• Question: What is an engineer?

    Asked by Guff to Dawn, James, Sarah, Sylvain, Tomas, Vaanu on 8 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Dawn Gillies

      Dawn Gillies answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      An engineer is a lot of things to me – someone who designs and creates things.

      Wikipedia says “The word engineer (from the Latin ingeniator) is derived from the Latin words ingeniare (“to contrive, devise”) and ingenium (“cleverness”)” which seems appropriate – we design new solutions to problems!

      We use maths, science, and practical skills to create things from tiny circuits for smartphones to designing bridges.

    • Photo: Sylvain Jamais

      Sylvain Jamais answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      A definition I like is that physicists and scientists develop theories and that engineers put them in practice… team work!

      PS: I could go on and on about people who have engineer this and that on the van they drive to your house… but engineer is not a protected title, so let’s not go there…

    • Photo: Sarah Hampson

      Sarah Hampson answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      Scientists study the world around us & find out scientific knowledge, but engineers will use scientific knowledge to design and build things

      A scientist might say “I wonder how birds fly!” and will study the forces happening at their wings
      But an engineer might say “how can I make a HUMAN fly?” and will use the knowledge that the scientist got to build an aircraft

    • Photo: Vaanathi Sundaresan

      Vaanathi Sundaresan answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      For me Engineering is implementation of ideas, advanced or fundamental – for something constructive and useful

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