The history of the decline of engineers. Engineering in WOW Battle for Azeroth - leveling guide. Engineering as a profession

Development: MIT

Dr. Deva Newman, a professor of aeronautics, astronautics and systems engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, created her own spacesuit prototype using bioengineering as inspiration. The compressive, multi-layer fabric adapts subtly to the wearer and is intended to replace clunky and outdated astronaut spacesuits.

“In regular spacesuits, you are a balloon filled with gas that compensates for the lack of atmospheric pressure to save you from being in a vacuum,” says Newman, who has spent the last ten years developing her spacesuit. - We want to achieve the same level of pressure, but through mechanical backpressure - applying pressure directly to the skin, thus avoiding gas pressure altogether. We combined passive elastic and active materials.”

Ultimately, modern spacesuits really lack mobility, and a lightweight and reliable suit will be useful in the exploration of new planets.

The smallest and fastest nanomotor in the world has been created

Development: University of Texas at Austin

A breakthrough in miniature nanomotors will allow engineers to create ultra-fast miniature robots to treat cancer.

“The smallest, fastest and longest lasting tiny artificial motor is ready for release. A team of engineers has taken an important step in developing miniature machines that could one day move around the body and deliver insulin to diabetics when needed, or find and treat cancer cells without damaging intact ones.”

Robot cheetah and robot kangaroo

Development: Festo AG and MIT

It's safe to say that animal robots have had a good year. Scientists from Festo AG in Germany have developed a bionic kangaroo that technically replicates the marsupial's unique method of locomotion. In addition, you can call him with a simple hand gesture.

And at the Biomimetics Robotics Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they developed “an algorithm that allowed us to successfully develop a robotic cheetah.” Currently, the robot's speed is limited to 15 km/h, but scientists expect to accelerate it to 45 km/h, that is, almost half the speed of a real cheetah in the wild. Sangbae Kim, a mechanical engineer at MIT, described what exactly makes this robot interesting:

“Most robots are sluggish and heavy and cannot control force in high-speed situations. This is what makes MIT's Cheetah special: you can control the balance of forces for a short period of time followed by a heavy impact with the ground, so the robot is more stable, agile and dynamic than others."

Solar energy has become more efficient

Developed: University of New South Wales and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy


Engineers at the University of New South Wales have announced they have achieved a breakthrough efficiency of 40.4 per cent by retrofitting off-the-shelf solar panels with mirrors and filters to reduce energy loss. However, experts quickly corrected the scientists, pointing out that “the Germans already have 44.7% efficiency.” All options are correct, and this year has become quite important for the development of solar energy.

And while we're not ready to give up fossil fuels just yet, the day is approaching when we will.

An inexpensive litmus test for cancer

Developed: MIT


Another team of MIT researchers, this time led by bioengineer Sangeeta Bhatia, has developed a simple, inexpensive paper-based test that could improve cancer diagnosis rates and help people get treatment earlier. The test works similar to a pregnancy test and can tell you if a person has cancer within minutes using a urine sample.

In countries with underdeveloped medical infrastructure, such a test could be a real revolution.

Octopus camouflage

Developed: University of Houston, University of Illinois, Northwestern University


Cephalopods (octopuses, cuttlefish, squids) can quickly change color for camouflage. Dr. Kunzhang Yu, a mechanical engineer at the University of Houston, led a collaboration of scientists from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University to replicate these mechanics in artificial camouflage.

Although similar technologies had previously been developed, Yu was the first to implement autonomous adaptation.

“Our device sees colors and recognizes them. It reads its environment using thermochromatic material.”

The prototype developed by the scientist works in white and black with shades of gray, but Yu says all colors of the spectrum are in the pipeline. And although the prototype is currently less than a square inch in size, it can be easily scaled up for production.

The device's flexible skin is made up of ultra-thin layers that include semiconductor actuators, switching components and photocells between inorganic reflectors and organic color-changing materials so that the device can automatically adapt to the colors of its environment.

The scientists describe their work as a dotted device incorporating key elements of cephalopod skin, except the iridophores and central eye organs.

Swarm of robots imitating termites

Developed: Harvard

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has developed an autonomous robotic design that mimics the behavior of termites:

“This system does not need a leader, an eye in the sky, or communication. It uses simple robots - any number - that communicate by changing the environment."

The TERMES system demonstrated that a collaborative robot system could create complex 3D structures without the need for a team structure or prescribed roles.

Developed: Consumer Physics, Israel


Let's say you're a person who really wants to know everything there is to know about apples. Or study what specific things are made of. Then SCiO, a pocket-sized spectroscope that syncs with your smartphone, could be your new best friend.

Consumer Physics, the company behind SCiO, launched a Kickstarter campaign this year to get the project off the ground and into the mass market. Here's how their device works:

• you scan the object of interest with SCiO for 1-2 seconds;
• the application on iOS or Android sends results to the cloud;
• algorithms process data in real time;
• Analysis results can be checked using a smartphone with Bluetooth enabled.

Here's VentureBeat's review:

“First of all, SCiO will acquire applications for analyzing food, medicine and plants. You can improve the ingredients of a craft beer brewed at home or determine the quality of a new medicine. The company will subsequently add the ability to test samples of cosmetics, clothing, plants, soil, gems, jewelry, leather, rubber, oil, plastic, and even human body tissue or fluids.”

The world's largest indoor farm in Japan

Development: Mirai, Japan


With incredibly bad headlines like "Lettuce Faces the Future," many expected the world's largest indoor farm to be all bullshit, not science. But we were wrong.

Under the guidance of an experienced botanist, Mirai built the world's largest indoor farm - 2.3 square kilometers, to be exact - on the site of an old semiconductor manufacturing plant. The gardens are powered by 17,500 LED lights and the environment is free of bacteria and pesticides. Why is this interesting, you ask?

1. This process of growing greens is faster and produces less waste and requires less water and fertilizer.
2. Lettuce production under LEDs is 2.5 times faster than in sunlight.
3. Mirai managed to reduce the percentage of losses from industrial 30-40% to less than 3%.
4. Such a farm reduced water use to 1%.
5. Every day, 10,000 fresh lettuce leaves are grown.

Robo shipbuilders Daewoo

Development: Daewoo, South Korea


Daewoo shipbuilders and marine engineers are no strangers to incredible engineering approaches. But still, turning ship workers into supermen who can lift 100-kilogram pieces of metal like feathers. This was made possible by the development of small exoskeletons.

The prototype of the robotic suit weighs about 28 kilograms and is suitable for people of different heights. Workers can walk with their normal gait, and the suit will help them move objects weighing up to 30 kilograms for a minimum of three hours. Engineers also plan to increase lifting capacity to 100 kilograms.

Self-repairing plastic

Development: University of Illinois


Would you spend a little more on a smartphone with a screen that repairs itself every time you break it?

Thanks to engineers at the University of Illinois, that day could come very soon. This year they introduced a polymer that automatically closes holes up to 3 centimeters wide - that's a hundred times larger than was previously possible. The polymer is based on a network of capillaries, similar to the human blood clotting system, which ensure the delivery of chemicals to damaged areas.

But the best part is that the materials from which this polymer is created are relatively cheap and common:

“The key advantage of the material is that it does not require a catalyst or low temperature, and can be reduced many times. Ideal material for repairing internal cracks. It can seal them up before they spread everywhere.”

Other self-healing material systems rely primarily on hard and durable materials. The new research turns to elastic materials made from polyurea, one of the most widely used classes of polymers in consumer products such as paint, clothing, elastics and plastics.

Something like a hoverboard

Development a: Art Pax


Our Back to the Future dreams are finally coming true. This year, Art Pax launched a Kickstarter campaign promoting the Hendo Hoverboard, a hover board, or skateboard, to much applause from Marty McFly fans.

However (and this is a big however) the hoverboard only works on metal surfaces due to its electromagnetic suspension. Why then did this board make the list? The Hendo Hoverboard is said to use the original idea of ​​using electromagnetism:

“Earnshaw's theorem states that it is impossible to create highly stable magnetic levitation when none of the fields change over time. But it is possible to create levitation that appears stable to the naked eye if the currents creating the magnetic field continuously adapt to small movements of the magnetic levitation to quickly compensate for these movements.”

The Hendo hoverboard does not use superconductors or conventional diamagnetism, where the magnetic response is solely due to the relocation of electrons in atoms. Instead, it relies on a magnetic field to oscillate in the desired direction, causing eddy currents in an adjacent conductor, the movement of large numbers of electrons that are not bound to specific atoms in the conductor.

In short, this is a large-scale version of diamagnetic levitation - the swirling eddy currents adapt to the constant repulsion of the alternating field source in the same way that individual electrons adapt to ordinary diamagnetic levitation. People like it.

Robot that kills Ebola virus

Development: Xenex


Xenex is essentially like a tall Roomba with ultraviolet light. The robot irradiates a hospital room with intense millisecond pulses of ultraviolet light at a high power rating, killing germs. The light can kill all germs in a hospital room in 5 minutes - in particular, it destroys Ebola on any surface in 2 minutes.

In the midst of the Ebola crisis, hospitals are clamoring for such machines. About 200 hospitals in the US alone have already included Xenox in their room disinfection system.

Data transfer in terabits per second

Development: Technical University of Denmark


The High-Speed ​​Optical Communications team from the Technical University of Denmark set a new data transmission record this year, transmitting 43 terabits of data per second over a single optical fiber. At this speed, you can download the entire library of a major video streaming service like Netflix in 10 minutes.

The MacGyver paradigm

Development: Georgia Institute of Technology and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan

Autonomous robots are going on a rampage this year, but MacGyver may have killed them all. While most robots are designed to avoid obstacles, this robot takes advantage of its environment. Offline.

In this experiment (on video), engineers created a situation in which the robot needs to get to the other side (the cliff between two platforms is too wide to jump). As a result, the robot does something absolutely incredible (completely autonomously) - you will see for yourself. In another experiment, he uses a cart loaded with bricks to support a lever to move another object of equal mass. They say that very soon this robot will be unstoppable.

Google Cardboard: virtual reality using improvised means

Development: Google


Google's product description pretty much explains Cardboard's simple shape:

“Cardboard is a DIY virtual reality experience for everyone. We want everyone to be able to experience virtual reality in a simple, fun and inexpensive way. That's what the Cardboard project is all about."

“Garamantida” is an ancient civilization located, no less, in the heart of the Sahara Desert, in the southern part of modern Libya (the so-called Fezzan). Archaeologists who are excavating in Fezzan have already found many settlements (large and small) of this people. There were as many as eight large cities, and the first of them was Garama (as archaeologists called the capital of the kingdom). The walls of the buildings here reached four meters in height, castle-like structures (ksars), six towers (en), a square market square, cemeteries (last photo), wells, even stones with inscriptions that no one will probably read were discovered.
(You can also see the photo, with different Garamante ruins.)

Dozens of smaller cities were found (although it was not possible to find out exactly how many dozens). But the most important thing is the extensive (about a thousand miles) underground network of canals and mines, with the help of which the Garamantes extracted water for irrigation right in the middle of the desert. The Kingdom of the Garamantes is called highly developed and undeservedly forgotten. As a matter of fact, it has been forgotten so well that even the self-name of the people is unknown: “Garamantes” is a Greek name, later adopted by the Romans, and now by us.

In fact, this discovery was made back in the 60s of the 20th century, but earlier it was not particularly convenient to conduct excavations in Fezzan - they say that Gaddafi did not approve of this, but now archaeologists will turn around, and discoveries, of course, will follow . Although by 2004 a lot of things had been excavated, examined and discovered, and assumptions had been made and articles had been written - a carriage and a small cart (en).

In addition to archaeological finds in the form of city ruins, there are also some prehistoric rock paintings and other artifacts that can be viewed in the Herma Museum (en). Although most of these exhibits date back to an earlier period than the Garamante civilization itself, they provide insight into the culture of the region. For example, here is an image of a certain ritual with very realistically drawn animals:

Russian Wikipedia (and some others) very politically incorrectly tells us that the Garamantes were Caucasians (and among the English-speaking population, the question of the race of the Garamantes is, as they say, butthurt (en)), and Herodotus - (en).

In fact, this is all a saying, but David Case, in his article “The Kingdom of Sands” (en), talks about the garamantes in a more coherent and entertaining way (that’s why it’s him, not me, the Independent correspondent). You can read the article in English by following the link, but if you need the Russian version, welcome to the cat:

Kingdom of Sands
David Keyes, 2004

How a Sahara slave state made the desert bloom

Over the past six years, archaeological research led by David Mattingly of the University of Leicester in the Fezzan region of Libya has revealed that an amazing, if little-known, desert civilization known to the Romans as the Garamantes built almost a thousand miles* of underground tunnels and boreholes in successful attempt to reach formation waters.

Descendants of Berbers and Saharan herders, the Garamante tribes most likely inhabited the Fezzan by the first millennium BC. They are first mentioned in historical records in the fifth century BC, in the works of Herodotus, who notes that the Garamantes were an exceptionally numerous people who raised livestock and hunted "Ethiopian troglodytes" from four-horse chariots.

Archaeologists found parts of the Garamante capital, Garama, in the 1960s. But until recent research, most scientists saw the Garamantes only as desert barbarians who inhabited one small city, a couple of villages and scattered sites. However, recent research has shown that the Garamantes had about eight main cities (three of which have already been studied) and dozens of other significant settlements, and also that they controlled a considerable territory. "New archaeological evidence shows that the Garamantes were excellent farmers, skilled engineers and enterprising traders who managed to build a remarkable civilization," says Mattingly.

The Garamantes were successful thanks to their underground water supply system, a network of tunnels called "foggara" in Berber. It not only allowed this part of the Sahara to flourish again, but also became a catalyst for political and social changes that led to population growth, urbanization and conquest. But in order to maintain and develop their newfound prosperity, the Garamantes first needed to maintain and distribute a system of water tunnels - and this required the acquisition of a huge number of slaves.

By about 150 AD. The slave-owning kingdom of the Garamantes covered 70,000 square miles** and was located in what is now Libya. For the first time in history, an urban civilization flourished on the land of the Sahara (and any large desert) far from rivers. The largest city, Garama (now in its place is the Oasis of Jarma), was inhabited by about four thousand people. Probably another six thousand lived in the surrounding villages, located within a three-mile radius of the urban center.

The enterprising mentality, which provided plenty of slaves and water, allowed the Garamantes to live in planned cities and consume home-grown grapes, figs, sorghum, legumes, barley and wheat, as well as import wine and olive oil. “The combination of invasion and the development of irrigation technology raised the standard of living of the Garamantes to a height unmatched by any other ancient people of the Sahara,” says Oxford archaeologist Andrew Wilson, who is researching the Foggar system. Without slaves, they would not have had not only a kingdom, but also a hint of a comfortable life. They would have survived—barely—in conditions of comparative poverty, like most desert dwellers before and after them.

Ultimately, the depletion of the produced reservoir waters brought death to the kingdom of the Garamantes. After producing at least 30 billion gallons of water in just 600 years, the Garamantes discovered in the fourth century AD that the water had literally slipped through their fingers. To cope with the problem, they would have to add additional underwater tributaries to the existing tunnels and dig deeper, much longer water intake wells. Such work required significantly more slaves than they had at their disposal. The difficulty of obtaining water must have led to food shortages, population decline and political instability (evidence of political fragmentation can be found in local defenses dating from this era). The conquest of new territories and the capture of new slaves thus became simply impossible. The delicate balance between population, military and economic power on the one hand and the possibility of capturing slaves and the spread of irrigation systems on the other was upset.

The desert kingdom declined, fragmented into small territories controlled by individual chieftains, and was absorbed into the developing Islamic civilization. Like its more famous neighbor - the Roman Empire - the kingdom of the Sahara, once great, little by little became a myth and was preserved only in memory. Like the rest of the world, the Berbers now living in Fezzan barely remember their ancestors. The kingdom's heritage has been so forgotten that even local residents are convinced that the water intake system - the pride of the Garamantes - was the work of the Romans.

____________________
* If we try to convert miles to kilometers, say, with an online unit converter, we get that 1000 miles = 1,609 km. Miles, of course, are different, but I think that there is still some kind of standard mile that is traditionally used to measure distance.
**181,300 sq. km., again, according to the unit converter.

A synonym for the term “engineering” is the word technique(from ancient Greek. τεχνικός ← τέχνη - “art”, “skill”, “skill”), denoting active creative activity aimed at transforming nature in order to satisfy various vital human needs.

Not to be confused with the term "Equipment (technical devices)"

The creative application of scientific principles (a) to the design or development of structures, machines, apparatus, or processes for their manufacture, or to objects in which these devices or processes are used separately or in combination, or (b) to the design and operation of the above engineering devices in full accordance with the project, or (c) to predict the behavior of engineering devices under certain operating conditions - guided by considerations of ensuring their functionality, efficiency in use and safety for life and property.

Present tense

The modern understanding of engineering implies the targeted use of scientific knowledge in the creation and operation of engineering technical devices that are the result of the transformative activities of an engineer, and covers three types of engineering activities:

• research (scientific and technical) activities - applied scientific research, feasibility study of planned investments, planning;
• design (design) activities - construction (design), creation and testing of prototypes (models, prototypes) of technical devices; development of technologies for their manufacture (construction), packaging, transportation, storage, etc. ; preparation of design/project documentation;
• technological (production) activities - organizational, consulting and other activities aimed at introducing engineering developments into the practical activities of economic entities with their subsequent support (technical support) and/or operation on behalf of the customer.

History of engineering

The origins of engineering go back to the prehistoric mythological era. The creation of a bow, wheel, and plow required mental work, the ability to handle tools, and the use of creative abilities. The legendary Daedalus and Noah can be considered as engineers. The first engineer known by name was the Egyptian Imhotep, who supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (3rd millennium BC). Archimedes is considered the most famous engineer of Antiquity.

The first attempt to consider engineering as a special type of activity can be considered the work of Vitruvius “Ten Books on Architecture” (lat. De architectura libri decem). It makes the first known attempts to describe the process of an engineer's activity. Vitruvius draws attention to such important methods for an engineer as “reflection” and “invention”, and notes the need to create a drawing of a future structure. However, for the most part, Vitruvius bases his descriptions on practical experience. In ancient times, the theory of structures was still at the very beginning of its development.

The most important step in engineering was the use of scale drawings. This method developed in the 17th century and had a strong influence on the subsequent history of engineering. Thanks to him, it became possible to divide engineering work into the actual development of an idea and its technical implementation. Having in front of him a design of any large structure on paper, the engineer got rid of the narrow-mindedness of the artisan, often limited only by the detail on which he is working at the moment.

The first engineering and technical educational institution in Russia to begin providing systematic education was the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, founded in 1701 by Peter I. The education of military engineers began during the reign of Vasily Shuisky. The “Charter of Military Affairs” was translated into Russian, which, among other things, talked about the rules for the defense of fortresses and the construction of defensive structures. The training was conducted by invited foreign specialists. But it was Peter I who played an outstanding role in the development of engineering in Russia. In 1712, the first engineering school was opened in Moscow, and in 1719, the second engineering school was opened in St. Petersburg. In 1715, the Maritime Academy was created, in 1725 the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was opened with a university and a gymnasium.

The first textbook on engineering can be considered a textbook for military engineers, “The Science of Engineering,” published in 1729 by the Frenchman Bernard Forest de Belidor.

During the 19th century, the creation of various specializations and areas of higher engineering education continued, which occurred during the transition of the most advanced engineering and technical educational institutions of the Russian Empire to the system of higher education, which led to qualitative development, since each educational institution created its own program that did not exist before new direction or specialization of higher engineering education, borrowing the best practices of others, collaborating and sharing innovations. One of the outstanding organizers of this process was Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev.

In England, the following institutions trained engineering specialists: (English) (founded in 1818), (English) (1847), (English) (1860), (English) (1871).

Engineering as a profession

An engineer who specializes in engineering is called engineer. In the modern economic system, the activity of an engineer is a set of services in the field of engineering and technical activities. The activity of an engineer, unlike the activity of other representatives of the creative intelligentsia (teachers, doctors, actors, composers, etc.), in its role in social production, is productive labor, directly involved in the creation of national income. Through engineering activities, an engineer uses his scientific knowledge and practical experience to solve any technical problem at various stages of the product life cycle.

With the expansion and deepening of scientific knowledge, professional specialization of the engineering profession into disciplines occurred. Currently, productive engineering activity is possible only within a team of engineers, each of whom specializes in a specific area of ​​engineering. In the engineering services market, there are engineering organizations, which can take the form of research institutes, design bureaus, research and production associations (NGOs), etc. In market conditions, the services provided by engineering organizations are varied in specialization, content and quality. Many engineering organizations provide a range of services, often including services that go beyond traditional engineering into the implementation of engineering designs. Thus, in addition to research, design and consulting services, many large engineering organizations also provide services in the field of construction of buildings and other construction structures, project management, maintenance and operational management of complex engineering facilities at the stage of their operation and in other areas .

Engineering

Engineering, engineering(from fr. ingénierie, Also engineering from English engineering, originally from Lat. ingenium- ingenuity; artifice; knowledge, skillful) - an area of ​​human intellectual activity, a discipline, a profession, the task of which is to apply the achievements of science, technology, the use of laws and natural resources to solve specific problems, goals and objectives of humanity.

Otherwise, engineering is a set of applied works, including pre-design feasibility studies and justification of planned investments, the necessary laboratory and experimental refinement of technologies and prototypes, their industrial development, as well as subsequent services and consultations.

American Council of Engineers for Professional Development American Engineers" Council for Professional Development (ECPD) ) gave the following definition of the term “engineering”:

Engineering is implemented through the application of both scientific knowledge and practical experience (engineering skills, abilities) with the aim of creating (primarily designing) useful technological and technical processes and objects that implement these processes. Engineering services can be performed by both NGOs and independent engineering companies. Such organizations offer a range of commercial services for the preparation and support of the production process and sales of products, for the maintenance and operation of industrial, infrastructure and other facilities, which includes engineering and consulting services of a research, design, calculation and analytical nature, for the preparation of technical economic justifications, development of recommendations in the field of organization of production and management.

History of engineering

Despite the fact that engineering tasks faced humanity at the very early stages of its development, the engineering specialty as a separate profession began to take shape only in modern times. Technical activity has always existed, but in order for engineering to stand out among others, humanity had to go through a long path of development. Only the division of labor marked the beginning of this process, and only the emergence of special engineering education recorded the formation of engineering activity.

Nevertheless, it is possible to consider many achievements of the past as cleverly solved engineering problems. The creation of a bow, wheel, and plow required mental work, the ability to handle tools, and the use of creative abilities.

Many technical solutions and inventions created both the material basis for subsequent development and formed skills and abilities passed on from generation to generation, which, accumulating, became the basis for subsequent theoretical understanding.

The development of construction played a special role. The construction of cities, defensive structures, and religious buildings has always required the most advanced technical methods. Most likely, it was in construction that the concept of a project first appeared, when in order to implement a plan it was necessary to separate the idea from direct production in order to be able to manage the process. The most complex structures of antiquity - the Egyptian pyramids, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Lighthouse of Alexandria - required not only labor, but also skillful organization of the technical process.

The first engineers include the ancient Egyptian architect Imhotep, the ancient Chinese hydraulic engineer Great Yu, and the ancient Greek sculptor and architect Phidias. They performed both technical and organizational functions inherent in engineers. However, at the same time, their activity was based for the most part not on theoretical knowledge, but on experience, and their engineering talent was indivisible among other talents: every engineer of antiquity was, first of all, a sage who combined a philosopher, scientist, politician, writer.

The first attempt to consider engineering as a special type of activity can be considered the work of Vitruvius “Ten Books on Architecture” (lat. De architectura libri decem). It makes the first known attempts to describe the process of an engineer's activity. Vitruvius draws attention to such important methods for an engineer as “reflection” and “invention”, and notes the need to create a drawing of a future structure. However, for the most part, Vitruvius bases his descriptions on practical experience. In ancient times, the theory of structures was still at the very beginning of its development.

The most important step in engineering was the use of scale drawings. This method developed in the 17th century and had a strong influence on the subsequent history of engineering. Thanks to him, it became possible to divide engineering work into the actual development of an idea and its technical implementation. Having in front of him a design of any large structure on paper, the engineer got rid of the narrow-mindedness of the artisan, often limited only by the detail on which he is working at the moment.

In 1653, the first cadet school training engineers was opened in Prussia. Also, for the purpose of training military engineers, the first special school was created in Denmark in the 17th century. In 1690, an artillery school was founded in France.

The first engineering and technical educational institution in Russia to begin providing systematic education was the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, founded in 1701 by Peter I. The education of military engineers began during the reign of Vasily Shuisky. The “Charter of Military Affairs” was translated into Russian, which, among other things, talked about the rules for the defense of fortresses and the construction of defensive structures. The training was conducted by invited foreign specialists. But it was Peter I who played an outstanding role in the development of engineering in Russia. In 1712, the first engineering school was opened in Moscow, and in 1719, the second engineering school was opened in St. Petersburg. In 1715, the Maritime Academy was created, in 1725 the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was opened with a university and a gymnasium.

In 1742, the Dresden Engineering School was opened, in 1744 - the Austrian Academy of Engineering, in 1750 - the Application School in Mieser, 1788 - the Engineering School in Potsdam.

The first textbook on engineering can be considered a textbook for military engineers, “The Science of Engineering,” published in 1729.

The modern system of higher engineering education in Russia was born in the nineteenth century. The first higher engineering educational institution became in 1810 the Main Engineering School of the Russian Empire (and now VITU), founded in 1804, due to the addition of additional officer classes and a two-year continuation of officer training, in contrast to all other cadet corps and engineering educational institutions in Russia. As the outstanding mechanical scientist and graduate of the Institute of Railway Engineers Timoshenko, Stepan Prokofievich wrote in his book “Engineering Education in Russia”, the educational scheme of the Main Engineering School, born after the addition of senior officer classes, with the division of the Five-Year Education into two stages in the future, is based on the example The Institute of Railway Engineers spread in Russia and continues to this day. This made it possible to start teaching mathematics, mechanics and physics at a fairly high level already in the first years and give students sufficient preparation in fundamental subjects, and then use the time to study engineering disciplines.

In 1809, Alexander I founded the Corps of Railway Engineers in St. Petersburg. An Institute was established under him (Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers). One of the first higher technical educational institutions in Russia later became the alma mother of many talented Russian engineers and professors.

During the 19th century, the creation of various specializations and areas of higher engineering education continued, which occurred during the transition of the most advanced engineering and technical educational institutions of the Russian Empire to the system of higher education, which led to qualitative development, since each educational institution created its own program that did not exist before new direction or specialization of higher engineering education, borrowing the best practices of others, collaborating and sharing innovations. One of the outstanding organizers of this process was Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev.

In England, engineering specialists were trained by the following institutions: The Institute of Civil Engineers (England) (eng. Institution of Civil Engineers ) (founded 1818), Institution of Mechanical Engineers (eng. Institution of Mechanical Engineers ) (1847), Institute of Naval Architects (eng. Royal Institution of Naval Architects ) (1860), Institution of Electrical Engineers (eng. Institution of Electrical Engineers ) (1871).

Engineering as a profession

People who engage in engineering on a regular and professional basis are called engineers. Engineers apply their scientific knowledge to find a suitable solution to a problem or to create improvements.

The critical and unique challenge of engineers is to identify, understand, and interpret design constraints to achieve a successful outcome. Typically, it is not enough to create a successful product; it must meet further requirements.

In general, the life cycle of an engineering structure can be divided into several stages:

• need
• study
• design
• construction
• exploitation
• liquidation.

The process of engineering activity begins with the formation of the need for an artificial mechanism or process. Having studied this need, the engineer must formulate an idea for a solution, which must be given a certain form - a project. A project is needed so that the plan of an engineer (a group of engineers), existing as an idea, becomes clear to other people. The project is subsequently translated into reality with the help of building materials.

When solving the problem facing him, an engineer can use already developed solutions. In particular, standard design has become widespread from the earliest times. However, for non-trivial problems standard solutions are not enough. In such cases, we can talk about engineering as an “art of engineering”, when, using specialized knowledge, an engineer must create an object, come up with a method that has not previously existed. The professional thinking of an engineer is a complex mental process, which, like any art, is difficult to formalize. In general approximation, the following stages can be distinguished when solving an engineering problem:

• understanding the technical requirements contained in the initial task;
• creating a solution plan;
• confirmation or refutation of the plan.

These stages do not necessarily occur sequentially; rather, the process of forming a response to a given task occurs cyclically, and not always with clear awareness. Sometimes a hunch may appear as an intuitive insight. Based on accumulated experience, it can later be explained and analyzed, but at the first moment it is not possible to say how and why it was born. Guessing is possible with an intuitive subtype of thinking, which can be considered the main source of generating ideas. It is closely related to other subtypes: synthetic and analytical, creative and routine, logical.

Eiffel Tower (Gustav Eiffel, Maurice Ququelin (eng. Maurice Koechlin ), Emile Nougier (eng. Émile Nouguier ) and etc.)
Engineers	Idea	Project	Construction	Finished building

CAE systems

CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) - computer engineering based on the use of CAE systems.

Codes in knowledge classification systems

Kinds

• Pedagogical engineering

Notes

see also

Literature

• V. E. Zelensky Monuments of military engineering art: historical memory and new objects of cultural heritage of Russia. Archived from the original on November 29, 2012.
• T. Karman, M. Bio, Mathematical methods in engineering, OGIZ, 1948, 424 pp.
• Saprykin D. L. Engineering education in Russia: History, concept, perspective // ​​Higher education in Russia. No. 1, 2012.

// 6th century (Northern Italy, Rhine Valley)

This agricultural tool spread along with the development of northern European lands.

The lightweight wooden plow traditionally used in the Mediterranean could not cope with the heavier, wet soils of the north. The heavy model of the plow was upholstered with such a valuable metal as iron in the early Middle Ages. The profession of a blacksmith at that time was on par with a jeweler, so this technological innovation was incredibly expensive. That is why a heavy plow was usually bought for several families at once.

2. Three-field farming system

// 9th century (Western Europe)

The system of land use, in which each of the three parts of the arable land was sown in turn with winter crops, spring crops or left fallow, is first mentioned in the Carolingian chronicle.

For a long time, people simply abandoned impoverished areas of land and cleared new territory, setting off massive forest fires to do this. The transition to a three-field system led to a hitherto unprecedented phenomenon - the appearance of excess food. They began to sell it to those involved in the craft. The spread of the new farming system was a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of cities. True, the three-field land also had its costs: when the land was resting, it could be mistaken for ownerless and seized by an enterprising neighbor. The number of “land hearings” at this time was off the charts.

3. Rigid clamp

// 10th century (France, England)

A special type of harness that made it possible to increase the draft power of the animal four times.

Until the 10th century, the main animal on the farm was an unpretentious ox, and not an expensive to maintain (oats were very expensive) and often sick horse. But when the crop area increased, a more mobile animal was needed. A new type of harness made it possible to redistribute the load from the trachea to the horse's chest, and now in a day it could plow as much as 3-4 oxen.

4. Hygrometer made of wool

// X5th century (Italy)

A device that allows you to measure air humidity was invented by Nicholas of Cusa in 1440.

An outstanding thinker and scientist traded in sheep wool. He noticed that on rainy days wool weighs much heavier, and began using stones that do not absorb moisture to accurately measure weight. This discovery later led to the creation of a simple mechanism based on a scale: a material like cotton wool was placed on one side, and a non-absorbent substance like wax on the other. When the air was dry, the plumb line remained vertical. When cotton wool absorbed moisture from the air, it became heavier than wax.

5. Mechanical watches

// XIII century (Central Europe)

They were ten-meter towers topped with a dial with a single hand that indicated the hours.

The first mechanical clock was the most complex medieval mechanism, consisting of approximately 2,000 parts. To correct the movement of a 200-kilogram weight, watchmakers invented bilians - regulators of the movement of the main ratchet wheel, and then a spindle device. All this significantly increased the accuracy of the move. The oldest surviving mechanical clock (1386) is in England, at Salisbury Cathedral. And in the French city of Rouen, the clock of 1389 still shows the correct time.

6. Music notation

// 11th century (Italy)

Notes in the form of squares located on four lines were invented by the Italian monk Guido d'Arezzo.

Guido led an ensemble of boys who began their rehearsal every day with a hymn to St. John. The boys were out of tune so shamelessly that the monk decided to clearly show how the sound rises and falls. And he laid the foundation for modern solfeggio. Today, the musical staff consists of five lines, but the very principle of notation and the name of the notes re, mi, fa, sol, la have not changed since then.

7. Universities

// 11th century (Italy)

The first European university opened in Bologna in 1088.

The first scientific works, even in secular universities, bore titles like “Why did Adam in Paradise eat an apple and not a pear?” or “How many angels can fit on the head of a needle?” Gradually, a division into faculties took shape: legal, medical, theological, and philosophical. The students were, as a rule, adults and even old people who came here not so much to study as to exchange experiences. Universities were extremely popular: about 10 thousand students studied in Bologna, so many lectures had to be given in the open air.

8. Pharmacies

// XI–XIII century (Spain, Italy)

In 1224, the German king Frederick II Staufen issued a decree prohibiting doctors from making medicines and pharmacists from treating.

The first pharmacies were at first little different from a grocery store. The impetus for the development of pharmaceuticals was given by the division into doctor and pharmacist introduced by the German monarch. For example, only from a pharmacist could one buy such useful drugs as mosquito oil, wolf hair ashes and theriac, a universal antidote. It is worth noting that the medicine of that time was experimental, so all recipes began with the optimistic Cum Deo! ("With God blessing!").

9. Stained glass

// 12th century (Germany)

The first official instructions for the production of colored transparent glass were compiled by the monk Theophilus.

The creators of stained glass windows were the most respected people in the city, because they conveyed the beauty and grandeur of the otherworldly world. A special tax was even collected for their needs. Craftsmen boiled river sand, flux, lime and potash, and added metal oxides to create color. Interestingly, almost all the glass, except green and blue, over time suffered severe corrosion and turned dirty brown. The oldest surviving example of stained glass art is considered to be the head of Christ in Weissembourg Abbey in Alsace (Germany).

10. Mirror

// XIII century (Holland, Republic of Venice)

The first mention of glass mirrors is found in the famous work on optics Perspectiva communis, written by the Archbishop of Canterbury John Peckham in the second half of the 13th century.

Medieval craftsmen came up with the idea of ​​covering glass with a thin layer of lead-antimony alloy - the result was mirrors similar to modern ones. Many people think that mass production of mirrors began in Venice. However, the Flemings and Dutch were the first. Flemish mirrors can be seen in the paintings of Jan van Eyck. They were cut from hollow glass balls, into which molten lead was poured. The alloy of lead and antimony quickly faded in air, and the convex surface gave a noticeably distorted image. A century later, the title of master glassmakers passed to Venice on the island of Murano, where sheet glass was invented.

11. Kulevrina

// XV century (England, France)

The ancestor of the modern cannon, it penetrated knight's armor at a distance of 25–30 m.

Shooting such a weapon was a rather dubious pleasure. To fire a shot, one person had to hold the fuse and the other had to aim the barrel at the target. The culverin weighed from 5 to 28 kg. If it rained or snowed, the war had to be stopped because the fuse would not burn. In the 16th century it was supplanted by the arquebus.

12. Quarantine

// XIV century (Venetian Republic)

In 1377, in the port of the Venetian city of Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik), ships returning from “plague countries” were detained for 40 days for the first time.

These measures caused fierce controversy, since, from the point of view of contemporaries, they had no scientific basis. The disease, which wiped out about a quarter of the entire population, was treated with cauterization, lizard skins and dried herbs - it was believed that it was transmitted by “plague animals” invisible to the eye, which were carried along with the smell. Quarantine led to mass famine in Europe, but stopped the spread of the disease. Foreign merchants who wanted to challenge the preventive measures were burned. The Venetian quarantine system served as the basis for the organization of modern sanitary services.

13. Blast furnace

// X4th century (Switzerland, Sweden, France)

It was a tower 4.5 m high and 1.8 m in diameter. Ore and coal with a high carbon content were placed there, and cast iron was obtained.

Cast iron was invented almost by accident, increasing the size of the forge and the blowing force. The new substance was initially considered a defect and was called “pig iron.” True, they soon noticed that it fills molds well and high-quality castings can be obtained from it; before that, iron was only forged. The blast furnace became the most effective invention of the Middle Ages. It made it possible to obtain 1.6 tons of product per day, while 8 kg came out of a conventional melting furnace during this time.

14. Distillation apparatus

// XIV (Italy)

The alchemical monk Valentius is credited with radically improving the ancient moonshine still, allowing for double distillation.

Distillation, as well as fermentation, were favorite pastimes of medieval alchemists who were trying to find the philosopher's stone. According to one version, this is how Valentius obtained alcohol from wine. He called the liquid formed during the experiment the living water aqua vitae. Soon it began to be sold in pharmacies as a remedy for bad breath, colds and moodiness.

15. First chemical production

// XIV century(Germany, France, England)

In the 1300s, the first factories for the production of sulfuric, hydrochloric and nitric acid appeared in various places in Europe. They began to mine sulfur and saltpeter.

Experiments with chemical substances from the laboratories of alchemists moved to the laboratories of chemists - scientists who realized the futility of trying to transform one substance into another and paid attention to the needs of the time. With the beginning of gunpowder production, saltpeter acquired particular importance - it was scraped off the walls of cowsheds. Cowsheds in the Middle Ages were made from animal waste and earth mixed with lime, clay and straw. Over time, white deposits of saltpeter, potassium nitrate, formed as a result of the decomposition of organic matter by bacteria, appeared on the walls. Swedish peasants, for example, paid part of the quitrent in saltpeter. The invention of gunpowder itself in Europe is credited to the German monk Berthold Schwartz (circa 1330).

16. Glasses

// XIII century (England)

The famous medieval scientist Roger Bacon is considered the benefactor of all bespectacled people. In 1268 he wrote about the use of lenses for optical purposes.

Although Bacon himself is often depicted wearing glasses, most likely, this invention gained popularity only a hundred years later, when it came to continental Europe. The first glasses were convex lenses for farsighted people held together with a bow. Glasses that correct myopia were first recorded in Raphael's 1517 portrait of Pope Leo X.

17. Toilet

// XVI century (England)

The first flush barrel device was given by John Harrington to his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Nobleman Harrington was a gifted writer and inventor, and, as was often the case with discoveries, his toilet was far ahead of its time. The novelty, named by Harrington after the ancient Greek hero Ajax, did not take root because there was no running water in England at that time, and quite quickly the device began to stink terribly. The finest hour of toilets came only in the 19th century.

18. Printing press

// 15th century (Germany)

Jeweler Johannes Gutenberg in 1445 developed the final press with typesetting metal characters, a long lever and a wooden screw that could print 250 pages per hour.

Quite quickly, the “secret of artificial writing,” as stated in the documents, spread throughout Europe. Over fifty years, 40 thousand publications were printed with a circulation of over 10 million copies. Gutenberg's role is known from documents from property courts. It repeatedly mentions an invention that changed the course of history in Europe.

19. Looms

// XIV century (England)

A new type of horizontal looms with a block system greatly facilitated and speeded up the work of weavers.

More primitive vertical looms did an excellent job with small amounts of raw materials from flax, nettles, hemp and wool. But production volumes grew, and the previous equipment could not keep up with them.

20. Foot lathes

// XIV century (Germany)

The mechanism included a pedal, crank and connecting rod. The operating principle of the foot drive of this machine is easy to understand by imagining a foot sewing machine.

Devices with a foot pedal freed up the hands of craftsmen, which significantly speeded up the production of parts. Cars were very rare, so the profession of a turner was considered one of the most prestigious. Some emperors of those years kept lathes in their castles in order to hone their skills in their spare time.

21. Gothic architecture

// 12th century (Western Europe)

The invention of the Gothic vault - a stable frame system in which cross-rib pointed vaults and arches play a structural role - made it possible to create a fundamentally new type of building.

The word “Gothic” itself was a dirty word for a long time, as it was associated with the Goths, the barbarian tribes that destroyed the great Rome. Nevertheless, the term gradually began to be correlated with a new direction, primarily in architecture. Openwork buildings, fantastic for their time, appeared, which were supposed to remind of man’s aspiration to the sky.

22. Tidal mills

// VII1st century (Northern Ireland)

In 787, mills using tidal power appeared in Northern Ireland.

Over time, the water wheel became a full-fledged participant in a number of vital technologies - an engine in fulling workshops, lathes and forges, in sawmills and ore crushers.

23. Buttonhole

// 13th century (Germany)

Slits appeared on tight-fitting clothes where a button could be inserted.

For a long time, people tied the ends of their clothes in knots or used lacing, special ties and pins made from plant thorns, bone and other materials. The buttons themselves have been used as decoration for centuries. Europeans liked the appearance of a reliable fastening system so much that soon, in order to put on a suit, a noble person had to fasten about a hundred buttons.

on "Schrodinger's Cat"