ENGR10006 Chap.1 What Engineers Do and the Grand Challenges
What Engineers Do and the Grand Challenges
Lecture 2 defines engineering as taking mathematical and scientific knowledge built up through study, experience and practice, and using it with judgement to make economical use of nature's materials and forces for people's benefit.
This chapter unpacks that definition, the contrast between engineers and scientists, the two questions every project faces, can it be done and should it be done, and the five engineering roles of the future.
It then follows the Lecture 3 case of a mobile crash barrier that won a Singapore tender after the team replaced its first design with the Method of the Ideal Result, and links the Grand Challenges to the short challenges of your own project. Practice questions at the end ask you to apply the method to your own stream.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The ABET definition of engineering
- 02
Engineers versus scientists
- 03
Can it be done and should it be done
- 04
Five engineering roles of the future
- 05
The fourteen Grand Challenges and four themes
- 06
Crash barrier tender requirements
- 07
Ideal Ultimate Result and target tasks
- 08
Resource analysis by category
Worked example · free
Writing target tasks for a robot gripper
- +1Ideal result: the object is held with no gripping effort at all and never slips, whatever its shape.
- +1Blocking effect: friction between smooth printed paddles and the object is too low for the load.
- +1Target task: the grip must become firmer only while the object is being lifted.
- +1Resource: the object's own weight, which can press it into a shaped paddle that wraps under its edge, within the paddle size limits.
Key terms
- Engineering
- The profession that applies scientific knowledge with judgement to use materials and natural forces economically for people.
- Grand Challenges
- Fourteen goals for twenty-first-century engineering, grouped under sustainability, health, security and joy of living.
- Ideal Ultimate Result
- A deliberately impossible statement of the perfect solution that exposes what blocks a real design.
- Target task
- A specific problem derived from an effect that prevents the ideal result from being reached.
- Substance resource
- A material or object already present in the system, such as the road under a barrier.
- Change agent
- An engineer who applies creativity and leadership to high-profile issues such as climate change.
- Integrator
- An engineer skilled at working across technical, disciplinary and organisational boundaries.
What Engineers Do and the Grand Challenges FAQ
How does engineering differ from science in this subject?
Lecture 2 says scientists study the world as it is and usually report knowledge, while engineers create products or processes that must work. The roles overlap, because an engineer may need new science and a scientist may be guided by possible applications.
Why does the crash barrier case matter for my project?
It shows how stating an ideal result and analysing available resources produced a lighter, self-powered barrier that the first know-how design could not. The same reasoning helps you justify design changes in your report by naming the requirement and the resource behind each one.
Do I need to memorise all fourteen Grand Challenges?
Knowing the four themes and a few examples is more useful than the full list. Use a challenge only where it genuinely frames your project, such as restoring urban infrastructure for flooding or affordable energy, in the introduction of your report.
What are the five engineering roles of the future?
Lecture 2 adapts five roles from the Henley and King reports: technical specialists at the leading edge of a discipline, integrators who work across boundaries, change agents tackling issues such as climate change, project managers with organisational and financial skill, and asset maintainers who keep existing infrastructure working.
Assessment move
Read the definition of engineering clause by clause and write one example from your own stream for each clause: knowledge, judgement, economy and benefit to people. Then take the crash barrier case and redraw it as a chain: the four tender priorities, the ideal result, the three target tasks and the resource that solved each one.
Practise the method on a small problem from your workshop, such as a gripper that slips, a speaker that sounds thin or a sandbag wall that runs out of bags, and keep the ideal result deliberately extreme. For short answers, match roles to situations rather than listing them, and classify concerns into can-it-be-done and should-it-be-done before arguing either way.
Finally, connect the lecture to assessment: the report asks for the engineering disciplines involved and the real-world relevance and feasibility of your project, so a paragraph built from this chapter is directly reusable in your introduction. Revisit the crash barrier chain after each milestone and ask which target task your own design is currently solving.
