To me, the definition of an engineer is someone who builds or design structures or machines. This definition fits many of the topics we have covered in this class: sacred structures like the Hagia Sophia, the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, or the Great Mosque of Djenne. Engineers also designed ancient water structures. Most of the things we have covered in this class fall into the category of civil engineering. They design cars, houses, buildings, roads, dams, bridges; the list goes on.
Although my definition of engineers is close to the literal definition, I think that you can engineer things that are not material like buildings or bridges or roads. I think people can be engineers of ideas, and how we construct these ideas and put them to action falls on constructing or building them. This is how we have “engineered the past”. There were some pretty amazing structures built in the past, but people have also engineered concepts, such a political systems or education.