Engineering and Skills: Insights for Aspiring Engineers

Engineering 1
THE ENGINEERING AND SKILLS
Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
City (State)
Date

Engineering 2
Solution 1
The Engineering profession is one of the most lucrative careers that have played an important
role in developing the world and affecting the life we live today. Engineering is basically the use of
scientific and mathematical principles to generate economic solutions to the world’s technical problems.
It is concerned with the use of scientific innovations in generating local and commercial applications
that improve efficiency and quality of systems and processes and thereby, making work easier.
Engineers are valuable in developing production, system designs, establishing customer needs, and
carrying out feasibility studies. They build systems for quality control and assurance and therefore,
enable companies to run their systems with higher efficiency (Tribus 2016, p.65). Aspiring engineers
have a choice to specialize in civil , chemical , mechanical , software , electronics , and
telecommunication engineering. In university, engineering students take mathematics, science, drawing,
and soft skill courses. Exposure to practical experience however enables them to integrate theories learnt
in college with real life issues.
Solution 2
Initially, I thought engineers are only involved in technical work using manual and technical
software with non-technical areas being irrelevant in practice. I have came to learn that most engineers
do less technical work since they are mainly engaged in supervising technicians and thus leadership and
interpersonal skills are important also for engineers. In practice, most engineers work mostly on simple
Microsoft office tools such as excel and thus do not work only on complex programming software such
as Matlab which are mainly used by those working in technical capacities. As an engineer, I expect to
invent tools and technologies that would make people’s lives easier and make production systems
efficient. To my community, I expect to create impact by mentoring and motivating upcoming engineers
so as to ethically grow their career and contribute to society. Ethical practice in engineering ensures that

Engineering 3
system designs quality are not compromised (Reis 2012, p.43). I would add value to an engineering
organisation by stressing and championing for ethical practice among engineers. Soft skills such as
leadership, interpersonal skills, and negotiation skills are also worth developing.
Solution 3
Thomas Edison, an American investor and engineer invented the light bulb in 1879. The
engineer started serious research aimed at inventing a working incandescent lamb in early 1878 and by
late these same year he had registered a patent for his first discovery (Hill 2013, p.10). He contributed
to many other inventions such as the motion camera and phonograph which have influenced the systems
that exist today. His patent explained several methods of creating carbon filaments using cotton and
linen, coiled papers, and wooden splints. Later, he managed to create carbonized filament which
motivated him to register Edison Electric Light Company. From his works, one must conclude that
Edison was a creative, curious, confident, problem solver, entrepreneur, innovator, and leader (Wagner&
Compton 2015, p.23). His entrepreneurship and leadership skills are evident from when he went ahead
to start and manage his company. The must have possessed technical scientific skills in electrical
engineering such as power, energy, and systems design.
Solution 4
Good engineers are those that have mastered the art of giving instructions efficiently to fulfil the
desired goals. As an engineer, I am involved in instructing technical personnel to undertake the
procedures I develop while undertaking projects. To instruct well, mastering interpersonal skills and
negotiation skills is critical (DuBrin 2014, p.20). Understanding the personality and emotions of the
personal receiving the instructions helps in handling him accordingly. There was a time at the work
place when we were undertaking a project and I had to instruct a technician on the lighting design I