Engineer

If you like to invent new things, make things work better, and test how things
perform under varying circumstances, this may be the job for you. Engineers
use science and math to make useful things or to make things more useful.
They identify the needs of people and industries and develop affordable
solutions. Engineers design products that we use daily – from computers to
planes to contact lenses. They plan the machines that make products and the
factories that house the machines. They devise the systems that make
industries run smoothly and that maintain the health of workers.

Since there’s no limit to the types of products and systems designed and
redesigned every day, there are many different types of engineers. All
engineers must be innovators and problem-solvers.

Top Ten
What’s the Big Idea?
Engineers are idea people. They solve problems with ingenuity and creativity
in every area of human activity. Here are ten areas in which engineers, using
science and math, work to make life more convenient, adventurous and
healthy.

AEROSPACE:
Aerospace engineers design, analyze, model, simulate, and test aircraft,
spacecraft, satellites, missiles, and rockets.

AGRICULTURAL:
Agricultural engineers fashion systems, machines and technology for farming,
irrigation, food processing, testing, and coding. For instance, they help to
homogenize milk, inspect the harvesting of eggs, and design better tractors.
They are involved with every step that food undergoes on the way to the
supermarket.

CHEMICAL:
Chemical engineers study how chemicals react to one another. They study
how chemicals combine and repel each other, and they try to replicate and

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predict chemical reactions to make new products and systems. Since
everything on earth is made up of chemicals – from the human body to plants,
water, soil and air – this covers a lot of ground!

CIVIL:
Civil engineers design, construct and operate spaces and systems used by the
public, such as buildings, roads, railroads, pipelines, and bridges.

ELECT RICAL:
Electrical engineers design and develop products and systems that deal with
electricity, magnetism and light. Their designs and innovations make
electricity and bring it into your home, school and workplace; electrical
engineers also design and help produce appliances that use electricity.

ENVIRONMENTAL:
Environmental engineers study and design ways to protect the environment
and public health. They develop defenses against land, water and air pollution;
they plan systems for the proper disposal of hazardous and solid waste; and,
they help execute controls for toxic materials and wastewater.

FINANCIAL:
Financial engineers study how money works in the big picture. They formulate
systems for predicting, tracking, protecting, increasing, and maintaining the
value of individual businesses and entire industries.

GENETIC:
Genetic engineers are scientists who study and perform experiments to
create new methods for altering the development of life forms. For example,
genetic engineers have invented ways to grow everything from seedless
grapes and watermelons to human organs for transplant.

INDUST RIAL:
Industrial engineers work with businesses to help them run cost-efficient, safe
and productive organizations. They work with mechanical engineers to choose
the best machines, oversee the systems that keep factory workers protected
from dangerous materials, and design the processes by which products are
tested for quality and safety.

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MECHANICAL:
Mechanical engineers design, manufacture and operate parts, machines and
systems. This is a very wide field of engineering that covers everything from
creating tiny bolts and screws to developing gigantic gears, including heating,
ventilation and refrigeration systems and laser, medical, automotive, and
computer technologies.

How to Get Ther e

Engineer Y our Future

• Try your hand at inventing. Look around and take note of the tasks you
perform regularly. Can you design a system or gadget that will make
your routine easier, faster or cheaper? Make a detailed sketch of your
gadget or a diagram of your new system, and then see if it works!
• When you don’t understand how something works, ask someone who
might. Take simple objects apart and put them back together to
understand their inner workings. (Make sure you can do this without
breaking them, and never take something apart that’s plugged into an
electrical outlet!)
• Find a mentor. If there’s something you’re particularly interested in, ask
an adult to help you find specialists whom you can observe while they
work. Like clocks? Find a watchmaker. Like cars? Find a mechanic.
• Math and science are very important for an engineer. Take special care
in these subjects in school and ask your teacher about experiments and
extra credit.
• Play with building sets and experiment with model kits. These are fun
ways to practice working with your hands and to hone your designing
mind.
• Read and research the aspects of engineering that interest you. Go to
your school or local public library for books and magazines, and use
these keywords with your favorite Internet search engine: ENGINEERS,
ENGINEERING FOR KIDS, EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS, PHYSICS FOR KIDS,
MATH FOR KIDS, SCIENCE FOR KIDS, CONTESTS FOR KIDS.

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Activity
Time Is On My Side
Human beings are engineers by nature. We have been using the resources
around us to build problem-solving tools for thousands of years. The first
timepiece was engineered by the keen observation of sunlight and shadow.
By taking advantage of a natural resource like sunlight, the first engineers
developed a system through which time became a universal language.

With a friend, take a box of multi-colored chalk to a wide area that gets direct
sunlight all day. Begin at 8:00 a.m.

First, choose a spot and mark it with an “X.” Stand on the “X” while your friend
draws an outline of the shadow that your body casts. Inside the shadow, mark
the time you drew as “8:00 a.m.” For the rest of the day, on the hour for
every hour until 8 p.m., repeat your shadow-drawing process, using a different
color of chalk and marking the time. You’ve made yourself a clock ... literally!

The chalk outlines that you’ve marked with the time will act like the hands of a
clock. When you return the next day and stand on the “X,” the shadow that
you cast should line up with one that you outlined and marked the day before,
telling you the correct time.

Q&A
Q. What was the most rewarding p roje ct y ou eve r designed?

Richard T. has been a mechanical engineer for the last 36 years. He says:
A very rewarding project that I was asked to design was one that would
remove ash from smoke coming from the chimney of a power plant. To give
you a little background, electricity that we use in our everyday lives – like
when we watch TV or turn on a computer – is made in factories usually called
“power plants.”

To make electricity, power plants burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas,
or nuclear fuel. Since this country is very rich in coal mines, most of the
electricity that we use is produced by burning coal. However, like burning
wood in a fireplace, burning coal makes ash and smoke. The ash in smoke is

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what makes it black – the more ash, the darker the smoke. This makes burning
coal unpleasant to look at and unhealthy to breathe.

A power plant asked me to design and install equipment that would remove
the ash from their smoke. This process changed the color of the smoke from
dark to very light. In fact, when all the ash was removed, the smoke became
almost invisible and therefore no longer objectionable to look at or unhealthy
to breathe. It was very rewarding to successfully design the equipment and
the process needed to render the smoke invisible, making it safer for the
environment and all kinds of living things

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