
Construction of Skyline Drive began in 1931, spurred on by President Herbert Hoover, an engineer by training. It is said that he was riding his horse along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains one day, when he said to a companion, "These mountains are made for a road, and everybody ought to have a chance to get the views from here."

Hoover Dam

US Highway 93 at Lake Mead and the Colorado River (Nevada/Arizona border)
Lake Mead National Recreation Area (8 miles south , AZ

Who Made It:

Supervised by Walker R. "Brig" Young, Construction Engineer, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Contractor: an alliance of engineering and construction firms, called Six Companies (Morrison-Knudsen, Utah Construction, Pacific Bridge Company, MacDonald and Kahn, Harry Kaiser, and Warren A. Bechtel)

Considered one of America's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders, the Hoover Dam is truly awe-inspiring. Standing 726.4 feet high, it is one of the tallest concrete dams ever built and created one of the largest manmade lakes in the U.S. The design phase involved several consulting firms and some 200 engineers and other workers in the Bureau of Reclamation's design office. Construction of the dam, powerplant, and related works began in 1931 and finished in 1936, two years ahead of schedule. At its peak, the project employed 5,218 workers. A 1-hour Hard Hat tour goes behind the scenes, where visitors can see the inner workings of the dam.

Fun Fact:

Construction workers' hard hats were invented and first used in building the Hoover Dam. There are 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete in the dam, powerplant, and appurtenant works; enough to pave a 16-foot-wide highway from San Francisco to New York City. The reservoir can store enough water to cover the state of Pennsylvania to a depth of one foot.

World Trade Center - In Memoriam
New York City, NY


It is difficult to fathom that the World Trade Center no longer exists. It is heartrending to think of the loss of life. The condolences of the National Society of Professional Engineers and those of its National Engineers Week partners go out to all the families who lost their loved ones. Engineers were central to the design of the World Trade Center. Now engineers help assess the stability of the damaged buildings and assist in keeping the cleanup safe. Engineers will be involved in the rebuilding. They will do their vital part, like so many others from so many walks of life.

Statue of Liberty National Monument

Liberty Island
New York City, NY 10004


Who Made It:
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and Alexandre Gustave Eiffel in France; Richard Morris Hunt and General Charles P. Stone in the U.S.

The tallest statue of modern times, the Statue of Liberty was given to the U.S. by France to commemorate the two countries' alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the statue was reduced to 350 pieces and packed into 214 crates for transit to the U.S. in 1885. French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel devised the interior support system, using a network of steel girders. General Charles P. Stone was the chief engineer in charge of constructing the foundation and pedestal (designed by Richard Morris Hunt) as well as reassembling the statue, which was dedicated in 1886.

Fun Fact:

The outer shell of the Statue of Liberty was created out of copper, because it had to be lightweight and easy to take apart and reassemble. The copper was analyzed in 1985 by Bell Laboratories of New Jersey and traced to the Visnes Copper Mine in Norway, which operated in the 1870s under the direction of Charles Defrance, a French mining engineer.

The Erie Canal

Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering marvel of its day and became another example of how engineering opened doors for economic development--in this case for transporting goods more cheaply. To bring in supplies as work progressed, roads had to be built every step of the way. All 363 miles were built by the muscle power of men and horses alone, with the exception of a few places where black powder was used to blast through rock formations. Many had derided the project as "Clinton's Folly," but New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton envisioned a canal from Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Albany on the upper Hudson River.

Fun Fact:

The Erie Canal's success was part of a canal-building boom in New York in the 1820s. Between 1823 and 1828, several lateral canals opened including the Champlain, the Oswego, and the Cayuga-Seneca. When planning for the Erie Canal started, there was not a single school of engineering in the U.S.

Mechanical engineering technologists convert materials and energy into objects and services needed by the public. For example they help create the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems that make our homes and schools comfortable year-round as well as the power plants that we rely upon. They also help develop the machines we depend upon in our daily lives, including automobiles, airplanes, trains, copying machines, and fax machines.

Positions are available in power generation, manufacturing operations, project planning, production supervision, plant operations, quality assurance, reliability testing, and technical sales and services.

Manufacturing engineering technologists help create and supervise the processes for manufacturing products. They translate the concepts and specifications of design engineers into the actual production of manufactured goods at the lowest possible cost. Manufacturing technologists direct and coordinate manufacturing processes in industrial plants, and work in areas such as automated testing and product improvement. Technical areas of work include planning, production methods, fabrication, assembly, materials handling, scheduling, and quality assurance.

Electrical and electronic engineering technologists are concerned with electrical devices and systems and with the use of electrical energy. Electrical engineering technologists help create our microwave ovens, computers, and communications technology.

Electrical engineering technology is a large field with many different concentrations. Many electrical engineering technologists participate in the development and testing of new communication devices—such as more advanced telephone systems—as well as in supervising the manufacture of these devices. Others specialize in electronics and assist in the design, manufacture, and use of various circuits and electronic devices that produce, amplify, or detect electrical signals. Others focus on instrumentation—the use of electronic devices to make measurements such as pressure, temperature, speed, acceleration, voltage, and current. Still, others concentrate on the construction and operation of computer systems.

Civil engineering technologists oversee the construction of the facilities that are essential to modern life. Such facilities include high-rise buildings, roads, mass-transit systems, canals, water treatment facilities, dams, bridges, and airports.

In supervising the construction of these projects, the technologist is usually involved in managing people, machines, and money and may work in the office, the field, or both. Civil engineering technologists are often project managers, estimators, schedulers, and cost technologists. Their work may also involve surveying and mapping.

Chemical engineering technologists are involved with building and operating the chemical plants that produce the many materials we use that must undergo chemical changes when they're manufactured. Such products include plastics, pharmaceuticals, food products, synthetic rubber, and synthetic fibers. Many chemical engineering technologists focus on projects that create and maintain a clean environment. These technologists create substitutes for our shrinking natural resources and supervise processes that clean up and prevent pollution.

Transportation engineers design streets, highways, and other transit systems that allow people and goods to move safely and efficiently. For example, before constructing a new sports stadium, city officials rely on transportation engineers to plan traffic patterns that will prevent major tie-ups after the game.

Ocean engineers direct the exploration and utilization of the ocean's resources. Their work is closely tied to petroleum and civil engineering. For example, ocean engineers might focus attention on underwater oil or gas exploration (petroleum engineering tasks), or they might design structures such as offshore drilling platforms, harbor facilities, and underwater machines (civil engineering tasks).

Nuclear engineers design, develop, and control plants that use nuclear energy for fuel

and medical purposes. Some nuclear engineers are busy working on a nuclear-powered

spacecraft that will travel to Mars.

Mineral and mining engineers locate, remove, and appraise minerals they find in the earth. Mining engineers lay out the mines, supervise their construction, create a materials transportation system, and return the area to its natural state upon mining completion. Mineral and mining engineers need to know how to mine the natural wealth underground without destroying the land above or disrupting the people that live on it.

Metallurgical and materials engineers extract, process, refine, combine, and manufacture natural substances to create new materials that are stronger and resist corrosion. Metallurgical engineers work with metal only. Teams of metallurgy and materials engineers created the US Air Force's "stealth" technology that makes a fighter plane's surface nearly invisible to radar.

Mechanical engineers use mechanics and energy principles to design machines such as engines and motors. Many mechanical engineers work in the areas of air-conditioning and refrigeration, automotives, manufacturing, welding, and robotics. They designed the robotically controlled braces that people with disabilities use to walk.

Manufacturing engineers design tools and equipment and work with all aspects of manufacturing—from production control and materials handling to mechanization and automation. Manufacturing engineers design the sensitive equipment that make vaccines. These specialists also improve manufacturing systems, enabling the United States to stay competitive with other industrialized nations.

Industrial engineers organize the people, information, energy, materials, and machines involved in the production process. They are concerned with plant design and management, quality control, and the human factors of engineering. Industrial engineers perform tasks such as finding the best location for a high-tech company's new plant.

Fire protection engineers design systems and equipment that prevent or combat fire. Engineers in this field are also concerned with the fire safety of structures.

Environmental engineers assist with the development of water distribution systems, recycling methods, sewage treatment plants, and other pollution prevention and control systems in the water, air, and land. Environmental engineers constantly seek new ways to reduce air pollution and pesticides.

Electrical engineering, the discipline that employs the largest number of engineers, covers everything related to electrical devices, systems, and the use of electricity. Electrical engineers work on power plants, computers, and other electrical devices. Electrical engineers are designing the dashboard computers that will monitor engine functions on automobiles of the future.

Computer engineers deal with all aspects of computer systems including design, construction, and operation. Some computer engineers specialize in areas like digital systems, operating systems, computer networks, and software. For example, we rely on computer engineers to design the software for a computer simulation that will test stress points in a bridge before it is built.

One of the largest branches of engineering, civil engineering is a field that deals with buildings, bridges, dams, roads, and other structures. Civil engineers plan, design, and supervise the construction of facilities such as high-rise buildings, airports, water treatment centers, and sanitation plants. Civil engineers will need to design the special rail beds for the magnetic levitation trains of tomorrow. Soon we will be able to travel on these environmentally safe and efficient trains from coast to coast at 200-300 miles per hour.

Chemical engineering involves the processing and treating of liquids and gases. For example, some chemical engineers are studying ways to desalinate seawater—stripping it of salt to make the water safe to drink. Many chemical engineers work with petroleum and plastics, although both of these are the subject of independent disciplines. The term "environmental engineering" also applies to certain areas of chemical engineering, such as pollution control.

Ceramic engineers direct processes that convert clay, nonmetallic minerals, or silicates to ceramic products such as automobile parts, tiles on space shuttles, and solar panels.

Working alongside architects, architectural engineers focus on the safety, cost, and construction methods of designing a building. For example, as the US population grows in the Southwest, more and more architectural engineers are investigating new ways to build on land where there is only sand and sagebrush.

Agricultural engineers design farm and food processing equipment; construct crop storage and livestock buildings; and develop systems for drainage, irrigation, and waste disposal. Sometimes agricultural engineers work in labs like EPCOT's Land Pavilion, where they experiment with promising indoor farming techniques such as hydroponics—the science of growing plants in fluids without dirt.

Aerospace engineers design and develop technology for commercial aviation, the national defense, and space exploration. In 1990, aerospace engineers helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope, an orbiting instrument that allows us to see 10 times farther than we have ever seen before.

Just as there are different fields of engineering, there are different fields within engineering technology. In fact, almost every engineering discipline has a related engineering technology discipline. Because this directory lists only four-year engineering technology schools, which focus on preparing students to be technologists rather than technicians, we'll examine what technologists do in some of the most popular engineering technology disciplines. If you're interested in becoming, a technician, however, keep in mind that they often do similar work.

Here is a partial listing of these disciplines:

Careers in engineering span the alphabet. From aerospace to manufacturing to transportation engineering, no other career field offers young men and women such a wide choice of options.

In early times, the practice of engineering
was that of a trade or craft with training occurring through some
form of apprenticeship. As it developed into a profession and more
recently as an academic discipline, it took on the shape of other
academic disciplines, with preparation being an education rather
than a training. An important turning point in the Unites States
was the land grant college act (Morrill act) of 1862 which
established an institution for the teaching of agriculture and the
mechanical arts (engineering) in each state. This officially
legitimated engineering in higher education although it still had
the form of training. Interestingly, this act came into being
during the American Civil War and was signed by Abraham
Lincoln.

World-War II was the second turning point
when it was discovered that many of the technical innovations
necessary for that effort came from scientists, mathematicians, and
theoretically educated engineers rather than traditionally trained
engineers. Most engineers prior to that time had been trained to
develop and apply ideas already in existence, not to create new
solutions to new problems. After WWII, the university curricula in
engineering became much more scientific and mathematical. It took
on more elements of an education rather than a training. It slowly
became a real academic discipline in its own right rather than only
an application of other disciplines. However, it retains the
integrating role of applying the physical and life sciences using
some of the tools of the social sciences, law, and policy and the
values derived from the humanities, letters, arts, and
business.

We are now going through a third transition
in engineering in response to many factors in society and in
technology itself. In the larger picture, society went through the
agricultural phase, the industrial phase, and now the information
phase. These three phases of civilization created and were created
by the most powerful and applicable technologies of the time.
Engineering is and will be the creative element in the information
age as it has been in preceding ages.

Science and Engineering

One of the first distinctions that must be
made is between science and engineering. It is not a simple
distinction because the two are so interdependent and intertwined,
but whatever difference there is needs to be considered.

Science is the study of “natural” phenomena.
It is the collection of theories, models, laws, and facts about the
physical world and the methods used to create this collection.
Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, etc. try to understand,
describe, and explain the physical world that would exist even if
there were no humans. It is creative in building theories, models,
and explanations, but not in creating the phenomena that it
studies. Science has its own philosophy with an epistemology,
esthetics, and logic. It has its own technology in order to carry
out its investigations, build its tools, and pursue its goals.
Science has its organizations, culture, and methods of inquiry. It
has its "scientific method" which has served as a model (for better
or for worse) in many other disciplines.

Science is old. It was part of the original
makeup of a university or college in the form of natural
philosophy. It came out of antiquity, developed in the middle ages,
blossomed in the renaissance, was the tool of the enlightenment,
and came into its present maturity in modernity. Indeed, the
history of science is, in some ways, a history of intellectual
development. This is certainly only true in conjunction with many
other strains of philosophical, economical, theological, and
technological development, but science is a central player in that
story. Science is often paired with the arts (and Humanities and
Social Sciences) in the “College of Arts and Science” of a
traditional university.

Engineering is the creation, maintenance, and
development of things that have not existed in the natural world
and that satisfy some human desire or need. A television set does
not grow on a tree. It is the creation of human ingenuity that
first fulfilled a fantasy of a human need and then went on to
change the very society that created it. I use the term "things"
because one should include computer programs, organizational
paradigms, and mathematical algorithms in addition to cars, radios,
plastics, and bridges.

Science is the study of what is and
engineering is the creation of can be. Only recently has
engineering developed the set of characteristics that make it a
legitimate academic discipline. Earlier, engineering often was
viewed only as the application of natural science. Now, engineering
has developed its own engineering science for the study of human
made things to supplement natural science which was developed to
study natural phenomena. Parts of computer science are wonderful
examples of that. Engineering has its own philosophy and
methodology and its own economics. It even has its own National
Academy.

We differentiate science and engineering, not
because their difference is great, but because, in many ways, it is
small. Science could not progress without technology, and
engineering certainly could not flourish without science and
mathematics.

A more illuminating comparison might be
between the humanities and engineering. One might find more
similarity in style (not content) between English literature and
engineering than between science and engineering. Both literature
and engineering are the study of human created artifacts. Both
teach creation in the form of creative writing and engineering
design. Both teach analysis in the form of literary criticism and
engineering analysis. Both are intimately connected with the needs
and desires of individuals and society. A similar analogy could be
made between art and engineering looking at studio art, art
criticism, and art history.

Most scientists (but not all) feel there is
some unique objective truth behind the physical phenomena they are
studying. Their goal is to find it and describe and explain it, and
this truth is unique although the approaches and approximations to
it are certainly not. In literature and engineering, the designed
entity is not unique to the situation, but it is a creation of the
particular writer or designer and perhaps unique to the
creator.

The distinctions of this section are not as
clean or clear as have been presented here. The boundary between
science and engineering can be and often is murky. Many items of
study in science are influenced if not literally created by people.
This is obviously true in biology and the life sciences but also
true in physics where certain elements in the periodic table do not
exist in nature. Perhaps, therefore, the areas of pure science are
very limited. On the other hand, since people are members of our
natural system, an argument can be made that their products are as
natural as anything else and, therefore, the areas of pure
scientific study are very broad. Clearly engineering is constrained
in what it can create by the laws of science as everything is.
Nevertheless, there is a difference in spirit in the two
disciplines worth trying to delineate.

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

Over time, the part of technology that acts
as an extension of human capabilities became the purview of
engineering. One can view bicycles, cars, and trains as extensions
of walking and running. Airplanes are an extension and application
of a bird's ability to fly transferred to humans. The telegraph,
telephone, radio, television, and the internet are extensions of
talking, 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's
brain in doing arithmetic and carrying out logical arguments and
procedures. Indeed, looking around your environment in almost any
setting, 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 that
you watch, the telephone that you communicate with, the car that
you travel in -- these are all technologies created by human
cleverness to satisfy human needs. This process of creation is
engineering and those who do the creating are practicing
engineering, 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. Almost
all crops and agriculturally produced food stuff are "engineered"
through selective breeding. The same is true of domestic animals
such as pets and animals raised for food or sport. Certainly the
dogs, cats, and cattle have not "naturally" evolved to their
current state. They have been “created” or “designed” to satisfy
human desires or needs. The slow and less exact methods of
controlled breeding are being replaced by genetic engineering,
tissue engineering, and applications of nanotechnology. We humans
have the cleverness to do that. It is the development of the tools,
theories, and methods and the understanding of the appropriate
sciences and mathematics for that process that is engineering. It
is a central part of the history of humanity.

Not only has engineering made our lives
easier and longer, it has sometimes made them more terrible and
shorter through improving our ability to kill and harm when we wage
war. Indeed, military and defense needs have been a historic driver
of technological advancement. One of the earliest categorizations
of engineering was into military and civilian (or civil)
engineering.

Because technology enables and causes change,
it and its creators, the engineers, are viewed with mixed feelings.
This is especially true in modern (perhaps post-modern) times when
the negative side effects (“unintended consequences”) of technology
must be addressed.

This note is an attempt to address the
question of what engineering is and then that of what an engineer
is. It is intended for the general public to better understand just
what this thing that has such a profound effect on our individual
and collective lives is. The note is intended for the student who
is considering becoming an engineer and, therefore, it is for
parents and high school and college counselors as well. It is for
the university engineering student and professor and for the
university administrator. It is for the state and federal
governments who fund engineering education and research and the
investor who invests in technology. It is for the husband, wife,
parent, or child who wants to better understand their spouse,
child, or parent. It is for everyone who accepts the argument that
a human is a technological animal and that technology has a
pervasive effect on our lives.

An important part of this note is the list of
references. This collection of short essays is intended to open
many topics and ideas, not develop them. A rather long list of
references is given to allow the reader to pursue any of the many
ideas further.

Engineering is the practical application of science and math to solve problems, and it is everywhere in the world around you. From the start to the end of each day, engineering technologies improve the ways that we communicate, work, travel, stay healthy, and entertain ourselves.

Engineers are problem-solvers who want to make things work more efficiently and quickly and less expensively. From computer chips and satellites to medical devices and renewable energy technologies, engineering makes our modern life possible. In particular, electrical engineers and computer engineers have a wide range of study options and career paths that let them design, build, and manage those ideas into reality.