Lecture 2: What is Engineering

and Computer Science?

NGN110: Introduction to Engineering

and Computing

Dr. Fadi Aloul

*http://www.engineeringk12.org
What is Engineering?

National Council of Engineering Examiners:

“Engineer shall mean a person who, by
reason of his special knowledge and use of
mathematical, physical, and engineering
sciences and the principles of engineering
analysis and design, acquired by education
and experience, is qualified to practice
engineering”

OK, seriously now, what is Engineering?

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What is Engineering?

 Individuals who combine

knowledge of science and
mathematics to solve
technical problems that
confront society.

 Engineers convert scientific

theory into useful application.

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What is a Scientist?

 Prime objective is
increased knowledge of
nature and its “laws”.

 Scientists use knowledge

to acquire new knowledge.

 Engineers apply this

knowledge to develop
things for society.

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Engineering Functions

Research
Design
Development
Analysis
Maintenance
Sales
Management
Teaching
Consulting
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 Engineering Fields

Traditional Fields

Electrical/
Civil Chemical Mechanical Industrial
Computer

Other Fields

Aeronautical Nuclear Petroleum Environment Biomedical

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Engineering Disciplines

 Chemical Engineering
 Chemical engineers take raw
materials and turn them into the
products that we use every day.

 This means that they are crucial

to producing pharmaceuticals,
soft drinks, and even makeup.

 Many chemical engineers work

with petroleum and plastics.

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Engineering Disciplines

 Civil Engineering
 Considered one of the oldest
engineering disciplines.

 They design and supervise the

construction of roads, buildings,
airports, tunnels, dams, bridges,
water supply and sewage systems.

 They must consider many factors in

the design process
• Construction costs
• Expected lifetime of a project
• Government regulations
• Potential environmental
hazards such as earthquakes
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Engineering Disciplines

 Electrical Engineering
 The discipline covers
everything related to electrical
devices and the use of
electricity.

 Electrical engineers work on

power plants, wiring in
buildings, lighting, motors,
satellites, communication
networks, and other electrical
devices.

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Engineering Disciplines

 Computer Engineering
 Deals with all aspects of
computer systems including
hardware and software.

 Some computer engineers

specialize in areas like digital
systems, microprocessors,
operating systems, computer
networks, security, and
databases.

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Engineering Disciplines

 Computer Science
 Focuses on the software side of
computers.

 It is concerned with techniques

related to processing,
transporting (networking), and
storing (database systems)
information.

 Particular interest is placed on

making processes efficient,
secure and intelligent.

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Engineering Disciplines

 Industrial Engineering
 Deals with the design, installation,
analysis, and improvement of
integrated systems of people,
materials, machines, and information
to produce goods and deliver services
with high quality and low cost.

 Goal is to make things work better by

optimizing the quality and productivity

 Industrial engineers work in both

manufacturing firms and service
industries, e.g. automobile assembly
lines, check in services, etc

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Engineering Disciplines

 Mechanical Engineers
 Use mechanics and energy
principles to design machines
such as engines and motors.

 Many mechanical engineers work

in the areas of air-conditioning
and refrigeration, automotives,
manufacturing, welding, and
robotics.

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Do You Fit The Profile?

 Answer the following questions:

1. Are you good in math and physics?
2. Do you enjoy knowing how things work?
3. Do you think of better ways to do things?
4. If you get a gift that says “Assemble yourself”, do you put it
together?
5. Do you like to work with computers and play video games?
6. Do you like to do mazes and jigsaw puzzles?
7. Do you usually make sound decisions, and do people trust your
judgment?
8. Can you express yourself easily and clearly?
9. Do you work well with others?
10. Do you like to know “why”?

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Do You Fit The Profile?

 If you answered, “Yes” to most of the questions, your

potential for success in engineering is high.
 Let’s examine each of the 10 questions to see how a
“yes” answer helps identify you as a potential engineer or
computer scientist.
1. Are you good in math and physics?
• Math and science are basic tools in engineering.
2. Do you enjoy knowing how things work?
• Wanting to know “how it works” is essential to finding better
ways to design things.
3. Do you think of better ways to do things?
4. If you get a gift that says “Assemble yourself”, do you put it
together?
• The desire to figure things out and “do it better” is an
important drive in engineers.

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Do You Fit The Profile?

5. Do you like to work with computers and play video games?

• Computers and video games provide an introduction to
working with graphics as well as to problem solving.
6. Do you like to do mazes and jigsaw puzzles?
• Analytical problem solving, the skill you use when working on
mazes and puzzles, is among the most important aspects of
engineering work.
7. Do you usually make sound decisions, and do people trust your
judgment?
• As an engineer, your ability to focus on the problem at hand
and make knowledgeable comments and decisions will help
you gain respect and will make you a valuable member of the
engineering team.

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Do You Fit The Profile?

8. Can you express yourself easily and clearly?

• Engineers must be able to explain ideas and decisions to all
audiences
9. Do you work well with others?
• Engineers work with other engineers, technologists and
technicians as a team.
• They must be able to work with people who have different
backgrounds and special interests.
10. Do you like to know “why”?
• Wanting to know how things work is something that drives all
engineers.
• This curiosity encourages engineers to break complex
problems into simpler ones that will be easier to solve.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

1- Job Satisfaction

Studies show that, by far, the No. 1 cause of

unhappiness among people in the United States is job
dissatisfaction.

Thus, it is important to find a career that provides you

with enjoyment and satisfaction. After all, you might
spend 40 or so years working eight hours or more a
day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

2- Varied Career Opportunities

An engineering degree offers a wide range of career

possibilities. Within the practice of engineering, there
is an enormous variety of job functions.

The majority of today’s college graduates will have

more than one career during their work life, and
engineering can provide a strong foundation for
almost any one of them

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

3- Challenging Work

When you get into the engineering work world,

virtually all problems will be open-ended.

There will be no single answer, no answer in the back

of the book, no professor to tell you that you are right
or wrong.

You will be required to devise a solution and

persuade others that your solution is the best one.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

4- Intellectual Development

An engineering education will "exercise" your brain,

developing your ability to think logically and to solve
problems. These are skills that will be valuable
throughout your life.

For example, your problem-solving skills can help you

undertake tasks such as planning a vacation, finding
a job, organizing a fund-raiser, purchasing a house, or
writing a book.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

5- Benefit Society

As an engineer you can choose to work on projects

that clearly benefit society, such as cleaning up the
environment, developing prosthetic aids for disabled
persons, developing clean and efficient transportation
systems, finding new sources of energy, alleviating
the world's hunger problems, and increasing the
standard of living in underdeveloped countries

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

6- Financial Security

While financial security should not be your only

reason for choosing a career in engineering, if you
decide to become an engineer you will be well paid.

Engineering graduates receive the highest starting

salary of any discipline.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

7- Prestige

Engineers play a primary role in sustaining our

nation's international competitiveness, maintaining
our standard of living, ensuring a strong national
security, and protecting public safety.

Furthermore, most people know that engineering

requires hard work and strong technical skills. As a
member of such a respected profession, you will
receive a high amount of prestige.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

8- Professional Environment

As an engineer, you will work in a professional

environment in which you will be treated with respect
and have a certain amount of freedom in choosing
your work. You will also be in a position to influence
what happens at your company.

As a professional, you will receive liberal benefits,

which will typically include a retirement plan, life
insurance, health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation,
holidays, and savings or profit-sharing plans.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

9- Understand How Things Work?

Do you understand how the loads are transmitted to

the supports on a suspension bridge? Do you know
what a laser is or how a computer works? When you
drive on a mountain road, do you look at the guard
rails and understand why they were designed the way
they were?
An engineering education can help you understand
how these, and many other things in the world, work.

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Why Choose Engineering or Computer Science?

10- Creative Thinking

Engineering is by its very nature a creative

profession.

When practicing engineers develop solutions to open-

ended, real-world problems, they must employ
conscious and subconscious mental processing as
well as divergent and convergent thinking

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Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century

#20 – High Performance Materials

#19 – Nuclear Technologies
#18 – Laser and Fiber Optics
#17 – Petroleum and Gas Technologies
#16 – Health Technologies
#15 – Household Appliances
#14 – Imaging Technologies
#13 – Internet
#12 – Space Exploration
#11 – Interstate Highways
#10 – Air Conditioning and refrigeration

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Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century

#9 – Telephone
#8 – Computers
#7 – Agricultural Mechanization
#6 – Radio and Television
#5 – Electronics
#4 – Safe and Abundant Water
#3 – Airplane
#2 – Automobile
#1 – Electrification

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Famous Engineers

 Leonardo da Vinci
 Florentine artist, one of the great
masters of the High
Renaissance, celebrated as a
painter, sculptor, architect,
engineer, and scientist.

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Famous Engineers

 Alexander Graham Bell

 Inventor of the telephone.
He also worked in medical
research and invented
techniques for teaching
speech to the deaf. In 1888
he founded the National
Geographic Society.

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Famous Engineers

 Thomas Edison
 Edison patented 1,093 inventions
in his lifetime, earning him the
nickname the "Wizard of Menlo
Park." The most famous of his
inventions was an incandescent
light bulb.

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Famous Engineers

 Henry Ford
 Ford showed an early interest in
mechanics, constructing his first
steam engine at the age of 15.
In 1891, Ford became an
engineer with the Edison
Illuminating Co. in Detroit. He
became Chief Engineer in 1893
and this position allowed him to
devote attention to his personal
experiments on internal
combustion engines. In 1893 he
built his first internal combustion
engine, a small one-cylinder
gasoline model, and in 1896 he
built his first automobile. In June
1903, Ford helped establish
Ford Motor Co.
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Famous Engineers

 Alfred Hitchcock
 British-born American director
and producer of many
brilliantly contrived films, most
of them psychological thrillers
including Psycho, The Birds,
Rear Window, and North by
Northwest. He was born in
London and trained there as an
engineer at Saint Ignatius
College.

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Famous Engineers

 Neil Alden Armstrong

 became the first man to walk
on the moon on July 20, 1969,
at 10:56 p.m. EDT. He and
"Buzz" Aldrin spent about two
and one-half hours walking on
the moon, while pilot Michael
Collins waited above in the
Apollo 11 command module.
Armstrong received his B.S. in
aeronautical engineering from
Purdue University and an M.S. in
aerospace engineering from
the University of Southern
California.

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Famous Engineers

 Herbert Hoover
 After graduating from Stanford
University, California, Hoover
went to China for work as a
mining engineer. Thirty years
later, Herbert Hoover became
the 31st President of the United
States.

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Famous Engineers

 Jimmy Carter
 39th President of the United States.
Attended Georgia Southwestern
College and the Georgia Institute of
Technology and received a B.S.
degree from the United States Naval
Academy in 1946.

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Famous Engineers

 Boris Yeltsin
 Former president of Russia.

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Famous Engineers

 Scott Adams
 Cartoonist
 Creator of “Dilbert”
 Computer Programmer

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Famous Engineers

 Rowan Atkinson
 Known as “Mr Bean”
 Studied Electrical
Engineering at Manchester
and Oxford University
 While at University, Atkinson
participated in the
Experimental Theatre Club

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Famous Engineers

 Montel Williams
 A highly decorated former Naval
engineer and Naval intelligence
officer, he is now an author of
inspirational books and host of a
popular syndicated television
talk show.

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Famous Computer Scientist

 William (Bill) H. Gates

 Was born in 1955. He is
chairman of Microsoft
Corporation. In his junior year,
Gates left Harvard University to
form Microsoft. Believing that
the computer would be a
valuable tool in every office and
home, he began developing
software for personal
computers. Today, Mr. Gates is
the world's wealthiest man.

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Famous Computer Scientist

 Marissa Mayer
 President & CEO, Yahoo
 Was employee No. 20 at
Google and the company's
first female engineer.
 Studied Computer Science
at Stanford University

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Without … Aerospace Engineering

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Without … Electrical Engineering

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Without … Civil Engineering

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Without … Communication Engineering

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Without … Computer Engineering / Science

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Without … Mechanical/Chemical Engineering

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