Engineering thought. Engineering is the engine of progress

And the sun shines brighter,
And the landscape is more cheerful,
When there's a rush in your stomach
C2 H5 OH.
(Folk folklore)

It was the fifth week of autonomy. The supplies of alcohol we had taken with us had run out. This refers to what was stored illegally - vodka, cognac and alcohol. A council gathered in the fifth compartment - an assistant commander, a mechanic and a miner. There were three issues on the agenda. First: WHAT are we going to drink? Since no other proposals were received, they decided to use alcohol. On the second question on the agenda - WHERE to get what you were looking for - after a short debate, a resolution was imposed: where else, if not in the submarine commander’s safe! The third question turned out to be the most difficult: HOW? Because when the commander’s cabin is open, his body is always there, and when the commander is not there, for some reason the cabin is locked. After an exchange of opinions, the high meeting decided to expropriate a liter of alcohol from the captain, convincing him of the need to give out the specified amount of the product. It remains to be seen which of the three will go to convince?

The assistant and the miner looked at each other and at the same time looked at the mechanic:

Meh, you'll have to go to the captain. He won’t give it to us, but you will be able to fool his brains.

Eh, you idiots of the king of heaven! What would you do without me? – the mechanic looked proudly at his comrades. - Okay, study, mediocrity!

The commander, lying in his bed, was reading a smart book - “COLREG-72”, when he was distracted by a light knock on the cabin door.

Yes, come in,” he allowed.

Comrade commander, allow me to report,” the mechanic opened the door. – The injectors in the third diesel engine are clogged, it needs to be cleaned, otherwise the diesel engine will stop working.

So seriously, Gennady Petrovich? – The mechanic nodded silently. - What help do you need from me?

From you, Vasily Andreevich, we need very little - a liter of alcohol.

Alcohol for injectors? – the commander was surprised.

Of course, Comrade Commander. “The mechanic didn’t even blink an eye, looking innocently at the commander. – If in doubt, come with me, I will carry out the “operation” in front of you.

The commander, of course, trusted the mechanic, but, apparently out of curiosity, he decided to take advantage of the invitation and see how the injectors were washed. Opening the magic safe, he poured two half-liter bottles from a canister and handed them to the mechanic:

Well, let's go, Gennady Petrovich.

In the fifth compartment, the commander sat down on the diesel engine cover and began to watch as the commander of the warhead-5, holding some kind of oily piece of iron in his hands, poured alcohol on it. The miner and the assistant commander also observed the same picture, only their looks were perplexed. The alcohol flowed like a river, washing away the oil from the iron and, painted black, flowed like a waterfall onto the deck, and from there through the scuppers into the hold. Very soon the alcohol ran out, and the satisfied commander (all the alcohol went to work!) went to his cabin. The miner and his assistant silently looked at the commander of the warhead-5, and their glances did not bode well.

“I’m just reading the question on your faces,” the mechanic said with a grin, wiping his hands with a rag.

Well, answer if you’ve read it,” the miner fidgeted impatiently on the diesel engine.

The mechanic did not answer, but only stomped his foot hard on the deck a couple of times. Immediately next to him, a hatch into the hold opened and a mechanic with a sawn-off shotgun in his hands appeared before the officers. In the navy, a sawn-off shotgun is not a weapon forest brothers and bandits. If you take an ordinary bucket and cut it crosswise, you will get a basin, or, as they say in the navy, a sawn-off shotgun. It was with such a sawn-off shotgun that the sailor emerged from the hold (like a little devil from a bottle). And in the sawn-off shotgun there was splashing...alcohol. But you should have seen this disgusting thing!

Meh, are we going to drink THIS? – the assistant commander looked into the sawn-off shotgun and disgustedly pointed his finger at the black liquid.

Calm down, guys! – the mechanic looked condescendingly at his comrades. – As Carlson said, “calm, just calm!”, no one is going to poison you. Engineering thought works!

With these words, the commander of the BC-5 opened one of the lockers under the ceiling and took out an ordinary filter gas mask. Turning the filter away from it, he placed it on a liter jar he had stored in advance and placed a funnel on top.

Hold the structure, gentlemen, - after a minute, dirty alcohol, seeping through the gas mask filter, flowed into the jar. - Please, misters, to the table, it’s boiling! Although, for control, we’ll filter it one more time.

The fur repeated the procedure. Finally, everything was ready. Alcohol splashed in the jar, clear as a tear. True, it was less than a liter, but, taking into account the number of participants in the “briefing,” this amount should have been more than enough.

The mechanic put the used filters in a bag and handed it to the watchman:

Carefully throw it overboard along with the trash from the compartment.

The sailor quickly grabbed the package and disappeared.

Well, now I’m asking you to come to my cabin,” the mechanic bowed playfully to his friends.

They, loudly admiring the ingenuity of their comrade, followed him into the fourth compartment, where they “persuaded” the jar.

This could have been the end of the story about engineering, but soon it received an unexpected continuation. A couple of days after the events described, the political officer, checking the night watch on the boat, discovered a drunk motorman in the fifth compartment. The sailor was punished, held educational work with the personnel about the dangers of drunkenness, especially on shift, but for some reason they regularly began to find drunk motorists in the fifth compartment. And at the same time - before the shift change at four o'clock in the morning. We tried to keep track, carried out several searches in the compartment, controlled the distribution of wine for lunch, etc. - nothing helped. Two or three mechanics began to regularly change their shifts while drunk. During the week, it remained a mystery WHERE did the fighters get their alcohol? Finally, completely by accident, the commander of the motor group discovered WHERE: the sailor who was instructed to throw gas mask filters spoiled by dirty alcohol overboard carried out the order in a unique way - he hid the filters, having previously plugged them on both sides with plugs. They were also hidden wisely: they were screwed back onto the gas masks and simply placed in their regular places in the lockers under the ceiling. Now every day in the morning, before the shift change, everyone could relax a little: they put such a “charged” gas mask on their face, make a couple of deep breaths(after all, the filter contains pure alcohol!), and that’s it – the client instantly reaches the desired condition!

It turns out that engineering thought works not only for officers with higher education, but also among sailors with far from complete average...

Professional engineering thinking teacher-engineer; the influence of the professional engineering thinking of a teacher-engineer on the formation of a student’s engineering thinking is substantiated; developed diagnostic card the formation of engineering thinking for the genesis of this quality.

Engineering heuristics

The book presents classic and newest - from heuristic to logical - methods for activating engineering and technical thinking. The authors demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach to solving inventive problems and training intelligence based on universal languages.

Consistency in solving scientific and technical problems is achieved by identifying and resolving contradictions. At the same time, formulating a problem in the form of a paradox turns out to be the strongest stimulus for the development of creative thought. The book contains more than 170 questions and tasks on which interested reader can check quality level own thinking, and in case of difficulties, refer to the solutions and answers provided.

Many of these tasks were voiced by the authors in 2011–2012. during seminars and trainings within the framework of the “Academy of Young Innovator” project of LUKOIL-Engineering LLC, at intellectual competitions of young specialists of the company. Recommended for engineers, teachers and students of engineering, technical and natural science specialties at universities, innovation-oriented young specialists in production and research complexes, as well as all readers interested in developing an effective, productive, effective thinking, achieving a new intellectual level of development.

Physics. Graphical methods problem solving 2nd ed., rev. and additional Training manual for open source software

The tutorial covers the most important types of kinematics problems mechanical movement. The publication shapes students' scientific method thinking, fosters engineering intuition, illuminates ideological and methodological problems physics, reflects the main features of modern natural science picture peace, shows important role modern physics in the decision global problems humanity (energy, environmental, etc.)

), prepares students to study special courses in theoretical and experimental physics. One of the objectives of the textbook is to develop a culture of systems thinking and skills logical thinking, habits of thinking through the results, building correct working hypotheses and clearly formulating the problem.

Fundamentals of Physics. Volume 1

The textbook corresponds to the program of the discipline “Physics” for general technical universities. Its two volumes are included in the educational set, which also includes training manual“Fundamentals of Physics. Exercises and tasks” by the same authors. In many respects, this textbook is unique.

A number of original methodological techniques and ways of presenting the material, the inclusion of new, often unexpected topics and bright examples, absent in traditional physics courses, allow students to acquire confident independent thinking skills and deeply understand physical basis a variety of real natural phenomena, give them practical, qualitative assessments, operating with dimensions and orders of magnitude.

The principles of systems engineering are described, including systems life cycle management. Special attention given sharing systematic approach and systems engineering to develop the ability to think and act in the language of systems. The presentation is illustrated with numerous examples.

The book will be useful both to specialists involved in the creation of complex engineering, sociotechnical and organizational systems, as well as to students and graduate students in engineering, technical and managerial areas of training, as well as to persons interested in the problems of creating complex systems.

We admire the achievements of science, but we easily forget about those who directly change our lives - inventors and engineers. The art of an engineer is to be invisible: we usually only remember about it when something breaks or goes wrong.

It is people with an engineering mindset who design our everyday life today. The entire technological environment - from transport systems to medical equipment and Internet services - created through the use of engineering thinking methods.

An engineer differs from a scientist in that his activities are aimed at solving specific tasks because he has to deal with a huge amount restrictions and compromises.

If for Galileo or Newton ballistics was a “mathematical gym” in which it was possible to hone ways of describing reality, then for engineers mathematics matters only as a way to answer completely practical questions: how to get rid of traffic jams? How to track train movements? How to speed up mail delivery without increasing the cost of servicing it?

We are publishing an excerpt from the book “Think Like an Engineer. How to Turn Problems into Opportunities" by Guru Madhavan, intended "for anyone who wants to think systematically and find solutions to the most difficult and complex problems."

The application mindset is based on what I call modular systems thinking. This is not some kind of super talent, but a combination of methods and principles. Systems thinking is not just a systematic approach; Here higher value has an understanding that in life’s ups and downs there is nothing permanent and everything is interconnected. The relationships between the modules of a system give rise to a whole that cannot be understood by analyzing its component parts.

For example, one specific method in modular systems thinking involves functional combination deconstructivism(separation large system per modules) and reconstructionism(bringing these modules together). In this case, the main task is to identify the strengths and weak links(how these modules work, do not work, or could work) and apply this knowledge to achieve useful results.

A related design concept used especially by software engineers is step by step zoom. Each subsequent change they make to a product or service inevitably improves the result or develops alternative solutions.

It uses a top-down design strategy (also called “divide and conquer”), in which each subtask is performed separately as it progresses towards ultimate goal. The opposite approach is bottom-up design, where the parts are put back together again.

Ruth David, expert on national security and former Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the CIA, puts the question this way:

Engineering is synonymous not only with systems thinking, but also with building systems. This is the ability to comprehensively analyze a problem. It is necessary not only to understand the elements and their interdependence, but also to fully understand their totality and its meaning.

This is one of the reasons why engineering thinking is useful in many areas of society and is effective for both individuals, and for groups. Modular systems thinking varies depending on the circumstances, since there is no one universally accepted "engineering method".

Manifestations of engineering are very diverse - from testing balls in a wind tunnel for the World Cup to creating a rocket that can shoot down another rocket in flight. Methods may vary even within the same industry. Designing a product such as a turbofan engine is different from assembling a megasystem such as an aircraft, and, by extension, from assembling a system of systems such as a network. airways messages. The reality around us is changing, and with it the nature of engineering.

If we compare our culture to a computer, then engineering represents its “hardware”.

But engineering is also a reliable engine. economic growth. For example, in the US, recent estimates suggest that engineers make up less than 4% of the total population, but help create jobs for the rest. It should be admitted that some technical innovations have completely taken away from people the work by which they previously earned their living; however, engineering innovation constantly opens up new opportunities and development paths.

Engineering thinking has three main properties. The first is the ability to “see” structure where there is none. Our world - from haiku to high-rise buildings- based on structures. And just as a talented composer “hears” sounds before he writes them down as notes, a competent engineer is able to visualize and embody structures through a combination of rules, patterns, and intuition. Engineering thinking gravitates towards that part of the iceberg that is under water, and not above its surface. It's not just what's visible that matters; the invisible matters too.

During a structured systems-level thinking process, one must consider how the elements of a system are connected in logic, time, sequence, function, and under what conditions they work and do not work. A historian can apply similar structural logic decades after the event, but an engineer needs to do it proactively, whether the issue is the smallest details or high-level abstractions.

This is one of the main reasons why engineers create models: so they can have structured discussions based on reality. And when imagining any structure, it is fundamentally important to have enough judgment to understand when it has value and when it does not.

Consider, for example, the following questionnaire, authored by George Heilmeier, former director Management advanced research and developments of the US Department of Defense, as well as one of the creators of liquid crystal displays, which have become part of today's imaging technologies. His approach to innovation is to use a checklist, which is appropriate for a project with clearly defined goals and clients.

What are you trying to do? State your goals clearly, eliminating all jargon.

How is this implemented today and what is the range of possible restrictions?

What's new about your approach and why do you think it will be successful?

To whom does this matter? If you achieve success, what impact will it have?

What are your risks and rewards?

How much will it cost? How long will it take?

What midterm and final checks do you need to do to know if you have succeeded?

Essentially, this structure helps to define necessary questions in a logical order.

The second property of engineering thinking is the ability to design effectively under constraints. IN real world they are always present and determine the potential success or failure of our activities. Given the practical nature of engineering, the difficulties and stress in it are much greater compared to other professions. Limitations of any origin - imposed by nature or people - do not allow engineers to wait until all phenomena are fully explained and understood.

Engineers are expected to achieve the best possible results under given conditions. But even if there are no restrictions, competent engineers know how to apply restrictions to achieve their goals. Time constraints stimulate creativity and resourcefulness among engineers. Financial difficulties and obvious physical limitations depending on the laws of nature are also widespread, along with such unpredictable limitations as human behavior.

Engineers need to constantly relate their designs to the existing context and even changes that may occur in the future.

“Imagine a situation in which each new version of the Macintosh Operating System or Windows was a completely new operating system, developed from scratch. This would paralyze the use of personal computers,” point out Olivier de Weck and his fellow researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Engineers often refine their software products, progressively taking into account customer preferences and business needs - but these are nothing more than restrictions. “Changes that seem small at first often lead to the need for other changes, which in turn necessitate further changes... You have to manage to make the old continue to work, and at the same time create something new.” There is no end to these difficulties.

The third property of engineering thinking involves compromise - the ability to make thoughtful assessments of solutions and alternatives. Engineers set design priorities and allocate resources by seeking less important goals among the more significant ones. For example, in aircraft design, a typical compromise may be to balance cost, weight, wingspan, and latrine dimensions within the constraints imposed by specific performance requirements. The difficulties of such a choice even apply to the question of whether passengers like the plane they are flying on.

If restrictions can be compared to walking on a tightrope, then compromises resemble the situation from the fable about the swan, the pike and the crayfish.

There is a struggle between what is available; what is possible; what is desired and acceptable limits.

Let science, philosophy and religion strive for truth as it appears to them; engineering is at the center of providing utility under constraints. Structure, constraints and compromises are the three pillars of engineering thinking. For an engineer they have the same meaning as for a musician - beat, tempo and rhythm.

Seven wonders of the world! During the existence of our civilization, their list has constantly changed. But this list of "seven wonders" celebrates the monumental masterpieces of twentieth-century engineering. They were selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Empire State Building

Built in 1931, it rises 1,250 feet (381 m) above New York City and consists of 102 floors. Before the construction of the World Trade Center in 1972, this skyscraper was the most... tall building in the world. In 2001, when the World War II towers collapsed shopping center, the skyscraper again became the tallest building in New York.

The hall is 30 meters long and 3 floors high, decorated with marble and decorated with 8 panels depicting the 7 wonders of the world and the eighth is the Empire State Building itself. The Guinness World Records hall contains a unique collection of unusual records. Taking the elevator in a minute, you can get to the observation deck on the 86th or 102nd floor.

Itaipu Dam

Built by Brazil and Paraguay on the Parana River, the dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Construction ended in 1991; it took 16 years to build a series of dams with a length of 7744 m. Fifteen times more concrete was used than to build the Channel Tunnel.

Canada CN Tower

In 1976 The tower became the tallest unsupported building in the world. It looms dimly over the city of Toronto, Canada, a third of a mile high. Glass floor on observation deck will allow you to look down from a height of 342 meters.

Panama Canal

It took 34 years to build this 50-mile canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Enormous work was carried out to excavate soil and construct locks, which made it possible to consider it the most expensive project American history and the most dangerous: about 80,000 people died during construction (mostly from disease).

Channel Tunnel

Connects France and England. The tunnel is 31 miles long. Twenty-three of them pass under the bottom of the English Channel. High speed trains rush along its walls. Protective structure North Sea Netherlands

Due to the fact that the Netherlands is below sea level, a series of dams, locks and breakwaters were built to protect the country from flooding during storms. The largest part of the project was a two-mile long movable breakwater at the mouth of the river, built in 1986. It consists of 65 concrete piers, each of which weighs 65 tons. It should be noted that the project is almost equal in scale to the Great Wall of China.

Golden Gate Bridge

Connecting San Francisco and Marin County in 1937, the bridge remained the largest for many years. suspension bridge in the world. Experts thought that the winds ocean currents and the fog will not allow it to be built. The 1.2 mile long bridge took four years to build. It is supported by 80,000 miles of steel wire, and cables measuring thirty-six and a half inches in diameter—the largest ever built.

Topic 5. Engineering activity: specifics and generalized characteristics.

The essence of engineering activity, its specificity.

Types (types) of engineering activities.

Engineering thinking. Engineer's intuition.

Key Concepts: engineer, engineering activity, technical activity, invention, construction, design, social design, systems engineering.

The essence and features of engineering activities.

Engineering activity occupies one of the important and significant places in modern culture humanity. Without the achievements of engineering creativity and engineering thought, the creation and existence of a highly technological civilization, which distinguishes present stage historical development society. Engineer - central figure modern scientific and technical activities. Not only the results of engineering activities surround us everywhere, but also the norms and methods of engineering thinking penetrate into the scientific, social and even humanitarian spheres.

Who is an engineer? What are the specifics of engineering activities? What sets it apart from other species human activity? What specific types of technical creativity constitute engineering activity?

The word “engineer” comes from the Latin root ingeniare, which means “to create,” “to create,” “to implement.” From Latin language this word turned into Italian, and then into French, and finally into Russian. The Russian words “inventive”, “skillful”, “cunning” are close to it in meaning. Also, the word “mechanic” in its first meaning was applied to an artist, inventor, creator of machines. By the way, the word “machine” was synonymous with the word “trick.”

How did the engineering profession develop?

The profession of an engineer, genetically related to technology, is a historically much later phenomenon than technology itself. Engineering activity, like any other phenomenon, has its own background. Its formation took place on the basis of the craftsman profession, which arose simultaneously with social division labor. "Sprouts" of engineering activity, its historical prototypes can be found already in ancient times. Although, it should be noted, these prototypes remained something episodic, atypical, accidentally existing against the background of the undivided dominance of craft activity. A brilliant example of the embodiment of the “scientific craft” - the forerunner of engineering activity - was the work of the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes (c. 287-212 BC). We know from history that he became famous for his cunning technical solutions and inventions in defense hometown Syracuse. It was thanks to the technical genius of Archimedes and the use of his defensive structures and throwing machines, the city was able to provide worthy resistance to the Romans. Archimedes, as well as a small group of ancient scientists and technicians - Eudoxus, Archytas, Hipparchus, Ptolemy - first realized the concept of “scientific craft” when theoretical method thinking in an ideal way was combined with practical talents, and most of the technical projects of ancient technicians were carried out on the basis of precise mathematical calculations. However, Archimedes himself did not consider himself an engineer; the very idea of ​​combining technology and science was rejected by him as a mixture of noble (science) and low (craft) pursuits. The latter were unworthy of a free husband, therefore, according to Plutarch, Archimedes considered the construction of machines an activity not worthy of attention, considering it base and rude. Reasons negative attitude To practical activities in antiquity have their deep cultural foundations. The point is that your main task ancient philosophers and scientists saw it as an introduction to wisdom and the search for truth, which is the goal only of theoretical, scientific activity. The solution to this problem was considered a noble matter, since it brought a person closer to true existence, and craft, practical work belonged to the world of sensory things, to the world of inauthentic being.

A departure from the tradition of sharp opposition theoretical activities became practical only during the Renaissance. We find the first attempt to overcome this opposition in the work of one of the most outstanding minds of this era - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). He harmoniously combined theory and practice in his work. He completely rehabilitated experimental knowledge. In his opinion, “experience is the true teacher” and “the father of all certainty.” However, all this does not mean that Leonardo was a rigid supporter of empiricism. He believed that practice without knowledge is blind and is like a helmsman who steps “on a ship without a compass or rudder.” Theory gives the necessary direction to experience. Consequently, only in unity with theory does practice become fruitful and effective; this unity lies in the fact that “science is the captain, and practice is the soldiers.” Leonardo anticipated Galileo's method and modern science about nature.

In mechanics, Leonardo came closer to understanding the principle of inertia, guessed the principle of the addition of forces and the principle inclined plane, which he adopted as the basis for explaining the flight of birds. It is surprising that these guesses did not remain only theoretical level. There have been attempts to implement them, or at least technically design them.

A number of important technical inventions and design guesses were significantly ahead of their time (projects of metallurgical furnaces, rolling mills, weaving machines, a submarine, a tank, woodworking, earth-moving machines, aircraft, parachute, etc.). Orientation towards science, as opposed to crafts, is a sign of engineering activity, therefore, with with good reason Leonardo da Vinci can be considered one of the first engineers in in true sense this word. In his activities, a transition from traditional thinking to engineering is clearly visible. When creating his technical projects, he uses methods of pre-design research, mathematical calculations and descriptions of manufacturing technology.

The Renaissance gave birth to and presented to the world other great engineers, who appeared, as a rule, either from among scientists who turned to technology, or from among self-taught artisans who turned to science. Among them are Nicollo Tartaglia, Georg Bauer, Girolamo Cardano, Jaco de Strada, Simon Stevin, Albrecht Durer and others. The first engineers were also artists, architects, alchemists, doctors, mathematicians and inventors. For example, G. Cardano (1501-1576) had great achievements in mathematics, mechanics, and also in medicine. Among him scientific interests There was also theoretical astrology. The cardan shaft is named in his honor - a mechanism still widely used today, 500 years later. He created it to improve the crew of Emperor Charles V. Agricola (his real name was Georg Bauer: 1494-1555) - German teacher, writer, scientist, doctor, mineralogist. He was one of the founders of the so-called technical chemistry, which became a kind of intermediate stage between alchemy and scientific chemistry.

The emergence of engineering activity is associated with the emergence of manufacturing. In the Middle Ages, technical activity dominated, organically connected with the craft organization of production (which was based on the most accurate, scrupulous copying technical sample- canon). Craft technology could no longer satisfy the needs of rapidly developing production, and engineering activity emerged as a historical alternative to it.

At first, engineering activity was mainly military in nature. An engineer was someone who supervised the creation of military vehicles and fortifications. The distinction between military and civil engineer began to be made much later. For the first time, the famous English engineer John Smeaton (1724-17920).

Key event to form the concept of “engineer” in modern sense began intensive development in the 19th century. machine production. This sharply increased the demand for engineering activities, which could no longer be satisfied randomly. If basic science, not busy making a decision practical problems, was capable of developing through the efforts of a small number of intellectuals, then applied science, oriented precisely towards practice, could no longer feed on a thin stream of “piecemeal” trained specialists. It was then that the engineering profession became widespread and truly developed. The rapidly developing large-scale machine production dictated the urgent need for mass training of professional engineers and systematic scientific education engineers. The time of self-taught engineers is over. Practice made new demands on the training of qualified engineering personnel. The first technical higher schools. It was their appearance that marked the next important stage in the development of engineering activities. The first technical schools were created on the basis of vocational schools almost simultaneously in France, Germany, and Russia. The Institute of Engineers becomes socially formed. A system of professional technical education- higher technical schools that sought to obtain a status equivalent to classical universities. Characteristic feature Higher technical schools had two main trends: orientation towards practice and towards science.

In France the very first technical school appears in 1720 - Corps of Railway Engineers, in 1747 - School of Railway and Road Engineers. An event of great importance for engineering education was the founding of the Paris Institute by Gaspard Monge polytechnic school(1794). It was a new type of higher technical school - it was focused on high theoretical training students, many engineering institutes were built on its model educational institutions Europe.

The first technical school in Germany - Construction Academy- appeared in 1799. Then there are polytechnic institutes in Munich (1827), Dresden (1828), Hanover (1831), Stuttgart (1840), etc. An outbreak of activity in German technical universities mid and late nineteenth century, as well as the beginning of the twentieth century. made Germany of that period the undisputed leader in industrial and engineering terms.

In Russia, technical education began with the Engineering and Navigation schools created in 1700 and a year later. The flagships of higher technical education have become Institute of Technology in St. Petersburg (1862), Moscow Higher Technical School (1868), St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute (1891). From the very beginning, these institutions began to perform not only educational, but also research functions in the field of engineering, which contributed to the development of technical sciences. Since then engineering education began to play a significant role in the development of technology.

In the 20th century Engineering has been divided into many branches and sub-sectors (according to technical fields): physical engineers (electrical, mechanical, radio engineers, etc.), chemical engineers, biochemists, civil engineers, computer and information technology engineers, etc. Specialist engineers are also differentiated according to functional characteristics: production workers (functions of technologist, organizer), production operation engineers (practical processes), researchers (development and design of technical objects), systems engineers (organization and management of complex, integrated technical systems, systems design).

Today in the word “engineer” next value: an engineer is no longer only the one who actually makes an artificial object, but the one who manages the process of its creation, is engaged in the design of complex technical system. Thus, Engineering activity is the process of creating (invention, construction, design) and managing a specific technical system. Function of engineering activities in modern civilization- optimal combination of the artificial environment of society with its needs and capabilities based on all resources social production, incl. and science. The specificity of engineering activity is that it is associated with regular application of scientific knowledge for the creation of artificial, technical objects - structures, devices, mechanisms, machines, etc. In contrast, technical activity is based on experience, practical skills, guesswork, and intuition. Technical activities are executive in nature and are based on exact copying of the sample.

Engineers not only apply the knowledge produced by science. They have a reverse stimulating effect on the development and progress of science, which is manifested in the development of technical and scientific innovations obtained as a result of engineering activities. This is what brings the work of engineers closer to the work of a scientist-experimenter and distinguishes it from the work of a technician-artisan.

The work of an engineer combines two types of knowledge: natural science and technology. This is due to the fact that for an engineer, any object in relation to which a technical problem arises is considered, on the one hand, as a natural phenomenon, a natural object, subject to natural laws, and on the other hand, as a tool, mechanism, machine, structure that needs to be built artificially. An engineer in his work deals with the description of two different types objects: ideal and technical. The engineer, therefore, relies both on science, from which he draws knowledge about natural processes, and on existing technology, where he borrows knowledge about materials, structures, their technical properties, manufacturing methods, etc. From this it follows that engineering activity is not purely scientific knowledge, and not just technical design, This special area creativity, organically combining both the first and the second.

The meaning and purpose of engineering activity is to create cultural values ​​that meet life interests people. That is, an engineering idea and the activities for its development must always take into account the needs of a person, which the thing being created must satisfy. In this sense scientific activity, as a rule, differs from engineering, since it poses the task of obtaining scientific truth, which is independent of human interests.