Based on what I have learned in this course I would define engineering as the process of building structures. Its obviously more complicated than that, so much goes into constructing a building or water system. Time, money, MATH and science. There is something to be said about old/ancient structures because a lot of them are still standing today. For instance: the Brooklyn Bridge, Hagia Sophia and the Aztec structures are all examples of incredibly built structures and for being built so long ago when modern technology was not around. I would also define engineering as a trial and error business. I cannot imagine, especially with the older structures, that they got it right on the first try. And it seems to me that a lot of collaboration goes on throughout the process with many disciplinary’s. Engineering, along with so many other fields is ever growing and expanding on skills and knowledge.

To me engineering is a way to make something do what you want or need it to do, it is a problem-solving discipline. This has become even more apparent as we have learned about different things throughout this semester. From the first Thanksgiving where they had to settle in a new land and survive, to great temples and figuring out how to live while using the stars for guidance and now how to build large civilization while utilizing mother nature.

I believe when most people hear the word Engineer they think of someone who builds tangible items that someone else has come up with. It seems to me that an Engineer is someone who is extremely creative and comes up with these ideas on his or her own to solve a problem that is being faced. This required them to take into account the past, present and future and become familiar with all sorts of other disciplines.

Okay so for me, it took a bit to think about how I wanted to answer this question. After a few minutes I got it. The way in which I wanted to define the term “engineering” for this class was to break it down into a two definitions. First will be the literal and second is the more analytical and my full take on the term. So let’s get to it, the literal is the idea of how the past has always had a “engineering” aspect as it has buildings that have shaped history and kept history intact with its engineering feats. For me an in depth answer for the term engineering means how using tools that have been presented we can engineer the past. Using these tools such as the module 2’s historical thinking we as historians can engineer or render an idea of what events took place. In simpler terms one can even take Prownians Analysis and “engineer” the past events based off of the evidence found in primary sources.