Engineering is an activity concerned with the creation of new systems for the benefit of mankind. The process of creativity proceeds by way of research, design and development; new systems emerge from innovation and systems may be constituted by mechanical, electromechanical, hydraulic. thermal or other elements. Creation of new systems is thus basic to all engineering. The Living Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary aptly defines engineering as the art of excelling a partial application of scientific knowledge.
lt is important to understand the difference between engineering and science. Science is concerned with a systematic understanding and gathering of the facts, laws and principles governing natural phenomena. Engineering, on the other hand, is an art of utilisation of the established facts, laws and principles to create certain desired phenomena. The activities of science and engineering arc thus mutually opposite. Both may proceed through similar ways and means of analysis and synthesis but are oppositely directed. The training of scientists and engineers should be correspondingly designed for their respective objectives.
