• Question: Why do some engineers do something different to others?

    Asked by Cheeseman207 to Matthew, Neil, Paula, Pete, Philippa on 11 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Neil Taylor

      Neil Taylor answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      Hi!

      Good question! Engineering is a really, really large subject with lots of very different aspects.

      Some of these aspects include:-

      mechanical engineering (e.g. for moving parts in cars, or designing pumps)
      electrical engineering (e.g. for electronics, power lines)
      aerodynamics (e.g. for testing a car’s wind resistance in an air tunnel, aeroplanes)
      civil engineering (e.g. for bridges, roads)
      chemical engineering (e.g. transporting fluids)

      …among others!

      People spend 4 or 5 years on university courses that are jam-packed with information for any one of these subjects, and each one is different from the other. It can takes a few years in a job after university for someone to have an in-depth knowledge in a particular subject, and many more years before they can call themselves an “expert”!

      This is one of the reasons that every engineer can’t do every job – there would simply not be enough time to learn all the information needed!

      Hope this helps!

    • Photo: Pete Symons

      Pete Symons answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      Hi Cheeseman207,

      Good question. Engineering is such a broad subject, with so many different ways in which you can choose to specialise in, it why I think engineering is such a good career. Because there are so many different things you can do in engineering it means that you can choose what interests you the most and pursue a career in. For yourself, mechanical engineering sounds like the area of engineering you might want to follow a career as an aircraft mechanic, but who knows you may change your mind in years to come!

    • Photo: Philippa Jefferis

      Philippa Jefferis answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      There used to only be Military Engineering – where by most of the engineering was carried out by the military. Then in the 1800s a group of engineers in England formed a group called The Institution of Civil Engineers. Civil being the fact they were civilians not military. This again covered all types of engineering – Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the early members and he designed bridges but also steam ships, which today would be considered mechanical engineering.

      There is so much variety in the skills covered by engineering, it is hard to capture it all. However we all have a common theme of trying to solve problems and improve lives.

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