Topic: Engineer Vs Scientist ! (Read 139 times)

Who is an Engineer? Who is a Scientist?

Today in our university one of our lecturers asked what is the difference between a Scientist and an engineer. I gave a thought on this and did some digging and these are the similarities and differences I found!

According to the founding father of nanotechnology Eric Drexler, The essence of science is inquiry; the essence of engineering is design. Scientific inquiry expands the scope of human perception and understanding; engineering design expands the scope of human plans and results.
Both scientists and engineers contribute to the world of human knowledge, but in different ways. Scientists use the scientific method to make testable explanations and predictions about the world. A scientist asks a question and develops an experiment, or set of experiments, to answer that question. Engineers use the engineering design process to create solutions to problems. An engineer identifies a specific need: Who need(s) what because why? And then, he or she creates a solution that meets the need.
Science creates questions, while engineering creates solutions. Though this is not a hard rule, science, in general, deals with observing and coming up with hypotheses and theories, while engineering helps to create solutions to answer those questions. So the two truly do complement each other. The scientific method and the engineering method really do apart even from the beginning.
 
If we put much more thought into the differences and similarities between scientific method and the engineering method we can see that Scientists seek unique, correct theories, and if several theories seem plausible, all but one must be wrong, while engineers seek options for working designs, and if several options will work, success is assured. While scientists seek theories that apply across the widest possible range (the Standard Model applies to everything), engineers seek concepts well-suited to particular domains (liquid-cooled nozzles for engines in liquid-fueled rockets). As Scientists seek theories that make precise, hence brittle predictions, engineers seek designs that provide a robust margin of safety. And most importantly in science a single failed prediction can disprove a whole theory, no matter how many tests it has passed, while in engineering one successful design can validate a concept, no matter how many tests it has failed so far!
Because science and engineering face opposite directions, they ask different questions. Scientific inquiry faces toward the unknown, and this shapes the structure of scientific thought; although scientists apply established knowledge, the purpose of science demands that they look beyond it.

Engineering design, by contrast, shuns the unknown. In their work, engineers seek established knowledge and apply it in hopes of avoiding surprises. In engineering, the fewer experiments, the better.