Something caught my eye the other day and made me think about what it means to be an engineer. Yes, it’s someone to invent, design, build and analyse products and components, but what actually makes us engineers tick?
According to Wikipedia the word ‘engineer’ is derived from the Latin ingeniare (“to create, generate, contrive, devise”) and ingenium (“cleverness”). Setting aside the latter definition “cleverness”, which is a sweeping statement and doesn’t really say what we do, the former term provides a little more scope for conversation.
The core of a design engineer’s role is to be involved in the creation of product development, essentially moving the development of the part or product forward to the engineering stage. But the skill required is to be self-disciplined in examining complex designs and apply careful thinking in order to generate concepts that can be made into physical prototypes for eventual production. Questions, questions, questions – the who, what, where, when, why and how - the basic questions to ask when gathering information or problem solving. For example, will the product/component work? Can it be sensibly manufactured? Can it be operated by the end user? Are the materials and specifications suitable?
It is surely a necessity for an engineer to question everything, and make
appropriate suggestions for change. If
you’re looking for someone who can engineer you an answer then please give
Sanstec a call.
