BSc Engineering Level 1

University of Moratuwa

Subject: MN101 – Engineering in Context – 1 Credit Non GPA

Lecture Schedule
1. What is engineering and its relevance to the society (2 hrs)
2. Fundamentals of economics in the context of engineering (2 hrs)
3. Engineering in environmental and technological contexts (2 hrs)
4. Basic managerial and teamwork skills for engineering profession (2 hrs)
5. Effective speaking, presentation and basic skills for negotiation (2 hrs))
6. Becoming a Professional Engineer (2 hrs)

1. What is Engineering and Its Relevance to the Society

1.1 What is Engineering?
• Engineering is essentially the application of mathematics and science to develop useful products or
processes.
• Engineers turn ideas into reality. They are problem solvers, people who make things work better,
more efficiently, quicker and less expensively. They serve humanity with skill and dedication, and
reach for ways to make this a better world in the future.
• Engineers have strong science, mathematics and technology backgrounds. Engineers will be on the
cutting edge of technologies and will help produce startling improvements for people everywhere in
the world.
• Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences, gained
by study, experience, and practice, is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically,
the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind.
• Engineers are the world's problem solvers. When you watch a movie on the big screen, play the latest
video game, fly an airplane, drive across a bridge, or surf the Internet, it is the work of engineers that
makes it possible.
• Engineering is the creative application of science to design solutions for problems in the world.
Engineering is a broad and diverse field; from civil engineers to bio-medical engineers to
environmental engineers there is a branch of engineering that affects every level of our lives.
• Engineers put energy and materials to work to solve society’s problems. They apply the principles of
mathematics and science to find practical solutions to technical challenges.
At the heart of engineering is the engineering design process which is a step-by-step method to produce a
device, structure, or system that satisfies a need. Whatever the source, the need is generally described by
a set of specifications. These can include performance specifications (e.g., weight, size, speed, safety,
reliability), economic specifications (e.g., cost), and scheduling specifications (e.g., production and
delivery dates).
Engineering is all around us, so people often take it for granted, like air and water. Ask yourself, what do
I touch that is not engineered? Overhead projector you see, pen you write, the papers you use for writing,
the wrist-watch you are wearing, the building in which you are in, the fans/air conditioning giving you
comfort, the lights etc. etc. are examples you can see in the classroom. Engineering develops and
delivers consumer goods, builds the networks of highways, air and rail travel, and the Internet, mass
produces antibiotics, creates artificial heart valves, builds lasers, and offers such wonders an imaging
technology and conveniences like microwave ovens and compact discs. In short, engineers make our
quality of life possible.

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1.2 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century

The primary selection criterion was the impact of the engineering achievement on the quality of life in
the 20th century.

High Performance Materials: latest advances in polymers, ceramics, and composites which engineers
have tailored and enhanced material properties for uses in thousands of applications.

Nuclear Technologies: weapon for war, source of electric power, capabilities in medical research and
imaging.

Laser and Fiber Optics: industrial tools, surgical devices, satellites, communication infrastructure.

Petroleum and Gas Technologies: Spurred on by engineering advances in oil exploration and
processing, petroleum products have had an enormous impact on world economies, people, and politics.

Health Technologies: arsenal of diagnostic and treatment equipment, artificial organs, replacement
joints, imaging technologies, and bio-materials are but a few of the engineered products.

Household Appliances: wide variety of devices giving us more free time, enable more people to work
outside the home, and contribute significantly to our economy.

Imaging Technologies: expansion of vision from tiny atoms to distant galaxies, probing the human
body, mapping ocean floors, tracking weather patterns etc.

Internet: globalization, e-commerce, and vast stores of information adding convenience and efficiency
to our lives.

Space Exploration: from early test rockets to sophisticated satellites, improved weather forecasting, and
wireless communications.

Interstate Highways: roads, bridges, and tunnels that connect our communities, enable goods and
services to reach remote areas, encourage growth, and facilitate commerce.

Air Conditioning and Refrigeration: transport and store fresh foods, live and work comfortably in
sweltering climates, and to create stable environments for the sensitive components.

Telephone: remarkable innovations, from copper wire to fiber optics, from switchboards to satellites,
and to the Internet.

Computers: The computer has transformed businesses and lives around the world by increasing
productivity and opening access to vast amounts of knowledge.

Agricultural Mechanization: dramatically increased farm efficiency and productivity.

Radio and Television: opening windows to other lives, to remote areas of the world, from wireless
telegraph to today's advanced satellite systems, developing remarkable technologies that inform and
entertain millions every day.

Electronics: countless innovations, CD players, TVs, computers, mobile phones to name a few. From
vacuum tubes to transistors, to integrated circuits.

Safe and Abundant Water: prevention of waterborne diseases like typhoid fever and cholera.

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Aeroplane: transports goods and people quickly around the globe, facilitating our personal, cultural, and
commercial interaction. Engineering innovations from the Wright brothers' airplane to today's supersonic
jets have made it all possible.

Automobile: symbol of personal freedom, the world's major transporter of people and goods, and a
strong source of economic growth and stability with countless innovations made in design, production,
and safety.

Electrification: it has literally lighted the world and impacted countless areas of daily life, including
food production and processing, air conditioning and heating, refrigeration, entertainment, transportation,
communication, health care, and computers.

Mechatronic: design of machines, devices and systems possessing a degree of computer based
intelligence

Automation & Robotics, AI: Industry has changed manual operations to automation, self-learning
robotics

CAD/CAM: Computer based drawing, designing, analytical and machining facilities, Increase precision
of machining product, time saving design process, repeatability of same work.

1.3 Why Study Engineering: The Top 10 Benefits

Engineering offers a rewarding and lucrative career—one in which you can use your mind to find
creative solutions to the challenges facing our society.

• Job satisfaction
• Variety of career opportunities
• Transferable skills - The analytical skills and technological expertise you develop as an engineering
student can also be put to use in many other fields
• Challenging work – no one answer
• Intellectual development - engineering education will "exercise" your brain, developing your ability
to think logically and to solve problems developing skills that will be valuable throughout your life
• Benefit society - transportation systems, design buildings that we live, the systems that deliver our
water and electricity, the machinery that produces our food, and the medical equipment that keeps us
healthy etc.
• Financial security
• Prestige - play a primary role in sustaining our nation's international competitiveness, maintaining
our standard of living, ensuring a strong national security, and protecting public safety
• Professional environment – respect, acceptance, support, facilities, other benefits
• Technological and scientific discovery - how the loads are transmitted to the supports on a
suspension bridge, what a laser is or how a computer works, crash barriers on roads. An engineering
education can help you understand how these, and many other things in the world of work.
• Creative thinking - creative profession by very nature employing conscious and subconscious mental
processing as well as divergent and convergent thinking.

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1.4 An Overview of Engineering Disciplines

Careers in engineering span the alphabet. From aerospace to manufacturing to transportation engineering,
no other career field offers young men and women such a wide choice of options although options
available at Moratuwa is somewhat limited. Here is a partial listing of these disciplines:

Aerospace Engineering - design and develop technology for commercial aviation, the national defense,
and space exploration.
Agricultural Engineering - design farm and food processing equipment; construct crop storage and
livestock buildings; and develop systems for drainage, irrigation, and waste disposal, experiment
with promising indoor farming techniques such as hydroponics—the science of growing plants in
fluids without dirt.
Architectural Engineering - Working alongside architects, architectural engineers focus on the safety,
cost, and construction methods of designing a building.
Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering - combines biology and engineering, some engineers working
closely with biologists and medical doctors to develop medical instruments, artificial organs, and
prosthetic devices.
Ceramic Engineering - Ceramic engineers direct processes that convert clay, nonmetallic minerals, or
silicates to ceramic products such as automobile parts, tiles on space shuttles, and solar panels.
Chemical Engineering - processing and treating of liquids and gases, many working with petroleum and
plastics and related issues such as environment and pollution control.
Civil Engineering - One of the largest branches of engineering, a field that deals with buildings, bridges,
dams, roads, and other structures. Civil engineers plan, design, and supervise the construction of
facilities such as high-rise buildings, airports, water treatment centers, sanitation plants, railways.
Computer/Software Engineering - deal with all aspects of computer systems including design,
construction, and operation, some specializing in areas like digital systems, operating systems,
computer networks, and software.
Electrical Engineering - covers everything related to electrical devices, systems, and the use of
electricity working on power plants, computers, and other electrical devices.
Environmental Engineering - assist with the development of water distribution systems, recycling
methods, sewage treatment plants, and other pollution prevention and control systems in the water,
air, and land.
Fire Protection Engineering - design systems and equipment that prevent or combat fire. Engineers in
this field are also concerned with the fire safety of structures.
Industrial Engineering - organize the people, information, energy, materials, and machines involved in
the production process. They are concerned with plant design and management, quality control, and
the human factors of engineering.
Manufacturing Engineering - Manufacturing engineers design tools and equipment and work with all
aspects of manufacturing—from production control and materials handling to mechanization and
automation.
Mechanical Engineering - use mechanics and energy principles to design machines such as engines and
motors. Many mechanical engineers work in the areas of air-conditioning and refrigeration,
automotives, manufacturing, welding, and robotics.
Metallurgy and Materials Engineering - extract, process, refine, combine, and manufacture natural
substances to create new materials that are stronger and resist corrosion. Metallurgical engineers
work with metal only.
Mineral and Mining Engineering - locate, remove, and appraise minerals found in the earth. Mining
engineers lay out the mines, supervise their construction, create a materials transportation system,
and return the area to its natural state upon mining completion.
Nuclear Engineering - design, develop, and control plants that use nuclear energy for fuel and medical
purposes.
Ocean Engineering - direct the exploration and utilization of the ocean's resources working closely tied
to petroleum and civil engineering.
Telecommunication: transmission, emission, or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds
or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. This field has

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 drastically changed from verbal communication to E-Business, E-Banking, E-Commerce, E-Learning
and etc.
Transportation Engineering - design streets, highways, and other transit systems that allow people and
goods to move safely and efficiently.

This list is not exhaustive. There a number of other specialisations.

Emerging Fields
Eg.
AI - Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are now being used by the practicing engineer to solve a
whole range of hitherto intractable problems.
CAD/CAM: Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing, result of these facilities
manufacturing sector has increased their productivity and decreasing problems available when they
were doing semi-automatic or manual
Mechatronics: Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of precision mechanical engineering,
electronic control and systems thinking in the design of products and manufacturing processes. It
relates to the design of systems, devices and products aimed at achieving an optimal balance between
basic mechanical structure and its overall control.

1.5 Engineering Job Functions

Another way to understand the engineering profession is to examine engineers from the perspective of
the work they do or the job functions they perform. Following is a description of the nine main
engineering job functions.

Analysis - primarily involved in the mathematical modeling of physical problems using the principles of
mathematics, physics, and engineering science and making extensive use of engineering applications
software. This plays a critical role in the initial stage of a design project.

Design – This converts concepts and information into detailed plans and specifications that dictate the
development and manufacture of a product. Recognizing that many designs are possible, the design
engineer must consider such factors as production cost, availability of materials, ease of production, and
performance requirements. Creativity and innovation, along with an analytic mind and attention to detail,
are key qualifications for a design engineer.

Test - responsible for developing and conducting tests to verify that a selected design or new product
meets all specifications. Depending on the product, tests may be required for such factors as structural
integrity, performance, quality or reliability all of which must be performed under all expected
environmental conditions.

Development - involved in the development of products, systems, or processes. In a more general

context, the development engineer is instrumental in turning concepts into actual products or applying
new knowledge to improve existing products. In this capacity, he is the "D" in "R&D," which, as you
probably know, stands for the Research and Development arm of many companies.

Sales - liaison between the company and the customer. In this role, the sales engineer must be technically
proficient in order to understand the product itself and the customer's needs. That means he must be able
to explain the product in detail: how it operates, what functions it can perform, and why it will satisfy the
customer's requirements.

Research - Engineering researchers are interested in ways to apply the knowledge to engineering
practices and principles. Research engineers thus explore mathematics, physics, chemistry and
engineering sciences in search of answers or insights that will contribute to the advancement of
engineering. Given the nature and demands of their work, research engineers usually need to have an
advanced degree in their field. Indeed, most positions available in engineering research require a Ph.D.

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Management - If you are successful as an engineer and have strong leadership skills, within a few years
of graduation you could very well move into management. Opportunities exist primarily in two areas:
line management and project management.

Consulting - differs from that of all other engineers in that a consulting engineer performs services for a
client on a contractual basis. Some consulting engineers are self-employed, while others work for
consulting firms that "hire out" their engineers to companies that either lack the expertise the consulting
engineer can provide or want an outside evaluation of their organization's performance. Depending on the
client's specific needs, the consulting engineer's work can vary considerably. Investigations and analyses;
preplanning, design and design implementation; research and development; construction management;
and recommendations regarding engineering-related problems are just a few examples.

Teaching - has three primary areas of responsibility: teaching, research, and service. Teaching includes
not only classroom instruction, but also course and curriculum development, laboratory development,
and the supervision of student projects or theses. Research involves the pursuit of new knowledge, which
is then disseminated throughout the professional engineering community by papers published in
engineering journals, presentations at scholarly meetings, textbooks, and software. "Service" is a catch-
all term that refers to the many other functions expected of engineering professors including such
activities as community involvement, participation in faculty governance, public service, and consulting.
The Ph.D. degree in engineering is virtually mandatory to qualify for a full-time position on an
engineering faculty.

1.6 Engineering Achievements and Great Engineers in Sri Lanka

What are the achievement of great engineers in Sri Lanka

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