The role of engineering science

in engineering
By: Jade Lamorell
Course Code: ENSC1003
ID: #76364

The historical development of engineering and the factors that have driven engineering.

Many people believe that engineering is a recent human achievement, however the concept of
engineering has existed and been practiced for quite some time. The earliest forms of
engineering consist of primordial man using stone knapping methods to build and design tools
such as the hammer and axe, building bows and arrows to hunt animals, tanning animal fur for
clothing, the Chandi boari(stepwell) located in India was made to collect rainwater for drinking
and bathing, agricultural terraces built in 1000AD by the Inca empire for farming crops on steep
sloped mountainsides in the Andes ,the military weapons such as the catapult developed by the
Chinese and Greeks, the Step Pyramid in Egypt designed by Imhotep, the Antikythera
Mechanism which was used to predict the position of planets, the Great Wall of China, and the
underground churches of Ethiopia.

In the Middle Ages, during the Islamic Golden Age a man by the name of Ismail-al-Jazari
engineered water mills, water wheels and pumps for raising water. The printing press
developed by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany was used to mass-produce the Bible as well as
other books in medieval Europe.

The steam engine was developed beginning the industrial revolution. Modernly, we have
electrical engineering which can traced back to William Gibert, the invention of the transistor
which plays a major role in electronics and computing today, the fields of robotic engineering
and the complex design of A.I systems.

Many factors have influenced engineering throughout history, these include religious and
political influence, climate change as well as land formations, population growth, the
environment, the need for comfort and a better life and the pursuit of scientific knowledge, all
these have played a role in driving engineering forward.
Role and application of engineering science as a tool in solving engineering problems.

Engineers use engineering science as a tool to invent and conceptualize ingenious solutions to
the challenges we face, whether it be crime, overpopulation, climate change, transport and
finding new ways to harness and use energy. Engineering science plays a vital role in improving
our world , engineers use the fundamental aspects of engineering science like math, physics,
chemistry and thermodynamics to understand how our world operates and why things work in
certain ways, to observe how materials conduct or insulate, their strength and durability under
strain, stress and tension to design and invent new tools and technologies that enhance existing
structures, devices, systems, machines and materials. All the things we use on a daily basis
wouldn’t have been here without engineering science along with the engineers who apply it, by
putting engineering science at the forefront their design methodology, engineers ensure that
they can and will address any engineering problem. When engineers apply engineering science
to solve our problems this ensures that experiments carried out are able to prove whether the
theories postulated are close to the truth or false, this ensures that the things that engineers
build and design will be accurate and safe instead of potentially killing us.

The impact/importance of the solutions generated via engineering science and the
improvement of solutions over time.

The solutions created by means of engineering science has impacted society a lot,eby
engineering the Internet and cell phones engineers have managed to evolve the way in which
we communicate, the Internet has influenced how we do research, purchase items,
communication has become quicker and more readily available, by using social media apps
friends and family communicate across long distances, students can take online university
classes improving their education level, the Internet has had a major impact on advancing the
global economy. Our means of transportation automobiles, bridges ,roads, highways, cargoes
and planes has led to much easier movement of goods and services, freed persons from
limitations of geography, enabled farmers to sell their crops globally. Farming equipment and
machines have led farmers to increase their production of crops, reduced the price of crops and
increase crop quality, human health has been impacted significantly by engineering a simple
thing like clean water has led to improved health, contributed to crop growth and reduced
human diseases. Electronics and computers are embedded in everyday devices like stoves,
fridges and washing machines which has helped drastically reduce domestic workload. They
have been some negative impacts from certain solutions such as increased pollution from our
forms of transport and plastic, damage to marine life, acers of e-waste across Africa, tons of
chemicals being dumped into the soil, security and privacy risks, dangerous chemicals that we
use now that are adversely affecting our health and military weapons and bombs that kill
thousands everyday. The importance of these solutions good or bad can help engineers to build
new knowledge from them, expand and improve these solutions over time, design and build
safer, faster, quieter, more fuel efficient and less expensive solutions to our problems.
Engineers have improved many solutions over the years, the first computers introduced were
the size of a large room, engineers have improved those designs remarkably and now we are
able to hold such computing devices in our hands with more processing power than the ones of
long ago, traffic lights, highways, crash barriers and lighting on roads have been improved to
accommodate more cars and create a safer environment for travel.

Future development possibilities credited to engineering science and the possible

appearance of our world in fifty (50) years.

We can expect a severe transition from oil, gas and coal energy to solar energy, new forms of
medicine, the development of artificial intelligence, A.I supercomputers connected to neuron
network of human beings along with the (IoT)Internet of Things, the artificial female womb,
establishment of moon bases, 3-D printed brain transplants, the embedding of computer chips
within humans, meat created from labs sold in groceries and supermarkets. As for the
appearance of our world in fifty years we may expect the wars for technological power, greater
risks of identity theft and security breaches, connected virtual reality social network, first steps
to develop the artificial womb for humans, more land loss due to reclamation by the sea,
monopolies in business, persons who chose to embed themselves with computer chips may be
subjected to secret monitorization of their minds and thoughts by companies, the banning of
certain books, a rise in pseudoscience within academia.

References

1. 7 Man-Made Engineering Wonders of the Ancient World. (n.d). Retrieved from

http://online.norwich.edu
2. High School Engineering/Global and Societal Impact of Engineering. (n.d). Retrieved
from http://en.m.wikibooks.org
3. Engineering. (n.d). Retrieved from newworldencyclopedia.org
4. Adam Minter. The Burning Truth Behind an E-waste Dump in Africa January 13v2016
smithsonianmag.com
5. Dennis Hartman The effect of Electronic Communication. (n.d). Retrieved from
techwallla.com
6. The History of the Catapult. (n.d). stormthecastle.com
7. Christopher Fadden Mechanical Engineering in the Middle Ages: The Catapult,
Mechanical Clocks and Many More we never knew about April 28 2018
interestingengineering.com
8. Ralph Smith Engineering britannica.com/technology/engineering