The Expanding World of Engineers

According to US department of Labor, bureau of Labor statistics, an engineer is engaged in solving commercial problem with the use of scientific principle under certain technical constraints. As mentioned in the article, globalization created a need to process more information and use the information to make decision at a faster pace. This is exactly what engineers are trained to do. The engineering discipline focuses on solving complex problems. Problems that often highly intertwined where satisfying the requirement of one often come at the expense of the other. Given the complexity of the problems that are faced by companies or institute, the challenge is then not only to make a decision fast based on the given information, but also to make the best decision. The human mind has a limited capacity in handling complex information, hence decision made intuitively without the use of “tools”, is often not the best. That is why engineering skills is often favored in different sectors. The use of engineering skills and mathematical tools can often help by putting things into perspective and the formulation of a solution or help in decision making. Apart from that, real world problems also come with constraints which limit the number of solutions one can deploy. Take for example the issue of drinking water in Singapore. As an island nation with limited land-used, Singapore has been facing the problem of drinking water shortage for many years; the existing reservoirs are not enough for supplying drinking water to the people, in addition, the 100-year water supply contract with its neighbor country will expire in a few years time, hence Singapore is going to have its greater crisis in recent year. Fortunately, engineers have come up with a brilliant solution, the Marina Barrage Project together with the Newater and Desalination of sea water to solve this drinking water crisis. By tackling the problem from a multi-faceted approach, engineers has come up with a solution for the problem that has been haunting Singapore since its founding.