week 1 engineer and society

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The engineering professionNature & Role

ENGINEER AND SOCIETY




Content

The engineering profession

Nature & Role




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Engineer

Technology, intelligently applied, is essential to finding ways to achieve socialand environmental improvement .

We sometimes forget that people are better fed, better housed, and better informed today than ever before in history, and we tend to overlook how vitalthese things are in the total human environment . We do not want to lose our grasp on these precious achievements while pursuing other goals, such ascleaner air, cleaner water, and the preservation of wilderness .

We want all of these things, and we want to find the ways in which technologycan best serve us in attaining our goals .

Engineering is an enormous and a highly- diversified field .

Therefore the engineering are treated in most detail are those of research,design, and development, together with related environmental, ethical, resource,and management issues .





WHAT DO ENGINEERS REALLY DO?³

A problem that besets most engineers is trying to explain to others justwhat it is that they do .

Some explain that civil engineers design bridges, electronic engineersdesign computers, and mechanical engineers design machines .

Some try to attempted to describing a hypothetical engineer¶s typicalday: working in an office, coming up with new ideas, defining problems,solving problems, working with others-customers, salespersons,manufacturing personnel and probably doing lots of travel .

The question now is whether you made a good decision four yearspreviously and whether engineering will prove to be a congenial lifetimechoice . No doubt the questioner is wondering whether engineeringpractice will resemble engineering in college .





SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

During the 1960s, when the United States was trying to get itsspace program going, engineers became bothered by the fact thatevery successful rocket firing was hailed as a scientific achievement , whereas every unsuccessful one was called anengineering failure .

Obviously, there was much confusion in the public mind regardingscience and engineering .

Today there is greater public appreciation of the nature of engineering, therefore as a result it has been the enhancement of the status of the engineering profession .

Most of the current definitions of these two words, science andengineering, shed little light on the matter .




ENGINEER AND SOCIETYSCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

For instance:i. Scientists primarily produce knowledge .

ii. Engineers primarily produce things .

This is based on what they has been producing . At one time thescientists be producing knowledge and at another time be producing

things .

This is because engineering and science are intimately related . In fact,as our society grows technologically more sophisticated, engineeringprojects tend to become a mixture of these two fields

The basic task of the scientist is to perform research (create newknowledge) . While the basic task of the engineer is to perform designand development (create new things) .





SCIENCE AND ENGINEERINGEngineers, on the other hand, are concerned with the creation of devices,

systems, and structures for human use .

It should be noted that the output of an engineer may not always betangible .

For example, many engineer are engaged in the design of intangibles, suchas processes and systems





Engineering certainly requires specialized knowledge and intensive preparation, but thedegree of preparation is not so great as that in medicine or law, two professions with which

engineers frequently compare their own

The engineering are required to meets the tests of high standards, continued study, andpublic service . However, it should be noted that these three points relate more to thebehavior of the individual professional than to the group

What engineering professionalism meant, the three most frequent responses were:1 . Technical competence and skill: high standards of learning and ability2 . Prestige for the profession: stature (figure), poise (self-esteem), respect3 . Become more like lawyers and doctors: raise standards as in medicine and law .

However the engineers¶ managers placed the matters of competence, responsibility, and

ethics at the top of their lists, while the aspects of prestige were well toward the bottom .

Continued study

Public Service





Nature & Role

The engineering contains a very large number of relatively small fields, such asindustrial engineering, mining engineering, ocean engineering, systemsengineering, corrosion engineering, safety engineering, and traffic engineering .





The Nature & RoleTHE FUNCTIONS OF ENGINEERING

It was observed earlier that the characteristic activity of theengineer is design .





Nature & Role

ResearchResearch is the process of learning about nature and codifying this knowledge

into usable theories . In the common way of looking at things, it is supposedthat scientists first do research in order to provide a scientific basis for whatengineers will do later and that engineers then apply this knowledge

Design and Development .

Design is often difficult to distinguish from a related activity: develo p ment . In practice, the term development is likely to refer to the early stages of a project, when

the various possible methods through which the project is to be accomplished areanalyzed, compared, and tested .

Design usually refers more to the later phases of a project, when the basic method of achievement has been decided .

Generally, companies refer to the whole spectrum of their technical activities as researchand development, usually abbreviated R&D





Nature & Role

TestingSome organizations have special test departments, organizationally separate

from the design departments . The reason for separation is so the test departments can bemore objective in their testing procedures than if designerstested their own creations . Test departments not only test new designs but

may also conduct tests of new parts or materials and may conduct qualification tests of products furnished by others .

ManufacturingBefore a product can reach the public, it must be manufactured (in the case of civil

engineering, constructed) . Many engineers are employed in manufacturing .

Manufacturing engineers have been responsible for the product, rather than for thepeople, and are daily engaged in solving the problems that inevitably arise inmanufacturing anything . They are also concerned with developing and improving theproduction process .

ENGINEER AND SOCIETYENGINEER AND SOCIETY




Nature & Role

ConstructionThe civil engineering analog to manufacturing is construction . Construction engineers may

either be directly in charge of the construction personnel or may instead have responsibilityfor the quality of the process .

They are usually employees of the construction contractor, who may deliberately hire civilengineering graduates for the purpose or may instead hire graduates of the increasinglyavailable construction technology programs .

These individuals have the responsibility for the quality of construction, they are usuallyemployees of the consulting engineer firm that designed the structure .

Resident Engineer meaning that they spend all their time on the construction site




Nature & Role

SalesMany employers deliberately recruit engineering or technology graduates for this purpose .

Many engineers move into activities that clearly consist of straight sales work and thuscompletely lose contact with engineering, this is not what is generally meant by salesengineering .

Sales engineering is a province truly intermediate between sales and engineering and

occasionally involves engineering design.

Such opportunities normally arise in enterprisesthat sell and produce custom-designed systems

ConsultingConsulting engineering is the activity that most closely resembles the mode of operation of

doctors and lawyers, but only a very small percentage of engineers are engaged inconsulting .

It is erroneous to think of a consulting engineer as an individual who typically offersservices to the public for a fee, like a doctor .

GovernmentThe government is a major employer of engineers .




Nature & Role

ManagementStatistics show that, sooner or later, most engineers go into management .

Some engineering graduates are actively interested in management careers .

Management is a major career destination for engineers, whether things are plannedthat way or not .

TeachingFinally, we should note that some engineers become teachers . lf one wishesto teach at the two-year community college level, a master¶s degree and ateaching credential are the usual prerequisites .

Professional experience also is highly desired .




ENGINEER AND SOCIETYEngineering tasks and possible problems

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Tasks A selection of possible problems

Conceptual design Blind to new concepts.

Violation of patents or trade secrets.

Productto be used illegally .

Goals; performancespecifications

Unrealistic assumptions . Design depends on unavailable or untested materials .

Preliminary analysis Uneven: Overly detailed in designer¶s area of expertise, marginalelsewhere .

Detailed analysis Uncritical use of handbook data and computer programs based on

unidentified methodologies .

Simulation¶ prototyping Testing of prototype done only under most favorable conditions or not completed .

Design specifications Too tight for adjustments during manufacture and use . Designchanges not carefully checked .

Scheduling of tasks Promise of unrealistic completion date based on insufficientallowance for unexpected events .

Purchasing Specifications written to favor one vendor . Bribes, kickbacks . Inadequate testing of purchased parts .

Fabrication of parts Variable quality of materials and workmanship . Bogus materialsand components not detected .

Assembly/construction Workplace safety . Disregard of repetitive-motion stress on workers . Poor control of toxic wastes .

Q uality control/testing Not independent, but controlled by production manager . Hence,tests rushed or results falsified .




Engineering tasks and possible problems

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Tasks A selection of possible problems

Advertising and sales False advertising ( availability, quality ) . Product oversoldbeyond client¶s needs or means .

Shipping, installation,training

Product too large to ship by land . Installation and trainingsubcontracted out, inadequately supervised .

Safety measures anddevices

Reliance on overly complex, failure-prone safety devices . Lack of a simple ³safety exit´

Use Used inappropriately or for illegal applications . Overloaded . Operations manuals not ready .

Maintenance, parts,repairs

Inadequate supply of spare parts . Hesitation to recall theproduct when found to be faulty .

Monitoring effects of product

No formal procedure for following life cycle of products,its effects on society and environment .

Recycling/disposal Lack of attention to ultimate dismantling, disposal of product, public notification of hazards .





MINI PROJECT

Identify one disaster happen recently and discuss as follow:1 . Introduction2 . Brief about the case study disaster 3 . Similarity of disaster 4 . Rectification process

5 . Future development6 . Recommendation7 . Conclusion8 . Reference

Team member : Maximum 3 students

Title submission : 20th

April 2011Submission : Week 4 (6 th May 2011)


week 1 engineer and society

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