what is engineering?
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What is Engineering?. An introduction to engineering adapted from the course “What is Engineering?” offered to freshman at Johns Hopkins University. What is Engineering ? How does it differ from science?. iPod. Science: DESCRIBE EXPLAIN - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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An introduction to engineering adapted from the course “What is Engineering?” offered to freshman at Johns Hopkins University
What is Engineering?
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What is Engineering?
How does it differ from science?
Science:DESCRIBEEXPLAIN
Parameters: θ, Ψ, ρ, σ2,☺,λ, Ǻ, g, ћ, H2C5OH, . . .Starting salary: $38K (chemist)
Engineering:INVENTDESIGNBUILD
Parameters: $Starting salary: $54K (chemical engineer)
iPod
spandex
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If it moves, it's mechanical engineering;If it doesn't move, it's civil engineering;If you can't see it, it's electrical engineering;If it smells, it's chemical engineering.
Engineering: What are its fields?Thirty years ago. . .
Today, it’s a blur. . .
Biomolecular-, nano-, computer-, materials-, robotic-, biomedical-, environmental-, . . .
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What is Engineering?
According to Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary:
Engineering is “the application of mathematical andscientific principles to practical ends, as the design,construction, and operation of economical and efficientstructures, equipment, and systems.”
But is there more. . .?
“Engineering. . .to define rudely but not inaptly is the art of doing that well with one dollar, which any bungler can do with two after a fashion”--Arthur Mellen Wellington, The Economic Theory of Railway Location (1911)
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Engineering is art. Aesthetics as well as function counts
The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, SpainFrank Gehry, architect
The Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale,England 1779
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More art . . .
Pont du Gard, France, 100AD
Sagrada familia, Barcelona
Boring - see Civil Engineers --UK Yellow Pages
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More engineering art. . .by women
Vietnam Memorial (Mia Lin)
Hearst Castle (Julia Morgan) Musee d’Orsay (Gae Aulenti)
London eye (Julia Barfield)
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Engineering is problem-solving
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Engineering is approximation. The mathematics of engineeringsystems are often too complicated to solve analytically.
“Engineering problems are under-defined, there are many solutions,good, bad and indifferent. The art is to arrive at a good solution.This is a creative activity involving imagination, intuition, anddeliberate choice.”--Ove Arup
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Engineering is measurement and estimation. River flow,noise in a communication system, scatter in a laser beam,earthquake characteristics--all require measurement
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Engineering is modeling and simulation.
Often the only efficient means to confirm that an idea or design will work is to experiment with a scale model or computer simulation.
Model of the X-33 being testedin the NASA Langley Mach 20helium wind tunnel
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Engineering is communication. Making presentations,producing technical manuals, coordinating teams for largescale projects are all fundamental to engineering practice.
Richard Feynmanduring the Challengerdisaster hearings.
$125M communication error
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Engineering is politics. The best functional solutionis not necessarily the best practical solution.
Three-mile island
NIMBY
Alaskan pipeline
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Engineering is finance. Design, construction, operation,and maintenance costs determine the viability ofprojects.
The Big Dig, Boston: $14.2 billion
The Channel tunnel: $21 billion
($1 billion = 666 Eiffel towers)
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Engineering is invention/design/innovation. New devices, materials, and processes are developed by engineers to meet needs that existing technologies do not address.
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Engineering is ethics.
Engineering is safety.
Engineering is public service.
. . .
“Architects and engineers are among the most fortunate of men since they build their own monuments with public consent, public approval and often public money”--John Prebble
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Engineering is new materials. . . and the space elevator
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Engineering is new designs for old problems
Millau viaduct-France (2005)
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Engineering isn’t only about big things.
It’s also about nano-bio, bottom-up, tailored structures
quantum dotbiological markers
SWCN switches nano-robots
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Engineering is haptics and robotic surgery
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Engineering is acoustic control
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Expose yourself to engineering!
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What is learning?
Synthesizing theory and knowledge in order to solve problems:
Not just theory out of context--the “what”. But also the “why”,“when”, and under what conditions the theory may be invokedto solve a problem.
Learning is also discovering what doesn’t work.
". . . a failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without incident often conceals whatever lessons or caveats it might hold for the next generation of engineers." Henri Petroski, To Engineer Is Human
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Best educational technique: Apprenticeships
Graduate-student training
Medical residency programs
Plumber’s apprenticeships
Music lessons
Learn by doing!
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Best educational strategies in a classroom
1) Provide context--give reason to understand a theory or calculation
2) Give problems “out of the chapter”
3) Give assignments that involve efficiency, cost, functionality, accuracy
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Best educational strategies in a classroom (cont.)
4) Back-of-the-envelope problems: “Fermi questions”
5) Assignments without single, deducible, correct answers
6) Taking data and deducing the underlying physical principles
7) Hands on--laboratories, virtual laboratories, projects
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Engaging the students
• Do’s– Introduce each topic or subtopic by posing a problem
• Suppose we need to devise a robot that moves toward light. . .
• Suppose we want to separate fat from gravy for a Thanksgiving dinner. . .
• Suppose we want to bid on a tree as material for a toothpick factory. . .
• Suppose we need a bridge to support the weight of a car. . .
• Suppose we would like to deduce the period of a pendulum. . .
– Continually ask “why”• Why do we want to do this?
• Why do we care?
• Why digital instead of analog?
• Why binary instead of decimal?
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Engaging the students
• Do’s (cont.)– Ask the complementary question “Why not?”
• Why not use Elmer’s glue (or a glue gun) on spaghetti bridges?
• Why not measure the weight of a single penny on a postal scale?
• Why not use titanium to build bridges?
• Why not
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• Do’s (cont.)– Ask “what?”
• What tools/principles can we use on this problem?
– finding forces in members attached to a pin joint on a stationary structure
– separating alcohol from water
– improving the accuracy of a measurement
• What are the conditions under which XXXX will/will not work?
– Can we have a stone lintel that spans 20 feet?
– When will a model yield characteristics of its full-scale counterpart?
– What does it mean if the mass entering a control volume does not equal the mass leaving a control volume?
Engaging the students
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• Do’s (cont.)– Give examples and counter examples
– Give reasons for each step in solving a problem (the solution is less important than the strategy for approaching it)
– Pose sub-problems, i.e., “what if?”
– Relate to other fields
• mass conservation vs. Kirchoff’s laws
• heat flow vs. electron flow vs. particle diffusion (gradient transport)
Engaging the students
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• Don’ts– Don’t present theories/calculations without context
– Don’t use ambiguous or loosely defined terms
– Don’t “plug and chug” problems (maybe it’s OK occasionally)
– Don’t present topics without placing them within a “bigger picture”
Engaging the students
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What is Engineering? The course.
From a fundamentals point of view:
1) Dimensions and their role
2) vs. 3.1416 and dx vs. x
3) “Stuff” is conserved
4) Zero as a condition, e.g.,
5) NAND gates rule the digital world
0forces
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What is Engineering? The course.
From a substantive point of view:
1) Strength/behavior of materials2) Statics/structures3) Uncertainty, statistics, measurement4) Robotics5) Digital logic/circuitry6) Separation processes7) Diffusion, heat transfer
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From a “process” point of view, i.e., what an engineerdoes
1) Communicationa) proposal presentationb) development of assembly/construction plansc) reporting and interpreting of laboratory resultsd) research synthesis (written)
2) Project managementa) time/team managementb) designc) constructiond) testing
What is Engineering? The course.
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“process” (cont.)
3) Experimentationa) measurementb) application of principlesc) application of data
4) Toolsa) approximationb) statisticsc) computer software
i) simulationii) spreadsheet/presentationiii) graphics/drawing
What is Engineering? The course.
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1) Properties of materials
2) Materials laboratory
3) Theory of structures
4) Design a bridge to specification
5) Build it
6) Test it
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What is Engineering? The project.