I believed that this class was going to be related to the engineering process of how very old structures were built. It started out that way with the module about the Brooklyn bridge and San Francisco bridge. Learning the obstacles that they ran into and had to figure out ways around them. Also how the era that they were built in played a big influence on the materials that were used. What i didn’t think about was how social engineering was such a large influence on these structures. Engineering is all about inventing and improving ideas, whether it be on structures, machines or literally everything in the world.  I had never thought about how water is an engineering nightmare. Just figuring out how to get it to everybody that needs it, but also figuring out how to share it as fairly as possible while trying to follow the laws that have been put in place.

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.