Engineering the stealth profession

Engineering has been called the "invisible profession" or the "stealth profession" because most people have no clue what engineers do. This is unfortunate, because everything in society is linked to engineering.

A 1998 poll indicated 61% of adults felt "not very well" or "not at all well" informed about engineering. This web site aims to change that statistic. If you surf your way through this site, you'll know way more about engineers and engineering than most adults. You might even decide that you want to become an engineer.

Engineers also help people learn more about who they are and what they do during National Engineers Week.

So what is engineering? It's hard to get a good idea from just a few words. This whole site is meant to help answer that question. If you haven't explored our cool things yet, check those out and then come back to this page. The stuff below will make a lot more sense.

A really broad but short definition of engineering is:

"Engineering is the application of math and science to create something of value from our natural resources."

The World that Never Was

Note that the definition above states that engineering is not science. Engineers generally don't "do" science. Science is about discovering the natural. Engineering is creating the artificial. Theodore Von Karman, an aerospace engineer, put it nicely when he said, "Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was."

Engineers are often incorrectly identified as scientists because most people have studied some science in school and are at least familiar with science. Most people have not studied or even been introduced to engineering. For example, in the 1998 poll, only 18% of respondents associated engineers most closely with working in space, while 68% associated scientists most closely. In fact, the space program is largely engineering and 72 of 107 current U.S. astronauts in 1998 (67%) have an engineering degree.

The Most Creative

The word "create" has been used several times here in reference to engineering. Engineers as a group are probably the most creative people. They synthesize, solve problems, and innovate...all big words meaning that they make new things and make old things better. People in the arts are creative too; but their creativity deals with thoughts or emotions. Engineering creativity is directed at things.