EWeek – Much of engineering is based upon physics. This short (8 minute) video attempts to give a ‘map’ of physics. I thought it was a good topic for Engineers Week. It is similar to the ‘Mathematics Map‘ I mentioned earlier in the week and was created by the same person.
EWeek – I have come across, and saved, a number of quotes some from noted engineers others just about the drive to innovate and create. I am sharing some of those with you below:
“Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man.” —Ralph J. Smith, Electrical Engineer
“Innovation makes the world go round. It brings prosperity and freedom.” – Robert Metcalfe
“Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.” —James A. Michener, Author
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
“The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.” – Thomas J. Watson
“Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.” —Sir Henry Royce, Engineer
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“There’s nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.” ― Bill Nye, Mechanical Engineer and Educator
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – Elon Musk
“When you want to know how things really work, study them when they’re coming apart.” ― William Gibson, Novelist
“A little progress each day adds up to big results.”
“A scientist can discover a new star but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him.” ― Gordon Lindsay Glegg, Engineer
“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” – Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
“Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.” ― Isaac Asimov, Author
“Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.” —Henry Petroski, Engineer
“For the future, primarily, we must educate people in science, engineering, technology and math.” —Buzz Aldrin, Engineer and Astronomer
“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Dr. Edwin Land
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk
“Scientists investigate that which already is – engineers create that which has never been.” – Albert Einstein
EWeek – Math isn’t engineering, but without mathematics little engineering could be accomplished. I thought that Engineers Week would be a good time to look at the breadth of what mathematics offers us. This 11 minute video gives a good overview.
EWeek – As we continue to celebrate Engineers Week, lets not forget that some significant advances were made by women engineers. Just a few of these are:
Hypatia of Alexandria (350 or 370–415 AD), credited with the invention of the hydrometer
Martha Coston (1826-1904), engineered a signal system so ships could light up their locations on both land and sea
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and created the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of a “computing machine” and the first computer programmer.
Lilian Gilbret (1878-1972, contributed to industrial engineering by studying workplace patterns and scenarios
Marilyn Jorgensen Reece (1926-2004), first female to earn full licensing as a civil engineer in the state of California in 1954. She also was entrusted with the design of the San Diego-Santa Monica freeway interchange in Los Angeles
Beatrice Hicks (1919-1979), helped develop new technologies for aerospace communications, as well as telephones among her many achievements.
Edith Clarke (1883-1959), first woman to earn a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She accomplished yet another first by becoming the first female teacher in the engineering department at the University of Texas, Austin (one of my alma maters).
Kathleen McNulty (1921–2006), selected to be one of the original programmers of the ENIAC
Kate Gleason (1865-1933), Her engineering background and design innovations, combined with her business and sales skills, took her from coast to coast and overseas and her housing ideas spread
Elsie Eaves (1898-1983), Eaves was voted in as the first female member — and later, as a life member — of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Mary Walton, she came to excel at environmental engineering without specific training, and well before there was a specialized field of environmental engineering
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842-1911), The first woman to graduate from MIT in the history of the institution. She served in public health, sanitary engineering, mining engineering and chemistry, but Richards is best known as the founder of home economics.
Grace Hopper 1906-1992), a United States Navy Rear Admiral who was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language.She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL
EWeek – Engineers have been with us for many centuries. Per Webster’s Dictionary: an engineer is:
a member of a military group devoted to engineering work
a designer or builder of engines
a person who is trained in or follow as a profession a branch of engineering
I think more appropriately Webster’s defines engineering as: a science by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to man
Over the centuries, the engineers of the world have accomplished many significant achievements. Some of those have been identified as:
Ancient world – Projectile Weaponry (Spears, Arrows etc) – Time immemorial to present day
Second Century AD – The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
2560 BC – The Great Pyramid of Giza
3000-1500 BC – Stonehenge
70-80 BC – the Colosseum in Rome
500-1500 AD – The Taj Mahal
500 AD – the Hagia Sophia
1399 AD – the Leaning Tower of Pisa
7th century BCE until 1644 – the Great Wall of China
1450 AD – Machu Pichu
1998 AD – the International Space Station
1903 AD – Maned Flight
1991 AD – The Internet
1850 AD – Electrification
1990 AD – the Channel Tunnel
These are some of the big engineering accomplishments. But engineers make countless improvements to almost every thing we use every day. One of my colleagues often would challenge a class when he was visiting to talk about engineering to name something that engineers hadn’t touched. He was never stumped whether an engineer was involved in the design, manufacturing, packaging or transportation of an item.
The intent is to “ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers. Today, EWeek is a formal coalition of more than 70 engineering, education, and cultural societies, and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Dedicated to raising public awareness of engineers’ positive contributions to quality of life, EWeek promotes recognition among parents, teachers, and students of the importance of a technical education and a high level of math, science, and technology literacy, and motivates youth, to pursue engineering careers in order to provide a diverse and vigorous engineering workforce. ”
Check out this IEEE Central Texas Sectionweb page for the activities that are taking place in Central Texas. There are activities planned for both Austin and San Antonio.
John's Notes 