COURSE TITTLE: ENGINEER IN SOCEITY

COURSE CODE: CVE 101

COURSE OUTLINE

• Philosophy of Engineering

• History of Engineering and Technology

• Branches of Engineering

• Safety in Engineering

• Introduction to risk analysis

• Roles of Engineer in Nation Build

 Philosophy of Engineering

The philosophy of Engineering is concerned with all the assumptions, foundations, methods,
implications of Engineering, and with the use and merit of scientific principle to design, or
develop structures, machine, apparatus. Philosophy of engineering is an emerging discipline that
considers what engineering is, Why we do engineering, What engineers do and how their work
affect the society. In the end, engineering philosophy must help to advance engineering practice,
including the process of engineering design.

Basic Philosophic Ideologies of Engineering

 Demarcating Engineering
Engineering involves creativity, imagination, logical thoughts, and vision. It requires the ability
to predict performances or outcomes and the cost of new devices.
Engineering applies scientific knowledge, but despite the widespread assumption to the contrary,
engineering is not simply applied science. Moreover, the aims of engineering are different; while
science aims for knowledge, engineering aims for useful change. Science is a continuous activity
and attempt by man to organise his experiences about nature and the environment in to a
meaningful system of explanation and facts that result in a testable and verifiable body of
knowledge. It has the ability to explain that which has been observed and predict that which has
not been observed.
By contrast, engineering is characterized by contingency, probability, particularity, and
concreteness. Engineers rely on subjective knowledge-how and opinions that are derived from
personal and historical experience, with the goal of wilful action and use.

Engineering Education
Another distinction is manifest in how engineers are educated (note that engineering education
has changed noticeably over the past century.
Prior to World War II, engineering still exhibited much of its origins from the trades.
Engineering students had shop classes and had to do a significant amount of drafting.
Engineering science was secondary to art and practice. That was beginning to change even in the
early 20th century, and the process accelerated after World War II. By 1965, most engineering
programs had moved away from the art and practice of engineering and made engineering
science the primary basis of engineering education.
Engineering education integrates engineering research and education to accelerate technological
and educational innovation and improve the quality and diversity of engineering graduates
entering the technical workforce.
Educational studies of engineering has prepare the graduates to practice engineering with
competent technical know- how and soft skills at the professional level.

Models
Arguably, we cannot access reality directly or even “mirror” it in an exact way. Instead, both
philosophically and cognitively, our interaction with reality is always mediated by models. • The
form of a model may be conceptual, mathematical, computational, or physical, and all of these
forms are used in engineering (Alvi 2013a).
Some key goals of modelling in engineering include:
 Explaining, predicting, and controlling the behavior of engineered systems,
 Developing intuition and associated engineering judgment; instructing in both academic
and practice settings
 Designing and evaluating engineered systems; and providing a context for experimenting
and collecting data in order to develop models further.

Competence and Expertise

Two-thirds of the knowledge used by engineers on a daily basis is "practice-generated," rather
than "historically established"; i.e., gained by means of experience instead of formal education or
reference materials. They produced a plausible model of skill acquisition that includes five
distinct stages: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. The higher levels
can only be attained through extensive experience and are characterized by less rational
deliberation and greater emotional involvement.

Quality
When engineers develop options for consideration or make a decision based on a certain amount
of information, how do they choose the best option and make the best decision?. Considerations
such as durability, constructability, and other constraints could be added as well. One other term
that is often used is quality, which depending on one's viewpoint – may comprise all or some
subset of these criteria.
HISTORY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
Man is constantly moulding his natural environment to ensure his survival and reduce
dependence on it. This led man into the art of fashioning of tools and building of structures,
devices and systems to enable him control and adapt nature to meet his needs. Man tries to
influence the nature around him by applying his ingenuity to fashion the tools but soon
discovered that art are affected by the society around him. Therefore, man combined social
relations, politics and economic base to achieve this target.

Man basic needs consisted of food, clothing, shelter and defence. These needs propelled man to
continue to invent tools and techniques that make the exploitation of his environment easier and
more efficient. This drive has been the basis for technological advancements and improvements.
Engineering and technological developments came as a result of:
1) Independent inventions: Indigenous innovative inventions in any country,
2) The necessity of competition: war and adverse conditions provoke technological
inventions and advancement.
3) Directly purchased: This might be through formal training or via business deals
involving technological transfer.
4) The need for defence and dominance: Every society will always take measures to ensure
protection against external aggression. This led to technological advancement.
Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies,
technology has helped developed more advanced economy (including today’s global economy)
and has allow the rise of leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by
products, known as pollution and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of Earth
environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new
technology often raises new ethical questions. Example include the rise of notion of efficiency in
term of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of
traditional norms.
Indeed until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to
human being, but recent scientific studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin
communities have developed simple tools and learn to pass their knowledge to other generations.

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY THROUGH THE AGES

The early man was both a hunter and a wanderer (nomadic stage) and he made use of stones,
bones and clubs (Stone Age). Later came the Bronze Age, the Iron and Steel age. All these
developmental stages were aimed at harnessing different sources of energy like wood, wind, sun,
falling water, coal, gas, electricity, petroleum and nuclear fission to enhance living.

Stone-Age
Stone age came between 4000-5000 B.C. Scientists believe this is the earliest time of
technology where man used stone as a hard and sharp object or tool for cutting, defence, digging,
construction and so on. Stone served the purposes of axe, saw, knife, scrapers, and so on.

Bronze Age: Following development in science, man improves his technology by graduating to
the use of bronze which is a kind of alloy of some metals (copper, tin and minute quantity of
aluminium, manganese, nickel or zinc). Bronze Age happened between 2000 - 4000 B.C. In this
age, blends of metals were used for weapons, tools, buildings and wears. It can be inferred that
man’s technical skills have greatly improved in this age. Owing to the ease of melting these
metals, great achievements were made in making them into different shapes and constructions.
This age led to the introduction of tongs for handling small pieces of hot metals, the development
of wax process for castings, the introduction of bellows for metallurgical processes. Items made
in the period include axes, chisels, gongs, drills, knives, saw nails, clamps, needles, razors were
made.

Iron Age
Iron Age was a great leap in the advancement of science, engineering and technology for man.
This description is even obvious when viewed with the fact that the use of iron has grown into
the modern time. The Iron Age began around 1300 BC. The Iron Age led to our present age of
high-tech.
The pace at which transformation occurred from the crude age to bronze, iron and steel age: from
wind power to electrical power and consequently the industrialisation in the present age varies
from society to society.