BUILDING THE WORLD think about a simple trip to school A student puts on her backpack An engineer designed it to be strong and sturdy The student waits at the bus stop She watches the bus drive down the smooth road An engineer designed this road too The bus itself was carefully engineered It provides a safe ride The student texts her friends Engineers designed Many kinds of engineering are at work behind a simple ride on a school bus 5 CHAPTER ONE
each part of her smartphone The work of engineers is all around us Engineers use science and creative thinking to design objects and processes that solve practical problems Some engineering feats save lives These include safe cars and buildings Others make life more fun These include devices that play movies and music Many engineers build technology that helps the environment Solar panels and wind turbines for example create electricity without polluting In all areas of engineering women are making a difference Engineers must earn college degrees in their chosen fields They need to know more than math and science Engineers must be able to communicate their ideas They should be good at working with teams And they should understand the social responsibility behind their work Today’s engineers work in many settings Some work for the government They may help build rockets at NASA Others work at large companies They 6
Start Identify the problem Research the problem Think about possible solutions Make changes to the design based on testing Test the prototype Create a prototype Choose the most promising solution The Engineering Design Process Nearly all engineers follow a process they call the engineering design process This multistep plan helps them identify needs create solutions and improve their designs Take a look at the steps above What might happen if an engineer skipped one of these steps may design computers at Apple or cars at General Motors Some work in small start-up companies They may create the latest popular website Finally some engineers are teachers They teach high school and college students about their field 7
