Учебное пособие. А. Н. Туполева (каи) кафедра восточных и европейских языков (вея) engineering английский язык для студентов технических специальностей учебное пособие
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ENGINEERING IN A SOCIAL CONTEXTEngineering is a subject that ranges from large collaborations to small individual projects. Almost all engineering projects depend on some sort of financing agency: a company, a set of investors, or a government. By its very nature engineering is connected with society and human behavior. Every product or construction used by modern society is influenced by engineering design. Engineering design is a very powerful tool to make changes to environment, society and economies, and its application brings with it a great responsibility. Many engineering societies have established codes of practice and codes of ethics to guide members and inform the public at large. Engineering projects can be subject for discussion. Examples from different engineering disciplines include the development of nuclear weapons, the design and use of Sport utility vehicles and the extraction of oil. In response, some western engineering companies have enacted serious corporate and social responsibility policies. Engineering is a key driver of human development. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa in particular has a very small engineering capacity. Therefore, many African nations are unable to develop infrastructure without outside aid. The main goal nowadays is to achieve sufficient engineering capacity to develop infrastructure and maintain technological development. Today there are a lot of different charitable organizations which aim is to use engineering directly for the good of mankind. Among these organizations are the following ones: Engineers Without Borders, Engineers Against Poverty, Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief, Engineers for a Sustainable World.
“Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been”. Theodore von Kármán There exists a specific connection between the sciences and engineering practice. In engineering, people apply science. Both areas - science and engineering - rely on accurate observation of materials and phenomena. Both use mathematics and classification criteria to analyze and communicate observations. Scientists must interpret their observations and make recommendations for practical action. Scientists may also have to complete engineering tasks, such as designing experimental apparatus or building prototypes. On the other hand, in the process of developing technology engineers sometimes explore new phenomena and become scientists themselves. In the book What Engineers Know and How They Know It, Walter Vincenti says that engineering research differs from scientific research. First, it often deals with areas in which the basic physics and/or chemistry are well understood, but the problems themselves are too complex to solve in an exact manner. Examples are the use of numerical approximations to the Navier-Stokes equations to describe aerodynamic flow over an aircraft, or the use of Miner's rule to calculate fatigue damage. Second, engineering research employs many semi-empirical methods that are too far from pure scientific research, one example being the method of parameter variation. As stated in the revision to the classic engineering text, Foundations of Solid Mechanics: "Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention. To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. That something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what is existing. Since a design has to be concrete, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and characteristic numbers. Almost all engineers working on new designs find that they do not have all the needed information. Most often, they are limited by insufficient scientific knowledge. Thus they study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics. Often they have to add to the sciences relevant to their profession. Thus engineering sciences are born." |