Engineering is design that is intended to solve a problem or better the lives of a certain people. Throughout history, people have been faced with obstacles and challenges that stood in their way. How they responded to these problems determined whether they thrived and passed on their genes, or died off and were forgotten to history. Many of these obstacles require physically engineered objects, while others require redesigned methods or ways of doing things. One of the first topics we looked at in this class were bridges. Bridges were originally engineered as a way to simply connect two land masses, but have evolved into artistic masterpieces and often serve as historic placemarks. This shows how engineering has transformed and how it can serve different purposes. We also looked at the architecture of ancient civilizations, such as the Incans and Aztecs, to study how engineering affected their ways of life. In these cases, engineering was heavily influenced by religious beliefs, rather than simply solving problems.