Scientists and engineers

Read the following text and answer the questions below:

1) Is there any difference between an engineer and a scientist?

2) What is the way that connects engineering and science?
3) What is common about engineering and science?

4) When may an engineer become a scientist?
5) What is the main difference between engineering and science?

“Scientists study the world as it is;

engineers create the world that has never been.”

Theodore von Kármán

There exists a specific connection between the sciences and engineering practice. In engineering, people apply science. Both areas - science and engineering - rely on accurate observation of materials and phenomena. Both use mathematics and classification criteria to analyze and communicate observations.

Scientists must interpret their observations and make recommendations for practical action. Scientists may also have to complete engineering tasks, such as designing experimental apparatus or building prototypes. On the other hand, in the process of developing technology engineers sometimes explore new phenomena and become scientists themselves.

In the book What Engineers Know and How They Know It, Walter Vincenti says that engineering research differs from scientific research. First, it often deals with areas in which the basic physics and/or chemistry are well understood, but the problems themselves are too complex to solve in an exact manner. Examples are the use of numerical approximations to the Navier-Stokes equations to describe aerodynamic flow over an aircraft, or the use of Miner's rule to calculate fatigue damage. Second, engineering research employs many semi-empirical methods that are too far from pure scientific research, one example being the method of parameter variation.

As stated in the revision to the classic engineering text, Foundations of Solid Mechanics: "Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention. To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. That something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what is existing. Since a design has to be concrete, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and characteristic numbers. Almost all engineers working on new designs find that they do not have all the needed information. Most often, they are limited by insufficient scientific knowledge. Thus they study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics. Often they have to add to the sciences relevant to their profession. Thus, engineering sciences are born."

Part III

(… адрес интернет-странички с видеороликами…)

CIVIL ENGINEERING

(02:12)

PRE-LISTENING

1. Do you know the following words? Can you guess the meaning of any of them? Study the meaning of the words:

“hydraulic”, “principle”, “be involved into”, “supervision”, “schedule”, “to run a business” (=to manage, to control), “timetable”, “to complete”, “completion”.

2. What are the main three areas that Engineering can be broadly divided into?

3. Can these areas be divided again into sub-disciplines? Yes or No?

4. What does Civil Engineering deal with?

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the parts of the video-track and answer the following questions:

00:00 – 01:03

5. Who and what is the speaker?

6. How many sub-disciplines does he mention?

7. What are they?

01:04 – end

8. What principles are used to create a design?

9. What activities are engineers involved into during their everyday life?

POST-LISTENING

10. Summarize the information of the video-track by filling each gap with a suitable word:

The speaker is (1) __________ Haritos, who is an Associated (2) __________ of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He speaks about (3) __________ __________. Civil Engineering can be divided into (4) __________ sub-disciplines – (5) __________ engineering (deals with soil and rock), (6) __________ engineering (deals with structures – bridges, dams), (7) __________ engineering (deals with water), (8) __________ engineering (deals with roads, ports, harbors, airports). To create a design two main kinds of principles are used – principles of (9) __________ and principles of (10) __________ . Engineers are usually involved into different kinds of activities during their everyday life. They (11) __________ , make schedules and (12) __________, run the constructions, manage the completion of a construction and its budget.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

(03:10)

PRE-LISTENING

1. Do you know the following words? Can you guess the meaning of any of them? Study the meaning of the words:

“application”, “broad” (field), “to encompass” (=to include), “power” “optic communication”, “to simplify”(=to make something easier to use), “to contribute”, light bulb”, “smoke-alarm”, “drought”, “age” – “aging”, “gadget”.

2. What does Electrical Engineering deal with?

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the parts of the video-track and answer the following questions:

00:00 – 00:36

3. Who and what is the speaker?

4. What does Electrical Engineering deal with?

5. How often do we meet electrical problems?

00:37 – 00:48

6. Is Electrical Engineering a broad field?

7. What sub-fields does Electrical Engineering encompass?

00:49 – 01:17

8. How does Electrical Engineering contribute to our society nowadays?