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Engineering

Engineering, the application of science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of humankind. The field has been defined by the Engineers Council for Professional Development, in the United States, as the creative application of “scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behaviour under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.” The term engineering is sometimes more loosely defined, especially in Great Britain, as the manufacture or assembly of engines, machine tools, and machine parts.
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Aerospace Engineering & Aviation Civil Engineering Electrical Engineering Industrial Engineering Mechanical Engineering Military Engineering Naval Architecture Nuclear Engineering Robotics

Featured Articles

Obverse side of the gold medal given to the winner of the Charles Stark Draper Prize, awarded annually by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Draper Prize
Draper Prize, award given by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for specific engineering achievements that have significantly affected modern society “by improving the quality of life, providing...
A cargo ship passing the Golden Gate Bridge, near San Francisco.
naval architecture
Naval architecture, the art and science of designing boats and ships to perform the missions and to meet the requirements laid down by the prospective owners and operators. It involves knowledge of mechanics,...
Learn how a radar works
radar
Radar, electromagnetic sensor used for detecting, locating, tracking, and recognizing objects of various kinds at considerable distances. It operates by transmitting electromagnetic energy toward objects,...
The powers of 10
nanotechnology
Nanotechnology, the manipulation and manufacture of materials and devices on the scale of atoms or small groups of atoms. The “nanoscale” is typically measured in nanometres, or billionths of a metre (nanos,...
high-speed train
railroad
Railroad, mode of land transportation in which flange-wheeled vehicles move over two parallel steel rails, or tracks, either by self-propulsion or by the propulsion of a locomotive. After the first crude...
Leonardo da Vinci: self-portrait
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and intelligence, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal....
railroad tunnel
tunnels and underground excavations
Tunnels and underground excavations, horizontal underground passageway produced by excavation or occasionally by nature’s action in dissolving a soluble rock, such as limestone. A vertical opening is usually...
job shop sequencing problem
operations research
Operations research, application of scientific methods to the management and administration of organized military, governmental, commercial, and industrial processes. Operations research attempts to provide...
construction of apartment buildings
construction
Construction, the techniques and industry involved in the assembly and erection of structures, primarily those used to provide shelter. Construction is an ancient human activity. It began with the purely...
Understand motion magnification, a technique enabling researchers to monitor tiny vibrations in infrastructure
engineering
Engineering, the application of science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of humankind. The field has been defined by the Engineers Council for Professional Development,...
Itaipú Dam
dam
Dam, structure built across a stream, a river, or an estuary to retain water. Dams are built to provide water for human consumption, for irrigating arid and semiarid lands, or for use in industrial processes....
schematic diagram of a linear proton resonance accelerator
particle accelerator
Particle accelerator, any device that produces a beam of fast-moving, electrically charged atomic or subatomic particles. Physicists use accelerators in fundamental research on the structure of nuclei,...
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Sheikh Zayed Road
road
Road, traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. In modern usage the term road describes a rural, lesser traveled way, while the word street denotes an urban roadway. Highway refers...
Figure 1: Photogrammetric photographs from two short, overlapping flight strips arranged for supplying mapping details. Photo-control points are shown on only one photograph; shading indicates a typical terrain feature such as a lake (see text).
surveying
Surveying, a means of making relatively large-scale, accurate measurements of the Earth’s surfaces. It includes the determination of the measurement data, the reduction and interpretation of the data to...
São Paulo, Braz.
water supply system
Water supply system, infrastructure for the collection, transmission, treatment, storage, and distribution of water for homes, commercial establishments, industry, and irrigation, as well as for such public...
drill press
machine tool
Machine tool, any stationary power-driven machine that is used to shape or form parts made of metal or other materials. The shaping is accomplished in four general ways: (1) by cutting excess material...
Oudegracht
canals and inland waterways
Canals and inland waterways, natural or artificial waterways used for navigation, crop irrigation, water supply, or drainage. Despite modern technological advances in air and ground transportation, inland...
Seto Great Bridge
bridge
Bridge, structure that spans horizontally between supports, whose function is to carry vertical loads. The prototypical bridge is quite simple—two supports holding up a beam—yet the engineering problems...
Conductors and insulators in flexible electronics
electronics
Electronics, branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour, and effects of electrons and with electronic devices. Electronics encompasses an exceptionally broad range...
compound microscope
microscope
Microscope, instrument that produces enlarged images of small objects, allowing the observer an exceedingly close view of minute structures at a scale convenient for examination and analysis. Although...
detector output connected to a measuring circuit
radiation measurement
Radiation measurement, technique for detecting the intensity and characteristics of ionizing radiation, such as alpha, beta, and gamma rays or neutrons, for the purpose of measurement. The term ionizing...
hand tools
hand tool
Hand tool, any of the implements used by craftspersons in manual operations, such as chopping, chiseling, sawing, filing, or forging. Complementary tools, often needed as auxiliaries to shaping tools,...
power
Power, in science and engineering, time rate of doing work or delivering energy, expressible as the amount of work done W, or energy transferred, divided by the time interval t—or W/t. A given amount of...
Lorient
harbours and sea works
Harbours and sea works, any part of a body of water and the manmade structures surrounding it that sufficiently shelters a vessel from wind, waves, and currents, enabling safe anchorage or the discharge...

Engineering Subcategories

Annadurai, Mylswamy Aerospace Engineering & Aviation
Aerospace engineering, also called aeronautical engineering, or astronautical engineering, field of engineering concerned with the design, development, construction, testing, and operation of vehicles operating in the Earth’s atmosphere or in outer space. In 1958 the first definition of aerospace engineering appeared, considering the Earth’s atmosphere and the space above it as a single realm for development of flight vehicles.
Articles
Civil engineering Civil Engineering
Civil engineering, the profession of designing and executing structural works that serve the general public. The term was first used in the 18th century to distinguish the newly recognized profession from military engineering, until then preeminent.
Articles
Vannevar Bush with Differential Analyzer Electrical Engineering
Electrical and electronics engineering, the branch of engineering concerned with the practical applications of electricity in all its forms, including those of the field of electronics. Electronics engineering is that branch of electrical engineering concerned with the uses of the electromagnetic spectrum and with the application of such electronic devices as integrated circuits and transistors.
Articles
Gilbreth, Lillian Evelyn Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineering, application of engineering principles and techniques of scientific management to the maintenance of a high level of productivity at optimum cost in industrial enterprises.
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ax Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering, the branch of engineering concerned with the design, manufacture, installation, and operation of engines and machines and with manufacturing processes. It is particularly concerned with forces and motion.
Articles
Meigs, Montgomery C. Military Engineering
Military engineering, the art and practice of designing and building military works and of building and maintaining lines of military transport and communications. Military engineering is the oldest of the engineering skills and was the precursor of the profession of civil engineering.
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subcategory placeholder Naval Architecture
Naval architecture, the art and science of designing boats and ships to perform the missions and to meet the requirements laid down by the prospective owners and operators. It involves knowledge of mechanics, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, steady and unsteady body motion, strength of materials, and design of structures.
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subcategory placeholder Nuclear Engineering
Nuclear engineering is based on fundamental principles of physics and mathematics that describe nuclear interactions and the transport of neutrons and gamma rays. These phenomena in turn are dependent on heat transfer, fluid flow, chemical reactions, and behaviour of materials when subjected to radiation.
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subcategory placeholder Robotics
Robotics, Design, construction, and use of machines (robots) to perform tasks done traditionally by human beings. Robots are widely used in such industries as automobile manufacture to perform simple repetitive tasks, and in industries where work must be performed in environments hazardous to humans. Many aspects of robotics involve artificial intelligence.
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