inel

Hi Mark, You asked for

a general name for the class of people who builds the things that engineers design and mechanics maintain

… production engineer is the term for the professionals in that “class of people”, I think. Production engineering and Design engineering are two parallel and independent tracks for engineers. Also, I would use the term field engineer rather than mechanic for computer systems.

You can take a look at The Engineer Online magazine, for example, that separates stories in its left-hand column into relevancy for:

• Design Engineering
• Production Engineering

Beyond that, this magazine gives a good quick overview of engineering disciplines, as it separates stories by “channel”:

• aerospace
• automotive
• chemical and process
• communications
• computers and IT
• electrical and electronics
• energy and utilities
• environment
• medical and pharmaceutical
• military and defence
• rail and marine
• structural and civil

Hello Geek Buffet,

Your story of the telephone engineer is, I dare say, most people’s perception of an engineer. Perhaps a car mechanic or train driver could also spring to mind.

Anyone can call him/herself an engineer: no qualifications—academic, professional, or otherwise—are required to use that job title. Compare that with CEng which can only be used by Chartered Engineers as members of professional engineering bodies.

Terminology becomes even more of a problem when:

• engineers without qualifications outnumber professional engineers who have engineering degrees and institute membership
• engineers without qualifications are the ones the public meet in their daily lives: on the streets, in houses, installing and fixing equipmentS

Self-promotion is not high on most engineers’ and scientists’ lists of priorities: we are more likely to be quietly beavering away behind the scenes, committed to solving a technical problem, than up front marketing or selling our talents!

I like to think of an engineer as someone who is, above all, ingenious.

Engineers apply science to improve the world through technology.

One more important point: engineers are specialists in specific technical areas, and multidisciplinary roles are common, but public perceptions are that we are generalists who ought to be competent with all technologies. For example, as an electrical engineer, I should be able to fix anything electrical. Not so. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Engineers I know in various disciplines agree that this is a big area where perceptions need to be improved: it is as though we are all expected to be general practitioners and surgeons in every discipline, without any recognition that that standard of competency in every area would be impossible. We cannot all be like Leonardo da Vinci! (He’s another engineer for the list.)