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Asked by mau1 to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 14 Jun 2014.
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Kate Niehaus answered on 14 Jun 2014:
Engineers help the world in all sorts of ways! You really can’t go a day without coming across something designed or built by engineers. Think about driving or walking to school – you need engineers to build and design roads and cars. Engineers not only design your house, but your refrigerator, toaster, computer, clocks, and so many things that you may have inside!
Engineers also make life-changing medical equipment. If you’ve heard about heart stents (which hold open arteries when they get clogged), pacemakers (which regulates your heart beat if it is not working properly), or minimally invasive surgery (using special tools that only require small incisions), all of these things were designed/built by engineers.
There are so many more examples! Engineers help make ideas into actual, working products. This means that engineers are involved in almost any project to help the world that you can think of.
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Marcus Johns answered on 14 Jun 2014:
As Katie said, engineers are involved in everything that we use. Engineers design the processes that put chocolate into packets and toothpaste into tubes. They’re required to get oil from under the sea into your parents cars and electricity to your homes. They make sure that the drugs created by scientists to cure illnesses are available to as many people as possible and that the water that comes through your taps can be drunk without making you ill.
In short, society as we know it wouldn’t exist today without engineers. One of the most important processes in the world today – the Haber-Bosch process – was invented by engineers. This process creates ammonia, which is used to help grow crops. Without it, the world’s population would be much smaller and food would be more expensive.
Key words in your question include ‘community’ and ‘charity’. Many jobs that engineers do aim to improve our society – examples given above – but many of us also do volunteer work either independently or through the company that we work for. I am currently in Greece carrying out conservation work to help save the beaches that loggerhead turtles nest on and protect their eggs. Many international companies organise volunteer work for their employees in community-based projects in the countries that they have their operations in and raise money for non-profit organisations. -
Neil Dhir answered on 15 Jun 2014:
This is how I see it:
Maths is applied Nature,
Physics is applied Maths
and Engineering is applied Physics.Like Kate and Marcus have so excellently described before me; it really is the case that the world would not go round without engineers. Between an idea and a product, there is always an engineer. We take our own, and other people’s imagination, and put them into practise.
As an example, take one of the greatest in our field: Nikolai Tesla. He was an inventor, electrical engineer and mechanical engineer. Alone he was responsible for the radio and alternating current (he even supposedly designed a death-ray once, but that is more rumour than fact). In the US alone he holds 112 patents. So, this one, single, engineer gave us such things as remote control and lasers. That’s just one person! Granted, he was a genius but he was, nonetheless, an engineer.
But to answer the question; simply imagine the world without engineers. It would be like a workshop without tools or a kitchen without pots and pans. In short engineers truly are the link between imagination and creation, and that is how engineers help the world.
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Claire Brockett answered on 16 Jun 2014:
Hi mau1,
Great question!
I don’t think I’ve much to add as Kate, Marcus and Neil have all written great answers.
As Kate said, pretty much everything you do in your life has been influenced in some way by engineers. As Marcus also suggested there are many charity and community activities that engineers can also get involved with – things like Engineering without Borders, Designability, Charitable Engineers and Engineering Aid, where engineers apply their skills to solve problems and design solutions to help the world. -
Alex Lyness answered on 17 Jun 2014:
Hey @mau1,
The guys have all given great answers.
To sum it up if you’re an engineer and you’re not helping the world I think you’re in the wrong job! Any time an engineer invents, fixes or improves something it is often for the benefit of someone else, whether they are being paid or not.
One of the differences between science and engineering, is that science is often the discovery of fact, whereas engineers get to apply those facts turning the science into reality and the mechanisms/equipment/devices/machines that will help others.
Engineer’s can often go to bed happy knowing they’ve done a good job and made things a little bit better during that day. It might sound cheesy but it’s why I do it… else I’d be in the wrong job! 🙂
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