Engineering: Industry overview

What:

Engineering is a very broad subject, it encompasses almost all industries and focuses on the processes that industries use. Engineers can specialize in all sorts of contexts and businesses, but a central theme remains, the development of new operations to form more efficient and economical structures through scientific principles.

Engineers are a kind of swiss knife, they examine complex systems to make improvements on them. In particular industries such as technology, it could mean finding ways of making a given tech cheaper, more precise, or even developing a new feature for a product.

The field is sometimes associated with technology as a lot of techs have been implemented in the engineering world. The use of robots for example is now extremely present, particularly in manufacturing where small details cannot possibly make with a human hand. 3D technology has also revolutionized the field along with AI.

The engineering field impacts almost all of the developing sectors as the implementation of new technologies often requires an aspect of engineering. The global engineering sector represents about $1.6 trillion and is projected to have an annual 2.5% growth for the coming years. The space is extremely relevant today and is still expected to grow.

Why:

In this section, we’ll define why the engineering world relies on technology.

• Precision

As the technological world shrinks in size, the manufacturing process of electrical components becomes much more difficult. For scale, most of today’s modern electronic components reach the nanometer scale, the size of atoms, slightly larger than an atom. This level of precision cannot rely on human levels of precision.

Machines, robots, and technology as a whole provide that level of precision. The precise engineering required in small-scale electronics but also in the aeronautics industry can only happen because of technology. On the other hand, extremely large scale processes such as the Large Hadron Collider (a European project to build the world’s largest particle accelerator) or the construction industry rely on technology for both small scale precision that influences the larger scale and large scale precision to manipulate large blocks of steel or large ready-made pieces.

• Prediction

Another aspect of engineering, particularly when building and thinking about a process is understanding how that particular product or part functions. Technologies such as big data, the IoT, and AI allow engineers to make predictions about their systems. This allows them to carefully choose how to implement a solution and if their solution to the problem actually fits.

Building or improving a given process assumes that you understand what it’s made for, if you’re building a bridge for pedestrians you’ll choose much less resistant materials and a smaller structure than if you’re building a highway bridge. All of these problems rely on correct simulations to understand what implementation to choose. Technology complements the science and physical phenomenons that engineers use to build their things.

• Pace

With today’s rapid development, keeping pace with the demand requires a lot of automation. The engineering world benefits vastly from technologies such as robotics and AI that can automate complex systems and allow engineers to keep up with the rapid pace of development needed.

This change of pace that technology allows concerns both the creative process of thinking about a solution and the implementation process of building the solution. Engineers now rely on software to model their problems and come up with a solution, simulations can be done through software, saving a lot of time in the process. The creation of a very primitive prototype is no longer required as the first steps can be done by machines.

How:

Now that we understand the reasons why technology is implemented, let’s look closer at what kind of technology is being implemented to achieve those needs.

• Large Scale Computing for Modeling

As we’ve discussed before, engineers now rely on computers to carry out some operations. This involves cloud infrastructures that provide SaaS or Software as a Service solution. This allows engineers easy, remote access to modeling software. This allows teams of engineers to work cooperatively on a given problem and to carry out complex calculations that would require a lot of time if done locally.

This infrastructure provides access to a server that can run specialized software. For the provider, this solution is attractive as one server can provide more than one user with the given service. This helps the owner invest more funds in each machine and provides the user with more capable and powerful hardware.

Most engineering companies provide their employees with remote access to online simulation tools. Companies can benefit from very large contracts by securing deals with large companies.

• AI and Big Data for Quality Control

As we learn to process large amounts of data through Big Data and AI, this technology can help companies improve their quality control. Sensors in the production line can measure the size and weight of pieces to label their conformity.

Another application is predictive maintenance. As a company, you can benefit from measuring the temperature, vibrations and noise level of your machinery. Any important change can warn you of an imminent failure. As your production line stops, your system isn’t fully operational and you lose more time and money than if you predicted the failure and maintained your machinery right away.

        The engineering world and technology are two very close industries that benefit from one another. Today, Each one depends on the other as new technology is developed and engineers rely on the efficiency of their processes.