What is Engineering?

Diagram of Engineering Design Process

A few years ago I was fortunate to attend a seminar on “What is Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Experts Tell Us”, given by Prof. Mare de Vries. He is from the Delft University of Technology, which located in the Netherlands and counts as one of the best universities for engineering and technology worldwide.

To know about the Delft University of Technology, I recommend you to watch the videos at the end of this page. 

What are the key concepts of Engineering?

  • not only the applications of science
  • multidisciplinary, including human, social, cultural, financial, etc.
  • (Recent) a domain in which use knowledge and new generation of knowledge
  • Normative (standards / norms and functional)
  • Content of knowledge is the outcome of (collective) decisions
  • Non-propositionality of know-how
  • Content-dependences and limited generalizability
  • Extract concepts + contexts + link both C
  • Processes include:
    • Concrete -> Abstract;
    • Single -> Complex, Cumulative
    • Qualitative -> Quantitative
    • Understanding -> reproductive
    • Assessing -> Judging

An introduction video of Delft University of Technology

Story of Delft University of Technology

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