Importance Of Engineering

On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated. After the test, the director of the project, J. Robert Oppenheimer remembers thinking “Now, I [have] become death, destroyer of worlds” (Blue, Levine and Nieusma 26.) Although, Oppenheimer says that he never regretted his role in the development of the bomb, to what extent is Oppenheimer responsible for the dropping of the bomb onto unarmed civilians? Similarly, the role of an engineer in any given society will inevitably influence the people of a given social order. Engineers are people who have developed the skills and knowledge necessary for building structures, machines, systems and devices. They are very important because virtually every part of our lives involves some machine, device, system or the other. These professionals work is to ensure that these things are sustained and safe. If any structure needs to be built, they are the ones to be consulted. As societies advance and the need for practical application of science increases so does the demand for engineers who can adequately derive a solution for any given situation. With this in mind, engineers must tread lightly, for they are constantly facing internal issues of personal ethics and morality. However, industry standards suggest that engineers in the field ought to abide by the code of professional conduct.

II. History/Data/Biography/Facts

Engineering dates as far back to the Neolithic invention of the wheel! With the literal term of engineer dating as far back as 1325, which meant one who operated a military machine. In fact, military engineering is widely accepted as the oldest form of engineering. More specifically, military engineering deals with b...

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...n 1954. Ethics cases rarely have easy answers, but the BER's nearly 500 advisory opinions have helped bring clarity to the ethical issues engineers face daily.

As engineers, they have knowledge and skills well beyond those of most consumers of their work, who must trust them to produce systems that operate safely, reliably, and with minimal negative impact. Human lives can depend upon the quality of their work, and significant economic and environmental consequences can result from the things that engineers do. Therefore, engineers must always have an awareness of not only the benefits but also the dangers and limitations of systems that they design. Engineers must never put forward results that they have not thoroughly evaluated, and must never conceal the shortcomings of their products. This is the fundamental responsibility of engineers to our society.