Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge in order to use natural laws and physical resources to help design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective.
One who practices engineering is called an engineer, and those licensed to do so may have more formal designations such as European Engineer, Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, or Incorporated Engineer. The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of more specialized subdisciplines, each with a more specific emphasis on certain fields of application and particular areas of technology.
Engineering, much like science, is a broad discipline which is often broken down into several sub-disciplines. These disciplines concern themselves with differing areas of engineering work. Although initially an engineer will be trained in a specific discipline, throughout an engineer’s career the engineer may become multi-disciplined, having worked in several of the outlined areas. Historically the main Branches of Engineering are categorized as follows:
- Aerospace Engineering – The design of aircraft, spacecraft and related topics.
- Chemical Engineering – The exploitation of chemical principles in order to carry out large scale chemical processing, as well as designing new speciality materials and fuels.
- Civil Engineering – The design and construction of public and private works, such as infrastructure (roads, railways, water supply and treatment etc.), bridges and buildings.
- Electrical Engineering – The design of electrical systems, such as transformers, as well as electronic goods.
- Mechanical Engineering – The design of physical or mechanical systems, such as engines, powertrains, kinematic chains and vibration isolation equipment.
Source: Wikipedia