Read the story and be ready to comment on it

A man whose name was Herbert Hoover used to tell of meeting a woman on a ship while traveling. After several conversations over a week or so, the woman asked what his occupation was. Hoover told her he was an engineer, a mining engineer. And the woman replied, “An engineer? I thought you were a gentleman.”

While you read

Read the interviews given by the experienced engineers from some of the leading foreign companies to MASHINE DESIGN magazine and formulate the only question they were asked

A

John Volter, engineering manager at Festo AG

Today, nothing works without information technology, this change is revolutionary. With 3D-CAD, we’re designing three times faster than before, and the time saved using FEA for strength calculations is even greater. And that’s true even though with greater computing power came an equal increase in model complexity. But IT opens up a big playground for trial and error and undisciplined work. Sometimes progress is foiled by having to take too many iterative steps to get the best result instead of analytical thinking before designing.

 

 

B

Cris Maxwell, Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Parker Hannifin Corp.

The tools we have today are just incredible, far superior to anything we could have imagined as far as the math, analytics, and ability to create virtual models before we actually cut any metal. That’s one reason we build better products today and take for granted things like reliability and six-sigma quality.

But what hasn’t really changed a whole lot is the speed of the design process. Sometimes you can build and test a part and have an answer sooner than the time it takes to model it.

C

Simon Chand, Chief Technology Officer of Rockwell Automation

There are two constants in the engineering profession that have not changed and will not change in the future. The first is how we look at engineers. Engineers are a unique group that knows how to solve problems and bring something of value to society by turning ideas into reality. The second constant is that the foundation of all engineering disciplines must remain strong analytical skills in science and math.

Still, there are several areas where there have been changes and will likely change again. The first covers the technical aspects. When I earned my engineering degree approximately 30 years ago, the focus was on being specialized in a certain discipline. Today we’re seeing more interdisciplinary work like mechatronics, where an electrical engineer needs expertise not just in electrical but also electronics, computer science, and mechanical. I see more melding of engineering disciplines with engineers becoming more flexible.

The second area concerns design constraints. Constraints include safety, sustainability, energy efficiency, reliability, manufacturability, and environmental. And there are more constraints today than before, and a lot more coming in the future. Engineers will have to understand all of these constraints their machines or products must meet.

The third area is collaboration. Today, the moment you walk into a work environment, you’re part of a team. An engineer must be able to collaborate and design virtually with a team distributed all over the world. And that involves communication, which means writing reports, giving presentations, talking to others, and attending meetings. The burden on engineers to communicate effectively continues to grow. Working with global teams presents language and culture barriers, how you talk to others, and even how you ask them to get something done.

D

Scott Hibbard, Vice President of Technology at Bosch Rexroth Corp.

In over 30 years of design and development engineering, the biggest change I have seen in engineering is in information retrieval. Engineers once needed racks and racks of catalogs to design control systems. Today, the same research is reduced to a few keystrokes to search and retrieve specifications from a database, whether it is on a PC or online. There is no way to design and develop the complex systems of today using the methods of the 1970s.

Regarding the social aspects of engineering, the profession is more respected throughout industry. Thirty years ago, many outside the profession thought engineering meant either a “rocket scientist” or a “factory technician.” Due in great part to the proliferation of consumer devices such as PCs, cell phones, and MP3 players, many more people have a stronger appreciation of the trade and how it affects their lives - even if they still have no idea what engineers do.

After you have read

What could be your answer?

Whose opinion do you appreciate best? Why?

 

Unit 4

TOPIC PRESENTATION

Engineering

Think and answer the questions

What is engineering?

What are possible Russian equivalents of the word “engineering”?

SKILLS

Reading

Before you read

Match the columns

1) electrical engineering	1) машиностроение
2) mechanical engineering	2) транспортное машиностроение
3) chemical engineering	3) электротехника
4) civil engineering	4) электронная техника
5) transport engineering	5) гражданское строительство
6) electronic engineering	6) вычислительная техника
7) aeronautical engineering	7) авиационная техника / машиностроение
8) computer engineering	8) разработка программного обеспечения
9) software engineering	9) химическая технология

While you read

Read the text paragraph by paragraph and do the tasks

Task 1: Read paragraphs 1 and 2 (average reading) and formulate one or two questions to which these paragraphs are the answers

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of people. The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD) has defined "engineering" as: The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination.

One who practices engineering is called an engineer, and those licensed to do so may have more formal designations such as Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, or European Engineer. The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of more specialized subdisciplines, each with a more specific emphasis on certain fields of application and particular areas of technology.

Task 2: Read paragraphs 3 – 6 (average / study reading) and explain the origin of such words as engineering – engineer – engine - ingenium

History

	The concept of engineering has existed since ancient times as humans devised fundamental inventions such as the pulley, lever, and wheel. Each of these inventions is consistent with the modern definition of engineering, exploiting basic mechanical principles to develop useful tools and objects.
	The term engineering itself has a much more recent etymology, deriving from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1325, when an engineer (literally, one who operates an engine) originally referred to “a constructor of military engines.” In this context, now obsolete, an “engine” referred to a military machine (for example, a catapult). Notable exceptions of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
	The word “engine” itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium, meaning “innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention.”
	Later, as the design of civilian structures such as bridges and buildings matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the older discipline of military engineering.

Task 3: Read paragraphs 7 – 10 (average / scanning reading) and name the countries that made a great contribution in engineering development; say what mechanisms / machines were developed in ancient era; point out what the first engineer is famous for.

Ancient era

	The Pharos of Alexandria, the pyramids in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Greece, the Roman aqueducts, the Colosseum, the cities and pyramids of the Mayan, Inca and Aztec Empires, the Great Wall of China, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the ancient civil and military engineers.
	The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep. As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) Egypt around 2630-2611 BC. He may also have been responsible for the first known use of columns in architecture.
	Ancient Greece developed machines in both the civilian and military domains. The antikythera mechanism, the first known mechanical computer, and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes are examples of early mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions as well as the antikythera mechanism required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the gear trains of the Industrial revolution, and are still widely used today in diverse fields such as robotics and automotive engineering.
	Chinese, Greek and Roman armies employed complex military machines and inventions such as artillery which was developed by the Greeks around the 4th century B.C., the trireme, the ballista and the catapult.

Task 4: Read paragraphs 11 and 12 (average reading) and say what Renaissance era is notable for

Renaissance era

	The first electrical engineer is considered to be William Gilbert, with his 1600 publication of De Magnete, who was the originator of the term "electricity". The first steam engine was built in 1698 by mechanical engineer Thomas Savery. The development of this device gave rise to the industrial revolution in the coming decades, allowing for the beginnings of mass production.
	With the rise of engineering as a profession in the eighteenth century, the term became more narrowly applied to fields in which mathematics and science were applied. Similarly, in addition to military and civil engineering the fields then known as the mechanic arts became incorporated into engineering.

Task 5: Read paragraphs 13 – 17 (average reading) and say what Modern era is characterized by

Modern era

	Electrical engineering can trace its origins in the experiments of Alessandro Volta in the 1800s, the experiments of Michael Faraday, Georg Ohm and others and the invention of the electric motor in 1872. The work of James Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century gave rise to the field of Electronics. The later inventions of the vacuum tube and the transistor further accelerated the development of electronics to such an extent that electrical and electronics engineers currently outnumber their colleagues of any other engineering specialty.
	The inventions of Thomas Savery and the Scottish engineer James Watt gave rise to modern Mechanical Engineering. The development of specialized machines and their maintenance tools during the industrial revolution led to the rapid growth of Mechanical Engineering both in its birthplace Britain and abroad.
	Chemical Engineering, like Mechanical Engineering, developed in the nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution. Industrial manufacturing demanded new materials and new processes and by 1880 the need for large scale production of chemicals was such that a new industry was created, dedicated to the development and large scale manufacturing of chemicals in new industrial plants. The role of the chemical engineer was the design of these chemical plants and processes.
	Aeronautical Engineering deals with aircraft design while Aerospace Engineering is a more modern term including spacecraft design. Its origins can be traced back to the aviation pioneers around the turn of the century from the 19th century to the 20th. Early knowledge of aeronautical engineering was largely empirical with some concepts and skills imported from other branches of engineering. Only a decade after the successful flights by the Wright brothers, there was extensive development of aeronautical engineering through development of military aircraft that were used in World War I. Meanwhile, research to provide fundamental background science continued by combining theoretical physics with experiments.

 

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